Losing the elearning safety net: Teaching an MBA class without an educational technician

The forced transition caused by the safety lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic imposed “emergency eLearning” on many university faculty members. This transition had many facets including moving away from face-to-face instruction to fully online and hybrid or blended forms of eLearning. For programs that were already leveraging blended teaching, using simultaneous synchronous and asynchronous teaching in the same classroom, the major change was the loss of an educational technician to operate and monitor the technology used for these hybrid teaching models. This paper outlines some of the changes required to navigate this transition and the positive and negative consequences associated with this forced move to eLearning. © 15th International Conference e-Learning, EL 2021 - Held at the 15th Multi-Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, MCCSIS 2021. All rights reserved.

Emergency elearning during a pandemic: Tales of a forced transition

This paper explores the impact on faculty and students of the forced transition to eLearning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A review of the literature on eLearning modalities and the issues involved in transitioning from face-to-face instruction is followed by a series of reports on the experiences of 10 faculty in making the change from traditional instruction to various modalities of eLearning. The methodology employed is an adaptation of the grounded theory approach used in sociology. The results indicate that the primary advantages to the transition to eLearning were the flexibility afforded both faculty and students and the ability to continue delivering quality instruction during the pandemic. The primary negatives were the difficulty in engaging students in the new delivery modalities and the significant challenges involved in proctoring exams. Prior experience with online and blended learning on the part of the faculty and students made the transition smoother. © 15th International Conference e-Learning, EL 2021 - Held at the 15th Multi-Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, MCCSIS 2021. All rights reserved.