Supporting Tertiary Educators: Insights from the COVID-19 Shift to Online Teaching and Learning and the Role of Senior Management

Abstract

AbstractThe future of tertiary education grapples with the opportunities, affordances, and limitations of online teaching and learning (T&L), and educators’ valuable insights and experiences can shape and enhance the tertiary sector. The current study provided tertiary educators with an opportunity to anonymously share their online T&L experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and needs in the wake of COVID-19. This dialogue was initiated to promote openness, identify common challenges, and enable tailored resources unique to Aotearoa New Zealand. Our sample comprises 245 educators from 16 tertiary institutions using an online questionnaire to capture their opinions and comments. Although most participants described themselves as confident educators when teaching in a face-to-face environment, they reported comparatively low teacher self-efficacy when teaching online and held mixed attitudes toward online T&L. Educators also reported having poorer wellbeing during the shift to online T&L, and were uneasy about the sub-par quality of learning experiences for their students. In particular, there were broad concerns around the (limited) ability to build meaningful relationships with learners when teaching online, and expressed worry about the potential limitations of online T&L for their respective disciplines. Such concerns may worsen unless tertiary institutions and senior management (1) provide educators with agency, autonomy, and flexibility over how to teach students in their respective courses and qualifications; (2) equip educators with high-quality online T&L resources, training, and professional development, and (3) ensure that educators’ workload is accurate if there are changes to online T&L delivery modes. We include recommendations so that educators can be empowered and support their students.