Development Speeded up by Necessity : The Future of Higher Education and Academic Work Online

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic impact on our lives and living. In higher education, it led to a swift shift from on-campus to online education resulting in practices of emergency remote teaching through virtual classrooms. In this project, we seek to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities that this abrupt, enforced change to online education entailed for faculty and students in Sweden and Finland. We aim to examine the evolution of online work and study practices, their impact on the teaching and learning environment, and new expectations imposed on the faculty and students. Our goal is to enhance the theoretical understanding of e-learning, developing guidelines on how to make online education effective, exploring the impact of pandemics on the future of higher education.