“It’s a Heavy Lift”: How University Faculty and Students Experienced Emergency Remote Teaching During COVID-19

Abstract

This mixed method, sequential explanatory study seeks to explore how faculty and students at a comprehensive university in a Mid-Atlantic American city were impacted by the shift to emergency remote teaching and learning during the spring of 2020. Data were collected through surveys, follow-up focus groups, and individual interviews. We tracked which technologies and teaching and learning supports faculty and students used when moving to emergency remote teaching and learning. Faculty and students reported overall positive experiences despite the challenges associated with the transition. Participants favored technologies that attempted to mirror the face-to-face experience and encouraged social presence. Quantitative and qualitative findings collectively indicated that participants were focused on variables that impacted student learning and fostered adaptions and accommodations in response to the needs of the university community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lessons learned from this study offer universities evidence-based ways to engage and support teaching and learning processes even after the pandemic is over.

Keywords: COVID-19, emergency remote teaching and learning, online teaching and learning, information technologies, higher education students, higher education faculty