Routledge Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19: International Perspectives and Experiences (Routledge Studies in Global Student Mobility)

This timely volume documents the immediate, global impacts of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on teaching and learning in higher education. Focusing on student and faculty experiences of online and distance education, the text provides reflections on novel initiatives, unexpected challenges, and lessons learned. Responding to the urgent need to better understand online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, this book investigates how the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) impacted students, faculty, and staff experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown. Chapters initially look at the challenges faced by universities and educators in their attempts to overcome the practical difficulties involved in developing effective online programming and pedagogy. The text then builds on these insights to highlight student experiences and consider issues of social connection and inequality. Finally, the volume looks forward to asking what lessons COVID-19 can offer for the future development of online and distance learning in higher education. This engaging volume will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in online teaching and eLearning, curriculum design, and more, specifically those involved with the digitalization of higher education. The text will also support further discussion and reflection around pedagogical transformation, international teaching and learning, and educational policy more broadly. Review "This timely book on the effects of COVID-19 on the already rapid growth of online higher education provides valuable insights and information on the nature and possible consequences of these effects, including the widening of a digital education gap between institutions and countries capacities to successfully respond to rapidly increasing demands for optimal digital teaching and learning. This book also provides valuable solutions to COVID-I9 related online education challenges, including for the accelerated need for the rapid development of widely accessible as well as optimal online education supporting technology, teaching and learning practices, and also an underlying online education wisdom that will make these advances possible." - Stephen McKenzie, Senior Lecturer & Online Course Developer, The University of Melbourne, Australia "As educators kept teaching through the COVID-19 pandemic, online education and information and communication technologies (ICT) took on prominent roles. It is clear that the judicious use of the lessons learned stands to elevate higher education beyond where we were before. By underlining the wins, and alerting us to the losses, this volume provides faculty developers and instructors alike with keyways to capitalize on higher education's response to the pandemic. The global perspectives provided are particularly valuable." - Regan A. R. Gurung, Professor & Interim Executive Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, Oregon State University, USA "Even more valuable than the insights Dr. Chan, Dr. Bista, and Dr. Allen make to our understanding of the challenges and opportunities that emerged in higher education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is the timely and essential message carried throughout, that the future of traditional higher education hinges on its willingness to commit to and insist on equity and opportunity in the classroom through the use of evidence-based teaching practices that make possible success for all learners. COVID-19 has shed light on an increasingly questionable valuable proposition of many institutes of higher education―the insights in this work allow administrators, researchers, and practitioners to reflect on and more importantly improve on their current practices by implementing strategies to better serve their core customers resulting in better outcomes for all." - Patrick Dempsey, Director, Office of Digital Teaching & Learning, Loyola University Maryland, USA "