The COVID pandemic has been a challenge for many colleges and universities. Although most faculty at West Chester University (WCU) in Pennsylvania had never taught online, our faculty were given three weeks to transform their courses into online courses. The faculty had to quickly adjust their teaching pedagogy and methods. Most adapted well to the challenge. The pandemic has provided a golden opportunity for faculty members to rethink their approach to teaching. To what extent they transformed their teaching is the focus of this study. During the last academic year, faculty members had to adjust back to face-to-face teaching. This begs the question, how has the faculty members' face-to-face teaching changed as a result of their teaching online during the lockdown? A mixed-methods approach is used to address this question. A survey was sent to all faculty members at WCU in Fall 2021 with a list of technological and pedagogical techniques that are typically used by those teaching online. Faculty were asked to indicate which of the techniques they had started using during the pandemic and which they had continued to use when they started teaching face-to-face again. This was followed up in Spring 2022 with focus groups that asked faculty to elaborate on their transition back to face-to-face teaching focusing upon how the pandemic affected their teaching. The finding from the survey and focus groups will be presented at the conference.

Authors:
Esther Smidt, West Chester University, United States
Rui Li, Bradley University, United States
David Bolton, West Chester University, United States
Thomas Pantazes, West Chester University, United States
Shannon Mrkich, West Chester University, United States
Paige Gardner, West Chester University, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Esther Smidt is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at West Chester University, United States

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