scholarly journals Shifting from Face-to-Face to Online Teaching During COVID-19: The Role of University Faculty Achievement Goals for Attitudes Towards This Sudden Change, and Their Relevance for Burnout/Engagement and Student Evaluations of Teaching Quality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Daumiller ◽  
Raven Rinas ◽  
Julia Hein ◽  
Stefan Janke ◽  
Oliver Dickhäuser ◽  
...  

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many higher education faculty members were required to abruptly shift from face-to-face to online teaching. Within this, some instructors managed well, while others struggled. To elucidate interindividual differences in online teaching and learn-ing during this unexpected circumstance, we focus on faculty members’ attitudes towards this shift and examine their associations with underlying motivations as well as burnout/engagement and student learning. We analyzed longitudinal data of 80 faculty members’ achievement goals during the semester prior to shifting to online teaching, and their attitudes and burn-out/engagement during the first semester with enforced online teaching. Additionally, we used 703 student ratings of these faculty members’ teaching quality in terms of student learning. Re-sults indicated that learning approach goals of faculty were positively associated with perceiving the shift to online teaching as a positive challenge and as useful for their own competence de-velopment. Conversely, performance (appearance) avoidance goals and work avoidance goals went along with perceiving this change as threatening, which, in turn, was related to increased burnout levels and students reporting their learning to be worse. Taken together, these findings point to the relevance of faculty goals and attitudes for successful online teaching and learning.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Daumiller ◽  
Robert Grassinger ◽  
Oliver Dickhäuser ◽  
Markus Dresel

The present study examines the achievement goals of university instructors, particularly the structure of such goals, and their relationship to biographic characteristics, other aspects of instructors’ motivation, and teaching quality. Two hundred and fifty-one university instructors (184 without Ph.D., 97 with Ph.D., thereof 51 full professors; 146 males, 92 females) answered a questionnaire measuring achievement goals, self-efficacy, and enthusiasm in altogether 392 courses. Teaching quality was assessed using reports from 9,241 students who were attending these courses. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed mastery, performance approach, performance avoidance, work avoidance, and relational goals as being distinguishable from each other. Distinct relationships were found between different instructors’ achievement goals, and gender, age, and career status as well as self-efficacy and enthusiasm. Hierarchical linear models suggested positive associations of instructors’ mastery goals with teaching quality, while negative associations were indicated for performance avoidance goals and work avoidance goals in relation to teaching quality. Exploratory analyses conducted due to a quite large correlation between performance approach and performance avoidance goals indicated that for university instructors, differentiating performance goals into appearance and normative components might also be adequate. All in all, the study highlights the auspiciousness of the theoretical concept of university instructors’ achievement goals and contributes to making it comprehensively accessible.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Loderer ◽  
Markus Dresel ◽  
Oliver Dickhäuser ◽  
Martin Daumiller

University instructors’ goals for teaching are important for teaching quality. However, studies examining factors that shape instructors’ goal adoption are lacking. Using data from 785 instructors, we investigated whether implicit theories (ITs) about the malleability of intelligence constitute one such factor. Following achievement goal theory and Dweck’s (1999) achievement motivation framework, we analyzed whether differences in teaching goals are attributable to differences in ITs, and whether goals mediate the relation between ITs and instructional quality. Structural equation modeling yielded the expected relations between goals and instructional quality (positive for mastery and performance approach goals; negative for performance avoidance and work avoidance goals). As hypothesized, stronger endorsement of incremental ITs was positively related to mastery, and negatively to work avoidance goals. However, ITs were unrelated to performance goals. Indirect effects of ITs on teaching quality via goals were significant but rather weak. Implications for research and fostering teaching motivation are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-47
Author(s):  
Michelle E. Bartlett ◽  
Carrol L. Warren ◽  
Diane D. Chapman

North Carolina postsecondary faculty, similar to faculty around the world, who prepared their spring 2020 semester courses for face-to-face delivery, were required to quickly transition to Rapid Online Teaching and Learning (ROTL). This transition was expected within a short time frame, often one to two weeks, and for many faculty members, both time and resources to incorporate design practices found in high-quality online courses were limited. Faculty members demonstrated great determination and grit as they shifted to remote teaching and learning with a focus on the student success, even while feeling overwhelmed and disrupted themselves. Researchers examined two faculty-support programs designed to assist with the shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 crisis: one at a research-intensive, land-grant university and another for faculty at 58 community colleges, some of whom are enrolled in a CPED Ed.D. program. Lessons learned and thoughts on planning for future semesters are examined


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jowati Juhary

This chapter responds to the needs of educators in preparing to teach online fully due to the pandemic, COVID-19. This scenario becomes the new normal in the teaching and learning process during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective of this chapter is to investigate the roles of educators in one public higher learning institution in Malaysia during emergency remote teaching due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Emergency remote teaching is argued to be the answer to the sudden change from face-to-face teaching to a fully online teaching environment. Data for this chapter were collected through an online survey distributed to potential respondents. Adopting a case study and quantitative approach to research, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis were conducted and presented. Preliminary findings suggest two key challenges. Firstly, educators were ready to embark on transformative emergency remote teaching. Nonetheless, they were not sure of the differences between emergency remote teaching and online teaching; these two have different pedagogical approaches. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, educators were able to use appropriate platforms and applications during the pandemic; however, they did not have ample time to study other platforms and applications. By this, the author argues that some educators have various options to choose from but may lack the knowledge and understanding on how these options work best. In accepting the new normal in teaching and learning, educators must be open to new and creative strategies to engage students during 100 percent online learning.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Daumiller ◽  
Markus Dresel

Motivation is posited to be central for faculty members’ professional experiences and performance. To this end, achievement goals have been associated with burnout/engagement and performance at work. However, the few studies that have examined this topic were cross-sectional and only considered one of the two equally important work domains of faculty members. In the present research, we analyze the temporal relationships between achievement goals and burnout/engagement as well as performance and investigate the domain specificity of goal pursuit by considering goals for teaching and goals for research. To this end, we conducted a longitudinal study including 681 German faculty members that were surveyed four times over a total of two years. Multivariate Latent Change Score modeling attested that in both domains, mastery-approach goals were positively related to subsequent development of performance, while performance was also positively related to subsequent development of mastery goals, creating a double positive loop. Performance goals and work-avoidance goals were differentially associated with performance in both domains, indicating that the effects of goals can be bound to different contextual features. For overall burnout/engagement, our results implied that for its development, primarily research goals mattered (with performance-avoidance and work-avoidance goals being risk factors), while high burnout levels were associated with subsequent reduction of adaptive mastery-approach goals in both domains. This highlights the relevance of achievement goals for burnout/engagement and performance of faculty and employees in general, and sheds light on their complex temporal dynamics that can also meaningfully inform achievement goal research in other contexts.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate L. Morgan ◽  
Wei Chen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the changes made to course delivery, course materials and assessment approaches required in response to the COVID-19 pandemic which forced many changes to occur in a very short time. Design/methodology/approach It is a case study of the changes made to content, teaching methods and assessment in a postgraduate introductory financial accounting course of approximately 350 students across two terms. Findings The key findings are that the sudden change from face-to-face to online teaching to address government regulations, social distancing expectations and students’ needs required immediate changes to how content was delivered, how to interact with students (many of who were studying outside of Australia), and how to adapt to online assessments. Many of the innovations the authors describe will continue to be used in the course going forward both in face-to-face and online formats. That is, the need to change resulted in innovations that can be implemented in a post-pandemic environment. Originality/value The key value of this paper is to provide instructors with insights into the innovations the authors made to address the changed circumstances, which can be incorporated into other accounting courses in the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-243
Author(s):  
Ana-Maria CHISEGA-NEGRILĂ

Abstract: As the time in which online teaching and learning was still an element of novelty has long been gone, virtual learning environments have to be studied thoroughly so that they will provide students not only with the necessary knowledge, but also with the proper tools to meet their learning objectives. The advancement in information technology and the access to an almost inordinate number of learning and teaching tools should have already been fructified and, as a result, not only teachers, but also learners should have already picked up the fruit of knowledge grown in the vast virtual environment of the Internet. However, as education has recently moved almost entirely online, some questions have arisen. Are the Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) enough to offer ESL students both motivation and knowledge? Will foreign languages benefit from this growing trend or will traditional, face-to-face interaction, prove to have been more efficient? The present article will look into some of these questions and into the benefits of VLEs in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Aman Gupta ◽  
Ana Janic ◽  
Joshua Thomson

Objectives. The March 2020 lockdown mandated institution closures and forced educators to provide remote instruction. We intended to gain an in-depth and holistic understanding of dental faculty’s experience and perceptions during this mandatory shift. Insights were gathered in 6 key areas: prior remote instruction experience; magnitude of transition and frequency of instruction methods used; training received; preferred teaching methods based on how they promote student learning, interaction, engagement, and performance; social impact; and future of teaching. Methods. An anonymous QualtricsXM survey was distributed to all dental faculties at University of Detroit Mercy in May 2020. Data was collected over a three-week period and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics 26 (IBM; Armonk, New York, USA). Pearson chi-squared test and Fisher’s exact test were used to evaluate categorical data. Results. Out of the 30 participants who transitioned to online remote instruction, 16 (53.3%) reported an age between 30 and 49 years and 14 (46.7%) reported ≥50 years of age. Our analysis revealed that faculty in 30–49-year age range had no prior online synchronous teaching experience. The transition was described as interesting, useful, time-consuming, and challenging. In-person live teaching received highest number of first place rankings (50%), and online asynchronous method received highest number of last place rankings (42.86%). Faculties in >50 year age range expressed maximum satisfaction with online small-group discussions, and those in 30–49 years age group were more satisfied with one-on-one online discussion. Conclusion. Our study finds that the faculty tends to gravitate to online methods that are similar to or mimic their past in-person teaching environment. Forced remote instruction gave new content delivery experiences to faculties of all ranges of age and experience in teaching. This exposure is likely to result in a more widespread adoption of a variety of instructional methods in future. Our study strongly suggests that traditional in-person instruction is the preferred method for delivery of content and is likely better for student learning. Majority of the faculties believed that the future of dental education would be a mix of both in-class and online instruction. In summer and fall 2021, our institution adopted hybrid, flexible models for didactic instruction to allow students the opportunity to digest content in their preferred method. Careful planning and systematic, continued training will be required to enhance technological skills and to incorporate newer models into didactic and clinical instruction. For the success of blended learning, courses will need redesigning of assessment methods, commitment, and support from administrators.


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