Online teachers from offline worlds: Lessons learned

This chapter describes the professional development experience implemented at a Colombian university at the onset of COVID-19 to help alleviate concerns resulting from transforming face-to-face to emergency remote courses. After a review of the literature, we implemented a program for faculty that focused on three key points: (1) exploring the types of technology available for each modality and how to successfully integrate them into the teachers' practice;(2) clarifying the concepts around each modality and how they are implemented;and (3) supporting educational and emotional needs to help faculty and their students during this time. Feedback from faculty was positive although some professors felt overwhelmed at the beginning of the process. In addition, many professors took active roles to help their colleagues promoting emergent learning communities. Future implications show that despite having institutional professional development to meet immediate needs in crisis situations, it also could be useful to tap into the knowledge and experiences of the institution's faculty. Furthermore, continuing professional development for online teaching and learning is essential, thus allowing sufficient time for faculty to learn, adopt, and adapt to new technological tools. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

Foreign Language Instructors' Professional Development in Times of Crisis: Challenges and Solutions

The unprecedented situation of covid-19 compelled many universities and colleges worldwide to reconsider both the management and delivery of classes, forcing faculty to use innovative online and mobile means. The transition also caused faculty to reevaluate their professional development (pd). This qualitative exploratory study focused on the pd experienced by a group of foreign language university instructors in Colombia during this crisis. Specifically it identified the challenges encountered and how these were tackled. Data were collected through an open-ended survey and analyzed using content analysis. Results show ten main challenges, which were then categorized into three themes: (a) adaptation to emergency remote teaching, (b) promotion of student engagement, and (c) handling of emotions. Conclusions reveal that professors embraced the crisis with a positive attitude, engaging in different pd opportunities, displaying agency, responsibility, and flexibility. Therefore, the challenges and their reaction to them fostered their pd and learning. These findings suggest that institutions should allow instructors to give input into the types of pd programs that they need for specific situations © Copyright, Universidad de Antioquia, 2022. This is an open-access article, available under the terms of the Creative Commons license by-nc-sa 4.0 International