ABSTRACT
In the wake of COVID-19, enthusiasm is growing for hybrid and other blended forms of teaching. Before celebrating the hybrid future of education, however, it is instructive to interrogate its hybrid pres-ence. Accordingly, this article explores pedagogical challenges prompted by the pandemic pivot to online teaching. Analysing qualitative survey data from Danish university teachers (n = 488), we identify five critical stances towards educational technology: (1) technologies are fine when used correctly;(2) technical issues are a major obstacle;(3) hybrid teaching is overwhelming;(4) one's sense of students suffers online;and (5) students hide behind their screens. Based on these results, this article identifies two challenges for the hybrid future of education: the problem of presence and the webcam-related tension between surveillance and care.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen the rapid but sometimes controversial take-up of ‘online examination proctoring' systems by universities keen to maintain their assessment schedules during times of campus closure. Following the theoretical tradition of media ‘domestication', this article examines the mainstream adoption of different online proctoring systems in Australian higher education during the first year of the pandemic. Through analysis of interviews, documents, news, social media and marketing materials, the article examines the ‘appropriation', ‘objectification', incorporation' and ‘conversion' of proctoring technology from the perspective of commercial providers, university authorities, university staff and student groups. This raises a number of critical issues underpinning the adoption of this exam surveillance technology – not least the surrender of control to commercial providers, the hidden labour required to sustain ‘automated' systems and the increased vulnerabilities of ‘remote' studying. © The Author(s) 2021.