The global COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid adaptation to emergency remote teaching (ERT)—described as “a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances” (Hodges et al., 2020, p. 7). It impacted all levels of education (Watermeyer et al., 2021; Wong et al., 2021), with instructors, learners, and institutions thrust into an “emergency management cycle” whereby new strategies, approaches, and skills were developed (Alexander, 2002). Worldwide, ERT was complicated by varied levels of institutional support and digital capacity (Can & Silman-Karanfil, 2022; Watermeyer et al., 2021), with higher education institutions often ill-equipped for the sudden change due to a lack of prioritization of digital technologies within learning ecosystems (Colpitts et al., 2020). This was particularly pronounced in the context of Japanese higher education (HE), which had a notable lack of digital infrastructure and institutional preparedness compared to other established HE markets (Funamori, 2017; Vasilache, 2017). Thus, ERT presented a unique challenge to learners, instructors, and institutions alike and necessitated a radical departure from the status quo in Japanese HE. This paper aims to shed light on one such case at a coordinated English for academic purposes (EAP) program at the tertiary level in Japan, told from the perspective of the instructors coordinating some parts of the program.
Issues for Instructors
Initially, there were reports of a significant negative impact on educators, stemming from a variety of factors, including health concerns, anxiety, and uncertainty; professional concerns relating to their own, their institutions,’ and their students’ facility with digital platforms; and an increased workload (Can & Silman-Karanfil, 2022; Wong et al., 2021). Further factors included disenfranchisement due to prior face-to-face teaching skills becoming redundant and inaccessible (Ashton, 2022), concerns about student engagement (Ferri et al., 2020), and issues arising from the lack of direct student contact (Kim & Asbury, 2020).
In adapting, instructors utilized a range of platforms for their classes, such as video conferencing, social media, text chats, free online resources, and various virtual learning environments (Li, 2022; Pu, 2020). Using information and communication technology (ICT) became increasingly important, albeit ICT competency level and the need for support varied among instructors (Gao & Zhang, 2020). Synchronous online teaching (Peachey, 2017), through platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, became ubiquitous to facilitate live interaction, but this was often frustrated by a lack of prior experience and inadequate training (Moser et al., 2021). Such classes have been found to be mixed in their efficacy with one case study identifying primarily contrived, instructor-driven dialogue with a lack of engagement among students who often switched off their cameras (Cheung, 2021a). However, there were also positives, such as the removal of physical proximity, which led to reduced anxiety in some (Satar & Ozdenar, 2008) and the enhanced participation of weaker students through text chat functions (Cheung, 2021b).
As instructors adapted and became more competent in their use of the available technology, the quality of live interaction improved (Gao & Zhang, 2020). This underscores the importance of instructors in the success of ERT (Rapanta et al., 2020). For instance, instructors learned to adapt strategies to provide meaningful feedback for students via online platforms (Al Damen, 2020), which allowed for increased instructor agency (Ashton, 2022). Indeed, after the initial sudden adjustment to online learning, many instructors were able to embrace the necessity for ICT as part of their pedagogical repertoire and came to regard it as a valuable professional development experience (Dohaney et al., 2020; Li, 2022). Many were able to work with students to create innovative solutions and learning spaces as both adjusted to the new environment (Harsch et al., 2021).