Technology and Distance Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Deriving Constructs from an International Higher Education Survey.

A survey of 120 faculty from different parts of the world was conducted during the spring and summer of 2020 to examine how the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted faculty’s perceptions of their academic world. The specific focus of the Higher Education Technology Survey was on faculty perceptions of and adjustment to teaching at a distance. Major findings were that three constructs representing distance teaching enthusiasm, distance teaching resolve, and distance teaching support were reliably assessed by the instrument and that while the levels of enthusiasm and resolve were significantly (p < .05) related to prior experience with and/or training for distance education, perceived level of support was not related. In addition, normal demographic attributes commonly influencing aspects of self-efficacy regarding technology-based teaching and learning, such as gender and years of teaching, were not found to be strongly related to distance teaching constructs measured. The authors conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have cut across typical subpopulations and teaching / learning boundaries with regard to influence on perceptions and impact; and yet the need for proven approaches to pedagogically sound training for teaching with technology at a distance remain intact during these extraordinary times.