2023 Faculty and Technology Report: A First Look at Teaching Preferences since the Pandemic

Published:: Monday, August 21, 2023
: Briefs, Case Studies, Papers, Reports

Author(s) and Contributors:: Author(s): Nicole Muscanell

Source(s) and Collection(s):: Sources(s): EDUCAUSE Research Collection(s): Faculty and Technology Studies Research Hub Research Report

ParentTopics:: Accessibility Digital and Web Accessibility Digital Learning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Faculty Development Hybrid Learning Instructional Design Instructional Technologies Learning Environments Online Course Development Planning Online Learning Online Teaching Strategies Organizational Issues, Teaching and Learning Teaching and Learning

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This is the first faculty research conducted by EDUCAUSE since 2019. Since then, the higher education landscape has been through a lot, including COVID-19, fluctuations in enrollment and public funding, and the rapid adoption of multiple instructional modalities and new technologies. In this report, we describe the findings of the research in four key areas:

Modality preferences and the impacts of teaching in non-preferred modes
Experiences teaching online and hybrid courses
Technology and digital availability of course components
Types of support needed and utilized for teaching

Read the Introduction >

Modality Preferences

While there has been a shift in modality preferences, the overall pattern remains similar to pre-pandemic findings—the most preferred mode of teaching is still on-site, and the least preferred is online.

Online and Hybrid Teaching

Chart showing how previous experiences teaching online and hybrid influence modality preferences: preferences have not changed (36%), stronger desire to teach online and hybrid (35%), less desire to teach online and hybrid (24%), and don’t know (4%).

We asked faculty how their prior experiences teaching online or hybrid courses influenced their current modality preferences. For the most part, respondents were split between no change and an increase, with slightly fewer faculty saying their desire to teach online or hybrid courses has decreased.

Learn more about online and hybrid teaching >

Technology Experiences and Digital Access to Course Components

Chart showing course components that faculty prefer to make available online. Those most commonly reported (by between 85% and 79% of respondents) were presentation slides, homework assignments, required readings, class handouts, and video. Between 62% and 43%: office hours, recorded lectures, lecture notes, quizzes, shared documents, style guides, discussions, exams, and audio. Between 27% and 14%: group activities, interactive engagement with content, and peer tutors.

Regardless of modality, faculty put many components of their courses online.

Instructional Supports

Chart showing the top two supports in each of three categories: Instructional support (prep time, 92%, and design support, 68%), Technological support (online instructional technology, 76%, and on-campus instructional technology, 69%), and Networking support (with faculty in my discipline at my institution, 71%, and with faculty teaching same mode at my institution, 64%).

Prep time and online instructional technology are the most important supports for teaching.

Recommendations

We asked faculty what their institution could do to better support their teaching across multiple modalities. In their open-ended comments, they identified ten areas for improvement.

Read the recommendations >

Read the Report