Online University Teaching During and After the Covid-19 Crisis: Refocusing Teacher Presence and Learning Activity

TLDR

The Covid‑19 pandemic forced higher education to shift abruptly to online teaching, demanding new pedagogical content knowledge for designing effective digital learning environments and prompting reflection on how crisis responses can improve postdigital teaching practices. The article aims to help non‑expert university teachers navigate online learning during the pandemic. It provides expert insights into online‑learning‑related pedagogical content knowledge. Our findings highlight that designing learning activities with specific characteristics, combining social, cognitive, and facilitatory presence, and adapting assessment to new learning requirements are essential.

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has raised significant challenges for the higher education community worldwide. A particular challenge has been the urgent and unexpected request for previously face-to-face university courses to be taught online. Online teaching and learning imply a certain pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), mainly related to designing and organising for better learning experiences and creating distinctive learning environments, with the help of digital technologies. With this article, we provide some expert insights into this online-learning-related PCK, with the goal of helping non-expert university teachers (i.e. those who have little experience with online learning) to navigate in these challenging times. Our findings point at the design of learning activities with certain characteristics, the combination of three types of presence (social, cognitive and facilitatory) and the need for adapting assessment to the new learning requirements. We end with a reflection on how responding to a crisis (as best we can) may precipitate enhanced teaching and learning practices in the postdigital era.