Meh: Faculty Life After the Pandemic

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-20-2022

Keywords

faculty, COVID-19, pandemic, technology, Zoom fatigue, teaching

Abstract

In the summer of 2020, we sought to measure the experience of community college faculty across one of the largest state systems of higher education in the nation (the Minnesota State Community College System) as they pivoted to online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Peterson et al., 2020). We found that faculty were largely able to cope with the stressors of their professional roles. However, three key areas stood out among the responses at the time. Faculty reported having focused almost exclusively Vol. XLIV, No. 1 2015; Rocklage et al., 2018) procedure and computer application (http://www.evaluativelexicon.com) to meaningfully quantify the response sets to both open-ended questions. upon attending to the needs of their students. They also revealed a desire to find greater support among their faculty peers. Lastly, faculty across the state voiced frustration regarding a perceived lack of communication from the administrative leadership at their institutions (Peterson et al., 2020).

Since that initial study, Zoom and similar platforms have become a common modality for online and hybrid course delivery. This technology has become both a blessing and a curse as faculty develop the ability to stay connected with students while dealing with the mental and physical health issues that can arise from prolonged computer use. Indeed, the topic of “Zoom fatigue“ has received quite a bit of attention during the past year (Bailenson, 2021). We thought it prudent to follow up our original study with subsequent data collection to monitor how our colleagues across Minnesota were faring as the global pandemic appeared to be winding down during the summer of 2021. Little did we know that the pandemic and its inherent challenges to higher education would remain into 2022.

Department

Educational Leadership

Publication Title

Innovation Abstracts

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Rights Statement

In Copyright