Pedagogical innovation and distance education in higher education in the (post-) COVID era

• Autor(a) principal: Santos Silva, Perpétua
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Correia, Marisa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.15/3866
• topic: COVID-19 pandemic; distance education; emergency remote teaching; higher education; pedagogical innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need for higher education institutions to promote pedagogical innovation. Although it is evident that distance learning is different from emergency remote teaching, this crisis response provided a good opportunity to acknowledge the benefits of distance education. However, for an effective and sustainable change it is essential to identify the key success factors of distance learning. This paper presents the main contributions of a research related to the transition from face-to-face to remote education, carried out in a Portuguese Higher Education School during the COVID-19 pandemic, that explored college students and teaching staff acceptance of emergency remote teaching. From a methodological point of view, we followed a quantitative approach with the application of two questionnaires, one to the students and the other to the teaching staff. We have identified some constraints faced by the respondents, but also a set of factors with a positive impact on distance education success: access to technological resources, digital skills, work conditions, heavy workload, and learning environment; flexibility, guidance, and interaction; assessment criteria and practices are some examples that will be discussed in this paper. Findings from this study enhance the discussion around dimensions such as pedagogical innovation and the development of teaching staff digital skills. Additionally, findings revealed openness of professors and students to adopt distance learning in the future. Finally, these conclusions contribute not only to improve institution's study programs, but also to pave the way for the creation of new ones in distance learning modalities (b-learning or e-learning).