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The impact of COVID-19 on higher education: A systematic literature review of pedagogical approaches and challenges

Struthers, d'Reen; Allsop, Yasemin; Kalelioglu, Filiz; Rzyankina, Ekatrina; (2022) The impact of COVID-19 on higher education: A systematic literature review of pedagogical approaches and challenges. In: Auer, Michael E and Pester, Andreas and May, Dominik, (eds.) Learning with Technologies and Technologies in Learning: Experience, Trends and Challenges in Higher Education. (pp. 367-390). Springer: Springer, Cham.

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Abstract

By March 2020 most Higher Education institutions across the world had been forced to move all learning and teaching activities onto digital platforms, abandoning face-to-face classroom practices as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. How did the response to this emergency manifest itself in changes to pedagogy and practice for staff and students in Higher Education? The authors completed a systematic literature review to gain insight into the challenges and pedagogic practices that emerged at this time. To represent the complexities of the ‘activity’, the writers sought a theoretical framework that would help identify the key themes and tensions that the empirical studies had identified. Drawing on the work of Vygotsky, Leont’ev and Engeström, the authors created a theoretical framework to analyse how learning and teaching activities within Higher Education were practised because of COVID-19. In total, 206 papers were reviewed under four categories; theoretical, narrative, empirical and blended (which consists of two or more categories). For example, some articles provided an empirical study alongside their authors’ narrative reflections about their own experiences of handling the challenges that were created by Covid -19 pandemic. Then a more detailed review of 23 papers that met the empirical research criteria were explored for their data with coding categories drawn from the theoretical framework. These papers, in varying degrees, illuminated the tensions and the complexities of how those involved in Higher Education globally, were affected by COVID-19. Confined by the digital knowledge capabilities of both staff and students, universities were challenged to find ways to maintain their programme provision, manage expectations, support students’ wellbeing, and enable staff to balance the challenges as they directly interfaced with students. It is clear that while this emergency offered possibilities for staff and students to harness the productive capabilities of adaptive teaching by moving beyond fixed pedagogical frameworks, many struggled and felt constrained by the complexities of the activities required during the pandemic.

Type: Book chapter
Title: The impact of COVID-19 on higher education: A systematic literature review of pedagogical approaches and challenges
ISBN: 3031042859
ISBN-13: 9783031042850
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-04286-7_18
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04286-7_18
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10161441
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