Once more on the rollercoaster: Loses and gains from the rapid shift to online delivery during Covid

Abstract

A global rapid shift to online delivery in higher education due to the Covid19 pandemic resulted in students and teachers pivoting into a new learning environment, in many cases overnight. Our research nested within an Irish university explores how such a rapid educational delivery shift affected both students and teachers, offering a unique dual perspective and input into the changing roles of students and teachers due to Covid19. Our research design focused on open-ended surveys of 83 M.Sc. postgraduate students and their five teachers in five modules, followed by qualitative data collected through 34 in-depth interviews. The findings illustrate a complex narrative of self-regulation and challenge for both students and teachers both needing to adjust to a new educational experience. The main findings are that there is a core challenge in the repositioning of the student and teacher roles in a new educational ecosystem which needs to be both understood and managed to gain maximum benefit from this rapid and unprecedented change.