The Motivation of Academics in Remote Teaching during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Polish Universities—Opening the Debate on a New Equilibrium in e-Learning

Abstract

Online learning helps to continue education in the face of Covid-19 lockdowns and social isolation, but it might largely change characteristics of academic teachers’ jobs and, thus, have some unintended consequences for teachers’ motivating job potential. In this study, using a convenience sample of 202 academic teachers, we tested and supported the hypothesis that academic teachers perceived their motivating job potential as lower during the forced Covid-19 e-learning than before it. We also provided evidence that motivating potential of work during the forced Covid-19 e-learning is associated with work engagement and job satisfaction. Moreover, we provided a modicum of evidence that the relationship between the motivating job potential and academic teachers’ job satisfaction might be moderated by teachers’ assessment of university management actions during the Covid-19 situation, such that this association seems to be stronger among teachers who more positively assess university management. Our results provided initial evidence of possible unintended consequences of the pandemic-forced e-learning for academic teachers. Therefore, we suggested that socially sustainable e-learning required not only concentration on students and organizations of the education process but also on improving the teachers’ motivating job potential.

Conditions and Determinants of Distance Education for Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Evaluation in the Kuyavia-Pomerania Region in Poland

“…A Spanish study confirmed that the utilisation of online repositories and interactive videos results in increased student engagement and encourages active learning [34]. Socially sustainable e-learning requires a focus on both learners and the organisation and on improving teachers' motivational potential [35].…”

Moving Teaching Online: Cultural Barriers Experienced by University Teachers During Covid-19

“…Second, many teaching staff, for whom remote and online teaching was a new experience, had to learn how to teach in unfamiliar ways, which reduced job motivation (Kulikowski, Przytuła and Sułkowski 2021). However, there were limited resources available to support them in learning how to teach online within a short timescale.…”

Lessons in the Use of Technology for Science Education during COVID-19 Age under a Teachers’ Collaboration Cluster

“…The rapid transition soon hit another critical element, the social impact of sustaining such demanding changes [26]. The low support to teachers from educational institutions quickly left them feeling alone with different teaching tasks and unable to meet the challenge [27].…”

“…Many academics still took the challenge without realizing the necessary effort to provide an effective learning experience for their students [26] in terms of design, technological dominion, continuous assessment, and diversified input channels. As part of our first research objective, we learned from the low plot in Figure 4, that such increasing diversification and dominion was settled through time and experience, being additionally transferred to similar areas by recommendation due to the collaboration cluster.…”