COMMUNITY COLLEGE FACULTY EXPERIENCES DURING THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY TRANSITION TO ONLINE TEACHING

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2023

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The rapid shift to online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) across the globe. Educators faced an unprecedented shift from traditional to online classrooms. This basic interpretive study aimed to understand the experiences and perspectives of community college faculty in a public university system in Hawai`i during the transition. To achieve this goal, this study examined the challenges and opportunities faced by community college faculty during the pandemic. Importantly, this study examined the role of Online Professional Development (OPD), how OPD supported community college faculty’s implementation of the Community of Inquiry (CoI), and how OPD promoted the application of 21st-century skill development in the transition. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 11 faculty members from Liberal Arts and Humanities (LaH) and Career Technical Education (CTE) programs with no prior online teaching experience before the emergency transition. Findings from this study reflected faculty experiences and attitudes towards the transition as challenging and filled with uncertainty. They further illustrated how OPD provided faculty with techniques on how to interact with and engage students using technological tools to encourage communication and collaboration; however, most participants voiced a preference for in-person over online teaching. That is, while faculty relayed their confidence in the application of newly acquired technical skills, online teaching was not an optimal choice for most participants. These findings have several practical implications for educational institutions, professional development coordinators, educators, and students in the shift to increased online education. This study also suggested that further incorporation of the CoI and 21st-century competencies in online teaching may contribute to strategies that will foster the progressive development of effective online learning communities.

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Educational technology, Community college education

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169 pages

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