Distance-based teaching : How the teachers at Umeå University has been affected by the shift to online education

During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, large parts of Sweden's higher education, together with the rest of the world, needed to drasticallymake a switch to distance learning. This involved the use of new technology and video conferencing tools such as Zoom to reduce the virtual distance and get closer to each other without having to be close physically. Umeå University has also had to undergo this drastic transformation of their activities, with lectures, seminars and examinations which all had to suddenly be kept at a distance to reduce the spread of infection. This study consists of a quantitative survey which just over 600 teachers at Umeå University responded to, where their responses show that overall,they’ve had negative experiences where their workload has increased, job satisfaction has decreased and the interaction between the teachers and theirstudents has suffered. At the same time, they respond very positively about the quality of their digital tools and that they’re easy to use. Judging by the results and the answers of the survey, it can also be seen that even though teachers have been quick to adapt to the new distance-based reality, their way of teaching has notadapted in the same way which prevents full utilization of distance-basedtechnologies. All in all, it can be stated that the majority of those who responded to the survey give a picture that teachers prefer to keep their education in classrooms or lecture halls, to have a better interaction between teachers and students