{"id":12392,"date":"2024-08-06T11:02:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T10:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=12392"},"modified":"2024-08-06T11:07:29","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T10:07:29","slug":"how-the-pandemic-changed-your-job-academic-perceptions-of-e-learning-after-covid-19-and-how-to-change-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2024\/08\/how-the-pandemic-changed-your-job-academic-perceptions-of-e-learning-after-covid-19-and-how-to-change-them\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Pandemic Changed Your Job: Academic Perceptions of E-Learning after COVID-19 (and How to Change Them)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Larner, Manchester Metropolitan University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The definition of e-learning teams has evolved since the early 2000s (Joyce and Lisewski, 2003). In my roles as an E-Learning Technologist, Technology Enhanced Learning Advisor (TELA), and Digital Education Specialist, I’ve witnessed these changes firsthand. Until the COVID-19 Pandemic the factors affecting the role had generally been internal to Higher Education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 lockdowns had a profound impact on Higher Education (for example, Watermeyer et al.<\/em>, 2021). Lockdowns required a rapid switch to emergency online teaching (Hodges, 2020) for universities across the world. Many teaching staff were suddenly overwhelmed by new technologies and teaching methods in an almost overnight switch.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This had a direct effect on the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) team at Manchester Metropolitan University. When the lockdowns began TELAs were required to provide more technical support where previously support had been teaching focused. However, such was the demand for support to demonstrate the use of Microsoft Teams for online delivery we struggled to show pedagogy. Staff just needed to be able to use the tools available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, I had been a face-to-face faculty contact, very visible and easily contactable on the phone or in the office. The requirement to ensure the team could cope with demand and provide redundancy if anyone was off sick meant I was now behind an IT style ticket system, working remotely and more centrally in the team to manage demand from across the university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I studied how the pandemic affected perceptions of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in the Faculty of Science and Engineering (S&E) at Manchester Metropolitan University.  I asked staff in S&E what their perceptions of the TEL Team were following the pandemic. I surveyed and interviewed staff in the summer of 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings suggested that colleagues considered technical and administrative activities were the focus of our role with Technical Selection and Learning Design scoring dismally. Using my research findings, I created a set of recommendations to change perceptions of the TEL Team\u2019s role. These were written with specific reference to Manchester Metropolitan University\u2019s context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommendations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Proactive Integration<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n