Abstract:

This paper explores the experience of two academic developers supporting the teaching staff with the transition to remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. We identify three zones of learning, unlearning and relearning, experienced by academics, as they adapt to emergency remote teaching. Although higher education has experienced much disruption over the past few years, however, the arrival of COVID-19 has created unprecedented panic in the sector. State mandated lockdowns have forced universities to consider alternatives to face-to-face learning with the aim of salvaging the academic year, resulting in a rush by institutions to move courses online. While this change was unavoidable, without much warning or preparation many academics had to adapt to emergency remote online teaching. During this rapid response of transition, academics had to learn new skills and new ways of doing and being. The emergence of a new normal, required us to rethink ways of learning and teaching, re-imagining new ways of delivering content online. This shift required academics to unlearn their old way of doing to adapt to new ways of teaching in which learning is active, responsive, and contextualized. As academic developers we soon realised that a type of dance started to emerge, a back and forth, side to side, learn, unlearn and relearn. This happened simultaneously, as the time of crisis did not allow for a smooth or well thought out transition from one mode of delivery to another. This paper focuses on the academic developer experiences of the learning processes through displacement and isolation. We identify three zones: trauma, transition and transformation that academics experienced as they adapted to online teaching and learning during a time of crisis. The zones highlight the learning, unlearning and relearning processes and adaptation experiences of the academics. We argue that during a time of crises lies opportunities to innovate and create new ways of being and doing. Academics adaptation during a time of crisis brought into focus the need to address inequalities with regard to access of resources and learning environment. In the South African context, this pandemic highlighted the remnants of an unequal past, as the struggle to ensure access takes centre stage once again. It also heightened academics’ need to teach with care and compassion which strangely created a sense of connectedness that was not very observable during face-to-face teaching.

Keywords:

Remote Teaching and Learning, COVID-19, Learning, Unlearning, Relearning.