Investigating the Differentiated Experiences of an Academician in the Transition to Distance Education Through a Documentational Framework

Abstract

This study examines the documentational genesis of an academician transitioning to distance education during the pandemic. Using qualitative case study design, the research involved an associate professor in engineering at a Turkish state university. Selected via purposeful sampling, the participant was open to sharing experiences and participating in the study. Data were collected through online course video recordings, semi-structured interviews, observations and researcher notes. Content analysis was used for the data analysis, and from the obtained themes, the elements of the participant's schemes in online education, the challenges experienced, and the variations in these schemes were presented from a documentational perspective. As a result of the research, it was found that the participating academician used different types of knowledge, including both content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, in online education. Additionally, it was concluded that the academician continued to use some resources from face-to-face education during the transition to and process of online education, modified some resources to create differentiated resources, and completely abandoned some resources. Another finding of the research is that the participating academician faced many challenges during the online education process. These challenges were primarily found to be due to student-related and institutional factors. Moreover, the academician expressed both positive and negative opinions about distance education.