Abstract
Integrating online teaching strategies within universities is now well established, but there is little on how HE teachers experience this shift. One strand of literature suggests that university senior management teams often assume academic staff lack motivation to participate and resist change. This case study, from a Head of Department’s perspective, challenges that view. Focusing on academics who chose to move to the Open University, an online and distance learning provider, it argues that teaching online requires different skills and presents a fundamental challenge to teacher identity. It concludes that there is a need to both understand the academics’ perspective and acknowledge that there is motivation within the academic community; and support, at all institutional levels, is critical for academics making this transition.
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Notes
- 1.
The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is a scheme introduced by the government in England in 2016–17 to measure the quality of teaching at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Universities are given a rating to indicate the level of teaching quality that they provide, their demonstration of a strategic and effective approach to intellectual challenge and student engagement, and student satisfaction ratings.
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Preston, D. (2018). The Move to Online Teaching: A Head of Department’s Perspective. In: Baxter, J., Callaghan, G., McAvoy, J. (eds) Creativity and Critique in Online Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78298-0_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78298-0_12
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