E‐learning? Never again! On the unintended consequences of COVID‐19 forced e‐learning on academic teacher motivational job characteristics

Abstract

Abstract During the COVID‐19 pandemic, universities worldwide are going into ‘emergency mode’—radically transforming education by switching to online and e‐learning education. In the face of these emergent changes, many academic teachers who are unwilling to use e‐learning or who lack the appropriate competences are suddenly being forced to teach via electronic devices and the Internet. But how will this COVID‐19 forced e‐learning influence academic teachers' motivation and performance? In this conceptual paper, drawing from Job Characteristics Theory—a model of human work motivation, we would like to discuss the possible changes in six motivational job characteristics of the academic teacher's job (task identity, task significance, skill variety, feedback, autonomy, social dimensions of the work) caused by COVID‐19 forced e‐learning. Our concise conceptual elaboration might spark a debate on the possible unintended consequences of COVID‐19 forced e‐learning.