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COVID response what unis did#

  • COVID and broad economic, societal and personal impacts...but also L&T
  • Universities had to adjust rapidly to COVID moving the bulk online
  • Universities had to rationalise their offerings, employment etc

From Bellaby, Sankey...#

From its initial emergence, COVID-19 quickly generated far-reaching economic and societal impacts. For those working in an educational context, this impact has been lockdown and the enforced closure of schools, colleges and universities (Watermeyer et al., 2020). In response, institutions were bound to transition and scale up online teaching to ensure that learning would not be completely disrupted (Burki, 2020). This migration seemingly happened overnight (Dhawan, 2020) and has, consequently, mostly been characterised as adventitious, rapid and incipient (Johnson, Veletsianos, & Seaman, 2020). As described by Tesar (2020), every course moved online in a matter of days whether or not staff had any online teaching experience. For many, the headlong thrust into providing learning experiences for students via a digital interface has been confusing, unfamiliar and unwanted (Johnson et al., 2020; Watermeyer et al., 2020). Some experienced discomfort and anxiety not only due to the technology but also from being forced to employ new pedagogical techniques at a moment’s notice (Johnson et al., 2020). Such a transition to emergency remote learning and teaching has provided fodder for previous critiques that online learning has not been extensively thought through and has received only “minimal meaningful investment” (Tesar, 2020, p. 557). Findings from Watermeyer et al., (2020) survey of over a thousand academics working in universities in the United Kingdom revealed that they had been wounded from engaging with emergency online transition and, subsequently, become disillusioned and distrustful “of a more prolonged and substantial embrace of digital pedagogies by their institution” (p. 14). Concerns have also been expressed about how it is possible that courses can offer the same opportunities and learning outcomes online as on-campus (Fawns, Jones, & Aitken, 2020). However, some have adopted more optimistic tones arguing that higher education has long been “overdue for a complete overhaul” (Watermeyer et al., 2020, p. 14). Other worries have legitimately centred around the mental health of students given that studying online may be an isolating experience and that they may be unable to access support structures (Fawns et al., 2020; Fazackerley, 2020). Unsurprisingly, several have cited an increased and more intense workload as they accommodate an escalation in the pastoral needs of students and as their personal and professional lives blur together whilst working from home (Kirk, 2020). In surveying close to 900 faculty and administrators at various institutions in the United States, Johnson et al., (2020) determined that most desire substantial information and guidance on best practices related to online teaching, providing weight to the suggestion by Watermeyer et al., (2020) that in the rush to perform online migration of courses academics are employing “entry-level” digital pedagogies (p. 1). Consequently, whilst the pandemic has accelerated the inevitability of a widespread adoption of online learning, there exists a concern that the rapid response to online may have resulted in prejudicial and distorted views of digital pedagogies from the academic community to the extent to which any future changes to their roles will “be viewed only through the lens of precarisation” (Watermeyer et al., 2020, p. 15).