Abstract:

Faculty competency and confidence in online pedagogy and technological skills is critical if faculty are to create effective online learning environments for students. Teaching in the online environment requires some different competencies than are used in the face-to-face environment, particularly in the areas of technology and facilitating engagement (Ko & Rossen, 2017; Martin, Budhrani & Wang, 2019; Wray, Lowenthal, Bates & Stevens, 2008).

In order for online learning to be effective, students must also have some technical, organizational, and emotional competencies to succeed in such an environment. This includes factors such motivation and persistence since the educational process in online delivery requires students to be more active, rather than the often passive approach taken by students in the face-to-face classroom.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced both faculty and students to convert to online education literally overnight. However, the pedagogical strategies that are so thoughtfully put into online courses that are intentionally designed is not often present when face-to-face instruction has to be placed online so rapidly. This particularly true of faculty who have not taught online before, or only taught standardized curriculum developed by another faculty member. This was one of the original problems of online learning in its infancy. Before online instruction developed its own specific pedagogical and design best practices, faculty often took what they taught face-to-face and put it online. Overwhelmingly, this process was not effective.

This paper will review faculty and student competencies prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to determine what changes in faculty professional development and student training may be needed to deal with the “new normal” in a post-COVID-19 world. Although this event was unprecedented, it is important for higher education institutions to develop strategic plans to enhance the learning process for students and to prevent undue stress on their faculty.

Keywords:

Faculty competencies, student competencies, online learning, COVID-19.