Emergency Remote Teaching in Tertiary Education: Issues Raised, Solutions Given, and Lessons Learned

Introduction

In spring 2020, the majority of schools, colleges, and universities were forced to move all their lessons from face-to-face to online. This unforeseen situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic took almost everyone in the academic world by surprise. Instructors have suddenly found themselves with no other choice than online teaching. Many of them had no experience in the use of technology in teaching and they even had no interest in learning how to meaningfully integrate it into their classes before the pandemic; now, all of a sudden, they were entirely dependent on the use of technology (Godwin-Jones, 2020). This reluctance or resistance in incorporating technology into their class is in someway “legitimate” as “language teachers in higher education rarely have the status, the salary, the time, the encouragement, or the opportunities to develop the critical engagement that would be required to genuinely transform professional practice” (Sadoux, 2021 p. 90). However, in a blink of an eye, instructors were asked to redesign their courses for synchronous, asynchronous remote delivery, or both, and many had absolutely no idea what these terms mean and how to proceed with this transition (Godwin-Jones, 2020). On the other side, there were instructors who had already been using technology in their classes or who were trained for it. While several countries had been providing language teachers with technological facilities and training, they failed to provide a sufficient level of skill development and motivation (Giannikas, 2019). Implementing technology in a language class is beneficial to the students but ineffective if the instructor does not know how to properly apply it (Giannikas, 2021). In addition to these, no teacher training program included a topic such as “how to deal with a pandemic” and such an emergency situation (MacIntyre et al., 2020).

A number of studies have been published since the beginning of the pandemic, but in those early days, there was not much published literature specifically examining experiences in the Higher Education (HE) sector with COVID-19 (also see Johnson et al., 2020). The early research conducted about “digital capabilities in HE has focused on the skills and experiences of students with little emphasis on teaching staff, therefore leaving a gap in need of filling at a fast pace, given the unprecedented scenario” (Munday 2021, p. 64). The move from face-to-face to online, required preparation and planning to ensure that time would not be wasted, and that every aspect of the experience would be considered and addressed (Cunico, 2021). Yet, time was something practitioners did not have. Systematic planning and preparation, based on current theories and practices, was not possible under the circumstances. Many language practitioners, without any point of reference, tried to do their best to cope with the new situation (Feldman, 2021, p.40)

This chapter describes the experience of a French language instructor and 22 students when lessons shifted online. Without any guidelines to follow, the language instructor documented and addressed the issues raised in those early days on emergency remote teaching. The chapter reports the difficulties that occurred, and the action plan the instructor followed in order to cope with this unprecedented situation. At the end of this endeavor, the students’ attitudes and opinions were also documented. Results from data underline the importance of adaptability and maintaining a positive attitude in times of crisis and stress the fact that more targeted teacher training is necessary.