<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>An Irish Government directive to close colleges amid the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a switch to emergency remote teaching. Many lecturers unused to practicing online began teaching students who were unfamiliar with online learning. Completion of the semester does not necessarily indicate that it is practicable for a more extended period. This paper queries four aspects of the sustainability of emergency remote teaching: its acceptance by stakeholders; its impact upon student motivation and faculty workload; and its effect upon learning outputs. Questionnaires administered to undergraduate design students and faculty captured their respective experiences of emergency remote teaching. Acceptance of an extended pivot to online learning is not guaranteed, but will surely form a central facet of academic continuity. Increased working hours associated with online teaching endangers the work-life balance of lecturers, yet the same staff must find ways to support student motivation. Faculty’s reduced expectations of student output places strain upon the sustainability of online education founded upon an unplanned pivot. The experience of emergency remote teaching has created an opportunity for all parties to leverage the affordances of online learning – the challenge will be to ensure that all aspects of any extended switch to online are sustainable.</p>
</abstract>

An Irish Government directive to close colleges amid the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a switch to emergency remote teaching. Many lecturers unused to practicing online began teaching students who were unfamiliar with online learning. Completion of the semester does not necessarily indicate that it is practicable for a more extended period. This paper queries four aspects of the sustainability of emergency remote teaching: its acceptance by stakeholders; its impact upon student motivation and faculty workload; and its effect upon learning outputs. Questionnaires administered to undergraduate design students and faculty captured their respective experiences of emergency remote teaching. Acceptance of an extended pivot to online learning is not guaranteed, but will surely form a central facet of academic continuity. Increased working hours associated with online teaching endangers the work-life balance of lecturers, yet the same staff must find ways to support student motivation. Faculty’s reduced expectations of student output places strain upon the sustainability of online education founded upon an unplanned pivot. The experience of emergency remote teaching has created an opportunity for all parties to leverage the affordances of online learning – the challenge will be to ensure that all aspects of any extended switch to online are sustainable.

Sustaining a prolonged pivot: Appraising challenges facing higher education stakeholders in switching to online learning

International Journal for Transformative Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

An Irish Government directive to close colleges amid the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a switch to emergency remote teaching. Many lecturers unused to...

Sustaining a prolonged pivot: Appraising challenges facing higher education stakeholders in switching to online learning

Published Online: Dec 31, 2020

Page range: 1 - 9

Received: Aug 12, 2020

Accepted: Sep 30, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijtr-2020-0001

Keywords
Emergency remote teaching, Sustained online teaching, Covid-19, Pivot online, Higher education

© 2020 Kieran Egan et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sustaining a prolonged pivot: Appraising challenges facing higher education stakeholders in switching to online learning

Published Online: Dec 31, 2020

Page range: 1 - 9

Received: Aug 12, 2020

Accepted: Sep 30, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijtr-2020-0001

KeywordsEmergency remote teaching, Sustained online teaching, Covid-19, Pivot online, Higher education

© 2020 Kieran Egan et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Emergency remote teaching, Sustained online teaching, Covid-19, Pivot online, Higher education