Working from home challenges: Resources, tools, and quality concerns

This chapter provides a glimpse into the conversation around the resources that university staff need to thrive in their work both on campus or through telework. The COVID-19 pandemic and shifting to working from home exposed disparities in resources for staff at the University of Utah many of which existed in the on-campus work environment as well. Institutions of higher education were no exception;most non-essential employees made the change from working on campus to a teleworking environment. Because most colleges and universities still operate from a brick-and-mortar setting and primarily offer in-person instruction, this change to serving students and carrying out job responsibilities from home was a huge and unexpected shift, and very little infrastructure was in place for addressing needs and providing essential tools and resources for employee thriving in a work-at-home environment. It is found that the move to working from home revealed a broad continuum where on one end staff had access to essential resources for thriving as new telecommuters, and on the other end staff struggled from one day to the next to maintain quality services for students and co-workers due to the lack of basic resources. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The way forward

The profound sadness, anxiety, depression, and loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to fathom. This chapter offers both scholars and practitioners the opportunity to reconsider the purposes and potential of higher education in a world after COVID-19. The importance of community and a sense of belonging, the power of learning new strategies during changing times, and acknowledging that the COVID-19 pandemic had significant consequences for individuals are themes that describe the experiences of the pandemic for faculty, staff, and students at the University of Utah. The University of Utah is offering most classes in an online environment and most students are not on campus, but students, their families, faculty, and staff are gathering for small, COVID-safe in-person graduation ceremonies. The chapter illustrates pockets of thriving across the University of Utah: students creating communities wherever they could to overcome lags in motivation;faculty feeling vitality as they learned new ways to teach and recognized their growth in this process;and staff realizing they could find new ways to solve problems with students. It offers broad recommendations for higher education with the intent that the findings may help others attempting to thrive or survive during times of crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Interpretive methods as a window into individual experiences and the pandemic

This chapter aligns with an interpretive qualitative research project. It discusses the development of this project, the site, the participants, the researchers, the data collection, and the data analysis. The chapter offers researchers and practitioners the opportunity to further conceptualize the importance of individuals' lived experiences, especially during tumultuous times. It demonstrates throughout the findings that the contextual variables are important in understanding how students, staff, and faculty experienced the organizational and societal changes that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March of 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Utah elected to close campus to all non-essential personnel and move all classes online when students returned from spring break. It acknowledges the mental health toll associated with conducting research during a pandemic. Members of the research team were forced to confront their own feelings about the pandemic while interpreting those of others. The researchers tries to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the people in higher education, and as people in higher education who are impacted by the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Teaching online and caring for students and colleagues

This chapter explores how the University's decision to move all courses to an online format impacted faculty members. It illustrates the challenges associated with transitioning from a brick-and-mortar, four-year university that predominantly offers in-person classes into one that operated almost completely online. The chapter focuses on faculty and how different aspects of their pedagogy were immediately impacted by the pandemic. It addresses how faculty participants expressed their concern for students and colleagues as well as the initiatives and actions participants took to assist students and colleagues. The chapter discusses the impact of COVID-19 and the transition to online learning on a traditional institution of higher education. The experience of transitioning to online teaching varied widely for faculty and was dependent on the course and content delivery, experience with online teaching and online tools, and course context. All faculty made accommodations for students, whether at the behest of the University directive to accommodate student needs or because they felt it was in the best interest of the students. Faculty participants also adjusted their expectations for assessments and grading. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Community, communication and expectations for teaching

This chapter explores how communication during the COVID-19 crisis hindered and supported faculty performance and how they interpreted institutional communication and expectations around their teaching. It addresses the importance of community to faculty, both as they adjusted to online instruction and as a source of thriving in their work. Faculty are a key element in higher education institutions, and the findings show how faculty participants acted on the frontlines of the transition to online learning. Faculty participants consistently talked about the challenges of teaching students to the best of their ability during a global pandemic, and the importance of their communities for their success in this endeavor. They expected clear communication from the University and desired guidelines specific to each college or department. In the end, faculty relied on their community as a resource of knowledge and support during the difficult transition. Professional organizations and colleagues outside of the University of Utah also served as sources of knowledge for faculty as they adjusted to online learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Thriving as a lens for understanding the impact of COVID-19 on higher education faculty, staff, and students

This chapter provides details of both the student thriving model and the socially embedded model of thriving at work. Both models place an onus on higher education institutions for ensuring that members of the community thrive. The chapter considers how these models might apply to a clearer understanding of how students, staff, and faculty at the University of Utah managed the transition to online learning, teaching, and work during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the joint effort necessary for thriving to occur, the chapter explores whether thriving is even possible during a time of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes participants' experiences of loss of community;lack of information and acknowledgement of effort;deep learning and adaptation;anger, frustration, joy, and gratitude;and feelings of success and failure. In many cases, elements of thriving were present in these experiences, but the University of Utah was clearly limited in its ability to provide conditions for thriving as the entire campus moved to an online modality. Additionally, many participants experienced significant challenges to their mental health and well-being, in many cases breaking the cycle of sustaining thriving noted by Spreitzer. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Understanding individual experiences of COVID-19 to inform policy and practice in higher education: Helping students, staff, and faculty to thrive in times of crisis

Utilizing findings from more than 200 interviews with students, staff, and faculty at a US university, this volume explores the immediate and real-life impacts of COVID-19 on individuals to inform higher education policy and practice in times of crisis. Documenting the profound impacts that COVID-19 had on university operations and teaching, this book foregrounds a range of participant perspectives on key topics such as institutional leadership and loss of community, managing motivation and the move to online teaching and learning, and coping with the adverse mental health effects caused by the pandemic. Far from dwelling on the negative, the volume frames the lived experiences and implications of COVID-19 for higher education through a positive, progressive lens, and considers how institutions can best support individual and collective thriving during times of crisis. This book will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in higher education with an interest in the sociology of education, higher education management, and eLearning more broadly. Those specifically interested in student affairs practice, as well as the administration of higher education, will also benefit from this book. The chapters describe the experiences of students, staff, and faculty at the University of Utah as they adapted to the new COVID-19 reality in spring and summer 2020. The logistics of adjusting to online learning and working, the juggling act of managing their online learning and teaching while taking on responsibility for the learning of children in their homes, the reality of a struggling economy, and the social-political environment of a presidential election year and a burgeoning racial justice movement provide the backdrop for the experiences described in this monograph. This study has important implications for higher education leaders. It offers an in-depth and institutionally broad view of how different higher education stakeholders experienced the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Pandemic privilege

Many felt that the challenges related to COVID-19 were more difficult for students than for faculty and expressed concern for students struggling to manage the impacts of the pandemic. Pandemic privilege is illustrated several ways. First, faculty appreciated the privilege in the fact that, generally, their employment was not at risk. This was stronger for tenure-line faculty than for contract, clinical, and adjunct faculty. However, across the board, faculty expressed that they were privileged in their ability to continue working in meaningful employment and to do so from home. Second, faculty whose children were grown and more independent felt privilege related to the extra burden on colleagues with younger children at home. Additionally, many of the White faculty recognized a racial privilege, both in terms of the virus and more generally as a result of the racial justice movements across the country. And, faculty who were relatively healthy acknowledged the different impact of the virus for those with health-related complications or risk factors. Finally, faculty talked about their privilege in comparison to students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Introduction

The COVID-19 crisis that emerged in spring 2020 was unprecedented in its impact on the day-to-day operations of higher education worldwide. This chapter describes the experiences of students, staff, and faculty at the University of Utah as they adapted to the new COVID-19 reality in spring and summer 2020. Participants' experiences of the transition to online learning and work during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic illuminate a number of findings that can provide guidance to higher education for future crises. The chapter explores whether it is realistic to expect campus communities to thrive during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. As it becomes clear that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact higher education in the near future, it is important to look back on the experiences of those in higher education as leaders consider the best ways to move forward in this dynamic environment. The chapter offers an in-depth and institutionally broad view of how different higher education stakeholders experienced the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also offers an opportunity to consider how the theoretical concept of thriving operates in practice when an institution is in crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)