Coping with COVID: pivoting perspectives from teaching a third-year undergraduate financial accounting course

Purpose - Coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused upheaval in university teaching practices. This paper aims to document how the teaching team on a large third-year undergraduate financial accounting course in an Australian university coped with the impact of the virus. Changes in teaching practices when classes shifted from face-to-face to online instruction during the COVID-19 crisis are described and examined using the crisis management process framework of Pearson and Clair (1998). Teaching team members were asked to write brief reflections on their experiences teaching the course during the period from February to July 2020. These were then thematically analysed and included as outcomes within the Pearson and Clair (1998) framework. Design/methodology/approach - Description of COVID-19 induced changes to teaching a large undergraduate financial accounting course at an Australian university. Findings - Six outcomes emerged: learning new technology;collegiality;the course review;the online delivery experience;redesigning assessments and;time investment;conjectures are offered about the survival of some of the changes made during the year. Research limitations/implications - The research only covers one teaching team's experience but that is the purpose of the special issue. Practical implications - Lessons for the future are explored. Social implications - The implications of online teaching are explored. Originality/value - The paper provides a historical record of how the teaching team on a large undergraduate financial accounting course coped with an unexpected, major event that necessitated rapid and radical changes to teaching methods.

Impact of COVID-19 on the use of the academic library

Purpose: This study examines differences in library use patterns (in-person visits, online use, reference transactions, library resource and services use) pre-COVID-19 and during the COVID-19 pandemic through multiple data sets. Design/methodology/approach: Using library statistics collected during 2017/2018 and 2020/2021 and student responses to a biennial library use survey distributed in 2018 and 2021, the potential impact of the pandemic on users' behaviors was explored. Findings: Library use statistics and the biennial survey responses demonstrate that users' overall library use was impacted by COVID-19. Both the library's gate count and students' frequency of library visits showed a dramatic decrease. The use of virtual support to patrons increased during COVID-19 as reflected by the increase in email and chat reference interactions and virtual consultations. Practical implications: As students return to the physical classroom, observing library use via various data will help inform how well use of the library rebounded or if there are changes in users' behavior that suggest the need for the promotion of library services or an expansion in alternative services to support users. Originality/value: This article highlights the importance of continuously obtaining various data sets to observe trends and changes. By observing multiple data points, some changes are aligned across data, whereas other changes or patterns are different. While impact on physical library use may be obvious, library use before and during the pandemic will help guide and inform how academic libraries should be prepared for hybrid environments post-pandemic. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.