A retrospective snapshot of academic staff preparation at the onset of COVID

The abrupt emergence and spread of the COVID-19 virus compelled institutions worldwide to swiftly suspend their face-to-face instruction in favor of a remote teaching mode. This extraordinary shift of instructional delivery created one of the biggest infrastructural, pedagogical and operational challenges for universities in recent history. As institutions that have traditionally been slow to respond to sudden external influences, universities have struggled to respond effectively to COVID-19. Using the Human Systems Dynamics approach as conceptual framework, this paper retrospectively explores how academic staff adapted their Emergency Remote Teaching strategies and became more learning-agile to respond to such challenges in the future. This exploratory case-study article summarizes the results of a survey of teaching staff’s readiness, experience and struggles with Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, at the height of the pandemic. A total of 73 usable responses were received between July 17 and August 7, 2020. The results were classified into four categories: (1) Preparation and training; (2) Faculty impressions of own teaching; (3) Faculty experience; and (4) Faculty impressions of student experience