Cultivating a culture of experimentation in higher-education teaching and learning E-Book

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung Jg. 16
• Sprache: Deutsch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 259

Beschreibung

As indicated by the diversity of the authors' physical locations, COVID and emergency-remote teaching affected Higher-Education-Institutions at a nearly global scale. Authors in this issue come from European countries (Switzerland, Germany), North America (the USA) as well as the southern hemisphere (South Africa). Given the breadth of COVID-related (change) experiences, the insights presented in this issue can be relevant to many HEIs across the globe, notwithstanding their cultural and institutional specificities. In addition, and of high relevance to us, the articles collected here focus both on different positions or roles (students, faculty, management) as well as on different levels of teaching and learning in higher education. While most contributions focus on the student experience during COVID, others investigate faculty/instructors' perspectives including faculty development. Yet another group takes a more systemic, institutional point of view. It could be argued that higher-education research takes up a multi-level perspective when exploring change and the new normal.

Leseprobe

Vorwort

Als wissenschaftliches Publikationsorgan des Vereins Forum Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria kommt der Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung besondere Bedeutung zu. Zum einen, weil sie aktuelle Themen der Hochschulentwicklung in den Bereichen Studien und Lehre aufgreift und somit als deutschsprachige, vor allem aber auch österreichische Plattform zum Austausch für Wissenschafter/innen, Praktiker/innen, Hochschulentwickler/innen und Hochschuldidaktiker/innen dient. Zum anderen, weil die ZFHE als Open-Access-Zeitschrift konzipiert und daher für alle Interessierten als elektronische Publikation frei und kostenlos verfügbar ist.

Ca. 3.000 Besucher/innen schauen sich im Monat die Inhalte der Zeitschrift an. Das zeigt die hohe Beliebtheit und Qualität der Zeitschrift sowie auch die große Reichweite im deutschsprachigen Raum. Gleichzeitig hat sich die Zeitschrift mittlerweile einen fixen Platz unter den gern gelesenen deutschsprachigen Wissenschaftspublikationen gesichert.

Dieser Erfolg ist einerseits dem international besetzten Editorial Board sowie den wechselnden Herausgeberinnen und Herausgebern zu verdanken, die mit viel Engagement dafür sorgen, dass jährlich mindestens vier Ausgaben erscheinen. Andererseits gewährleistet das österreichische Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Wirtschaft durch seine kontinuierliche Förderung das langfristige Bestehen der Zeitschrift. Im Wissen, dass es die Zeitschrift ohne diese finanzielle Unterstützung nicht gäbe, möchten wir uns dafür besonders herzlich bedanken.

Zur Ausgabe:Answering the question of effectiveness of educational interventions is no easy task for a multitude of reasons. The effectiveness of an intervention depends not only on the intervention itself but also, for example, on the target group, the available infrastructure, the current legislation, the time of implementation or the expertise of the teachers. This special issue shows the diversity in the goals pursued and the interventions used to achieve them. It also shows methodological differences in effectiveness research and argues the need for nuanced interpretation and for explicitly considering the context for the intervention.

Seit der Ausgabe 9/3 ist die ZFHE auch in gedruckter Form erhältlich und beispielsweise über Amazon beziehbar. Als Verein Forum Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria freuen wir uns, das Thema „Hochschulentwicklung“ durch diese gelungene Ergänzung zur elektronischen Publikation noch breiter in der wissenschaftlichen Community verankern zu können.

In diesem Sinn wünschen wir Ihnen viel Freude bei der Lektüre der vorliegenden Ausgabe!

Martin Ebner und Hans-Peter SteinbacherPräsidenten des Vereins Forum Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria

Inhalt

Vorwort

Editorial: Cultivating a culture of experimentation in higher-education teaching and learning: Evaluation of recent experiences and transfer to the new-normal

Robert Kordts, Dietrich Wagner, Claudio Sidler, Karen Tinsner-Fuchs, Bernadette Dilger, Taiga Brahm

COVID-19 as a prime driver of rapid technological experimentation in highereducation teaching and learning: An overview of reviewsChaka Chaka

1 Introduction

2 Situating issues

3 Methods

3.1 Planning

3.2 Selection

3.3 Extraction

3.4 Execution

4 Findings

4.1 Distribution of articles by authors’ countries and years of publication

4.2 Review types, databases, research designs, and sample size(s)

4.3 Disciplines and subject areas, and reported online technologies used

4.4 Major Themes

4.5 Main findings and key conclusions

5 Discussion and conclusion

5.1 Limitations and implications

6 References

Being a first-year student during the COVID-19 pandemicRonja Büker, Tobias Jenert

1 Introduction

2 Self-efficacy as a core resource for beginning students

3 Present study

3.1 Research question and hypothesis

3.2 The intervention

4 Method

4.1 Participants and Procedure

4.2 Measures and Analysis

5 Results

5.1 Descriptive Analysis

5.2 General mean differences

5.3 Latent class analysis

5.4 Intervention effects in the two student sub-groups

6 Discussion and conclusion

6.1 Limitations

6.2 Future research avenues and implications

7 References

Under Construction – Zum Umbau von Praxisarchitekturen des Lehrens und Lernens in pandemischen ZeitenLaura K. Otto, Anna Wanka

1 Einleitung

2 Theoretische Perspektive

3 Methode

4 Ergebnisse

4.1 Räumlich-zeitliche Verteilung von Lern- und Lehrpraktiken

4.2 Soziale Verteilung von Lern- und Lehrpraktiken

5 Diskussion

6 Literaturverzeichnis

Student eCoaches are successful Change AgentsThomas Tribelhorn, Roman Suter, Sevgi Isaak

1 Que sera, sera ...

1.1 Conditions for experimentation and change

1.2 Reverse Mentoring

1.3 Change Agents

2 Intervention

2.1 Training eCoaches

2.2 Innovative Learning Scenarios

3 Evaluation

3.1 Method

3.2 Results

3.2.1 Training

3.2.2 Collaboration

3.3.3 Organisation

4 ... the future is ours to see

4.1 Conclusions

4.2 Perspectives

4.3 Outcome and next steps

5 References

The skills debate in the context of a pandemic: Are students prepared for the workplace?Ruth Puhr

1 Introduction

2 Theoretical Perspective

2.1 Employability: A politicised term

2.1.1 Work readiness: An alternative to employability

2.2 Skills, competences and competencies

2.2.1 Competency frameworks

2.3 The hospitality management context

3 Research design and methods

3.1 An intrinsic case study

3.2 A mixed methods strategy

4 Analysis: Findings and discussion

4.1 RQ1: Which concepts and terminologies represent student preparedness for the workplace?

4.2 RQ2: What role do skills and competencies play in preparing students for the workplace?

4.3 RQ3: What other factors contribute to student perceptions of preparedness for the workplace?

4.3.1 The emergence of capabilities

4.3.2 Capabilities and WIL

5 Conclusion, limitations, recommendations and implications for further research

6 References

Der Einfluss von Lehr-Einstellungen und digitalen Kompetenzen auf die virtuelle LehreMichael Eichhorn, Alexander Tillmann, Hendrik Drachsler

1 Einleitung

2 Fragestellungen

2.1 Hypothesen

3 Methodisches Vorgehen

4 Ergebnisse

4.1 Einfluss der Lehr-Lern-Einstellungen auf den Einsatz von Lehraktivitäten

4.2 Lehr-Lern-Einstellungen und digitale Kompetenzen

4.3 Einfl uss der digitalen Kompetenzen der Lehrenden auf die Gestaltung virtueller Hochschullehre

5 Diskussion und Fazit

6 Literaturverzeichnis

Applying trauma-informed pedagogy to faculty development in times of crisis and uncertaintyRachel Plews, Laura Zizka

1 Contextual background

2 Bringing a trauma-informed approach to educational development

2.1 A workshop for the Swiss Faculty Development Network

2.2 Discussion & considerations

2.2.1 Principle one: Physical, emotional, social, and academic safety

2.2.2 Principle two: Trustworthiness and transparency

2.2.3 Principle three: Support and connection

2.2.4 Principle four: Collaboration and mutuality

2.2.5 Principle five: Empowerment, voice, and choice

2.2.6 Principle six: Social justice

2.2.7 Principle seven: Resilience, growth, and change

3 Reflections from the facilitators

4 Conclusions

5 References

Möglichkeitsräume an Hochschulen post Corona experimentell gestaltenJennifer Blank, Sonja Sälzle, Linda Vogt, André Bleicher

1 Einleitung: Möglichkeitsräume in der Lehre während der Corona-Pandemie

2 Herausforderungen in der Lehre durch Handeln unter Unsicherheit

3 Die Rolle des Experimentierens

4 Dimensionen im Möglichkeitsraum als Experimentierfelder

5 Fazit

6 Literaturverzeichnis

Needs must when the devil drives — Migration of an entire university to digital teachingJulia Nitsche, Jan Smetana, Tonja Kochanek, Theresa S. Busse, Sven Kernbeck, Angelika, Taetz-Harrer, Michaela Zupanic, Mona Eulitz, Jan P. Ehlers

1 Introduction

2 Methods

2.1 Setting

2.2 Initiative

2.3 Evaluation

3 Results

3.1 Number of training courses and participation

3.2 Training courses by themes

3.3 Students perception of digital teaching

4 Discussion

5 References

Freie Beiträge

Interdisziplinäre HandlungsfähigkeitNicole Hermannsdörfer, Julia Priess-Buchheit

1 Einleitung

2 Herausforderungen interdisziplinärer Zusammenarbeit

3 Erwerb interdisziplinärer Handlungsfähigkeit in vier Modulen

3.1 Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven: Interdisziplinarität kennen und verstehen

3.2 Interdisziplinäres Projekt: Interdisziplinäre Interaktionskompetenz ausbilden – Professionswissen im interdisziplinären Zusammenhang nutzen

3.3 Interdisziplinäre Profilierung: Reflexionskompetenz fördern – gesellschaftlich verantwortliches Handeln anstoßen

4 Diskussion

5 Literaturverzeichnis

„Evidenz“, was meinen Sie damit? — Eine Interviewstudie zum Verständnis von Hochschullehrenden vom EvidenzbegriffJonas Leschke, Nerea Vöing, Martin Daumiller

1 Einleitung

2 Evidenz in der Hochschuldidaktik und -lehre

3 Forschungsdesign

4 Kategorien zum Begriff der Evidenz

5 Evidenz in den Fachkulturen

6 Implikationen für die Hochschuldidaktik

7 Literaturverzeichnis

Robert KORDTS1 (Bergen), Dietrich WAGNER (St. Gallen), Claudio SIDLER (St. Gallen), Karen TINSNER-FUCHS (St. Gallen), Bernadette DILGER (St. Gallen) & Taiga BRAHM (Tübingen)

Editorial: Cultivating a culture of experimentation in higher-education teaching and learning: Evaluation of recent experiences and transfer to the new-normal

Thematic Introduction

In 2020, higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide had to shift to emergency-remote teaching due to the COVID-pandemic (ERT, HODGES, MOORE, LOCKEE, TRUST & BOND, 2020), which has stimulated research on higher education teaching and learning like few situations before. This by itself is already an interesting fi nding, since teaching and learning at HEIs has not always been in the focus of researchers’ interest.

Before making any bold statements on how long or durable the changes might be in the future, we suggest looking deeper into conditions of such change and possible longerterm amendments in higher education teaching and learning. In our view, it is necessary to further develop the teaching and learning cultures within HEIs for change to become persistent. Defi ning teaching-and-learning cultures as SCHEIN (1990) and others did, the cultural approach especially focuses on every day, normal behavior and artifacts and their relations to deep convictions and beliefs (cf. ALVESSON, 2002).

In our view, the cultural approach is appropriate here because of three reasons:

First, this perspective is best suited to explain long-term changes in institutions. Adopted by research in the fi eld of business administration and change management, it can explain factors relevant to both successful as well as non-successful long-term

change efforts. Second, the cultural perspective considers the often-complex conditions in teaching and learning institutions, including strong traditions surrounding teaching and learning, both across, but especially within disciplines (e.g., JENERT, 2014), the organizational and managerial peculiarities of educational institutions, the technological conditions, the sociological peculiarities as well as the psychological specifics of the people involved. This analysis, often based on a multi-method approach, thus, offers deeper insights into how processes and structures change.

And third, instead of viewing the COVID-induced crisis as the potential origin of possible long-term changes in higher-education teaching and learning, the cultural approach considers this rather as a catalyst of change. This way, it considers the complex cultural conditions like different cultures’ coherence and content prior to the emergency state of remote teaching.

Hence, we invite you to adopt a cultural perspective on the recent changes in higher education teaching and learning when reading the following contributions. When doing so, it might be useful to distinguish a cultural quantity dimension – relating to the number of underlying convictions and values changed – from a quality dimension – relating to the content of the new normal such as the higher acceptance of digital teaching, changed role expectations such as power shifts caused by the online format, and the role of experimentation in teaching.

The nine articles in the special issue highlight two main issues related to the pandemic-induced experimentation in teaching and learning:

As indicated by the diversity of the authors’ physical locations, COVID and emergency-remote teaching affected HEIs at a nearly global scale. Authors in this issue come from European countries (Switzerland, Germany), North America (the USA) as well as the southern hemisphere (South Africa). Given the breadth of COVID-related (change) experiences, the insights presented in this issue can be relevant to many HEIs across the globe, notwithstanding their cultural and institutional specificities. In addition, and of high relevance to us, the articles collected here focus both on different positions or roles (students, faculty, management) as well as on different levels of teaching and learning in higher education (teaching and learning, curricular or institutional levels, cf. BRAHM, JENERT & EULER, 2016). While most contributions focus on the student experience during COVID, others investigate faculty/instructors’ perspectives including faculty development. Yet another group takes a more systemic, institutional point of view. It could be argued that higher-education research takes up a multi-level perspective when exploring change and the new normal.

The opportunities to go further in these topics were offered by hosting the 2021 annual conference of the Swiss Faculty Development Network (SFDN) as well as by editing the conference-related special issue that you are currently reading. With both outlets, we aimed at exploring what it can mean to cultivate a culture of experimentation not just within a crisis, but also beyond.

Overview of contributions

Chaka Chaka opens the special issue with an overview over 18 reviews related to COVID-19 as a driver for change in higher-education teaching and learning. In addition to highlighting some of the technological aspects of the current (2020–21) pandemic-induced online teaching, the research paper indicates the importance of the variety of topics and themes, for this specific situation, including challenges and quality aspects of (virtual) teaching. Many of these are, of course, relevant beyond the COVID-pandemic.

The following four articles focus the students’ experiences and their view related to the COVID-induced online teaching.

In the article by Ronja Büker and Tobias Jenert, the focus is on first-year students and their challenges during their transition to university, especially in the light of the pandemic-induced online teaching. The authors developed a short intervention that includes positive self-verbalization to reduce students’ anxiety and enhance their self-efficacy. Conducted as an experimental-control group study with a pre- and post-test, data indicate that for the class with lower self-efficacy, the intervention resulted in an increase of students’ self-efficacy over time. The study therefore gives evidence to important challenges that students experience during the pandemic as well as ways how to deal with them on an institutional level.

Laura Otto and Anna Wanka explore – through a mixed-methods study – how teaching and learning have changed among students during the pandemic. The study, done within social sciences and humanities programs at a German university, indicates that the university largely has lost its function of structuring learning. In addition to the loss of time and space frames of learning, virtual teaching and learning has reduced opportunities of learning together with other students and of being in contact with their instructors. Interestingly and importantly for the issue’s theme, the authors dare to predict some medium- and long-term consequences of the pandemic, for higher-education teaching and learning.

Taking up a different perspective on students’ roles, Thomas Tribelhorn, Roman Suter and Sevgi Isaak explore the value of student ecoaches as change agents. The research paper investigates this implementation of a reverse mentoring scheme in higher education at a Swiss university. Results stress the importance of cooperation and ability for success, in addition to organizational matters. The authors derive conclusions regarding this kind of unusual cooperation between students and teachers, thereby developing ideas for future experimentation with higher-education teaching and learning.

Ruth Puhr examines the impact that the COVID pandemic might have for the workplace preparation of hospitality-management students – a field that was hit especially hard by the pandemic. Based on a theoretical discussion of the two concepts, she argues for replacing the concept of employability by work readiness. Following the discussion, job profiles and responsibilities may be changing too rapidly so that the former concept could be questioned. In a mixed-methods study, the author surveys students’ views on these concepts and investigates factors that may have a positive effect on the development of work readiness.

The two following contributions add on the student perspective by focusing on the faculty or higher-education instructors during and related to the pandemic.

In their research paper, Michael Eichhorn, Alexander Tillmann and Hendrik Drachsler apply an almost classic topic, higher-education teachers’ approaches to teaching, to digital teaching. The quantitative study design and statistical analyses is based on data from about 300 higher-education teachers at a German university. Although the study was done in the high time of the pandemic-induced virtual teaching (summer 2020), their results are important beyond current conditions: The finding that, for instance, student-oriented instructors seem to better adapt to the crisis by using a greater variety of teaching methods has direct relevance for future university teaching.

Taking the crisis in pandemic seriously, Rachel Plews and Laura Zizka introduce, in their workshop report, a trauma-informed approach to faculty development in and during the pandemic. The authors describe a workshop held at the 2021 SFDN conference that was based on seven principles of trauma-informed work with higher-education instructors. In addition to this relatively new approach, they offer insights produced by the workshop participants, connected to their experiences with this and similar approaches during the pandemic, many of which could be connected to principles of good practice in faculty development.

The final two contributions take a more systemic, institutional perspective.

Jennifer Blank, Sonja Sälzle, Linda Vogt and André Bleicher explore opportunities in higher-education institutions post-COVID. Based on a discussion of Luhmann’s terms contingency and possibility space, the report describes results of a series of interviews and focus groups with teachers, students, and university management. Building on the main findings of acting under uncertainty, especially concerning the first weeks of emergency-remote teaching, the authors develop institutional recommendations for arranging areas of experimentation in higher education post pandemic.

Julia Nitsche and colleagues analyze the change that their university executed due to the COVID-pandemic in a research paper. In addition to describing and theorizing about the change process on the institutional level, the authors use data from facultysupport or faculty development sessions, combined with responses from student surveys on their perception of the digital teaching. Intriguingly, both data sets indicate a need for systematic development of teaching competences, which seems to be one of the main conclusions of experiences with teaching online at many places.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all authors who contributed to this issue – especially since conditions have not always been conducive to scientific work including data collection, analysis, writing, etc. The issue’s theme and content were strongly influenced by the 2021 SFDN conference, so our thanks are extended to this conference’s participants and the SFDN board. Special thanks go to the ZFHE editorial board and to the ever-supportive ZFHE editorial team.

Robert Kordts et al.

References

Alvesson, M. (2002). Understanding organisational culture. London, UK: Sage.

Brahm, T., Jenert, T. & Euler, D. (2016). Pädagogische Hochschulentwicklung als Motor für die Qualitätsentwicklung von Studium und Lehre [Pedagogical higher-educational development as motor for the quality development in teaching and learning]. In T. Brahm, T. Jenert & D. Euler (eds.), Pädagogische Hochschulentwicklung. Von der Programmatik zur Implementierung (pp. 19–36). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Hodges, C. B., Moore, S., Lockee, B. B., Trust, T. & Bond, M. A. (2020). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning

Jenert, T. (2014). Implementing Outcome Oriented Study Programmes at University: The Challenge of Academic Culture. Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung (ZFHE), 9(2), 1–12.

Schein, E. H. (1990). Organizational culture. American Psychologist, 45(2), 109– 119.

Authors

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Robert KORDTS || University of Bergen, Department of Education || Postboks 7897, N-5020 Bergen

https://www.uib.no/en/persons/Robert.Kordts

[email protected]

Dr. Dietrich WAGNER || University of St. Gallen, Institute of Business Education and Educational Management || Dufourstrasse 40a, CH-9000 St.Gallen

https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/persons/6150

[email protected]

Claudio SIDLER || University of St. Gallen, Institute of Business Education and Educational Management || Dufourstrasse 40a, CH-9000 St.Gallen

https://iwp.unisg.ch/de/personenverzeichnis/359e6d75-7934-47b1-81c3-9db6d1e5dd8b

[email protected]

Dr. Karen TINSNER-FUCHS || University of St. Gallen, Quality Development || Tellstrasse 2, CH-9000 St.Gallen

https://www.unisg.ch/en/personenverzeichnis/22707f88-ea95-4520-b7dc-c0a5deafe09f

[email protected]

Prof. Dr. Bernadette DILGER || University of St. Gallen, Institute of Business Education and Educational Management || Dufourstrasse 40a, CH-9000 St.Gallen

https://iwp.unisg.ch/de/personenverzeichnis/0b87ab62-95a5-4932-b460-ab6fe5717210

[email protected]

Prof. Dr. Taiga BRAHM || Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences || Melanchthonstraße 30, D-72074 Tübingen

https://uni-tuebingen.de/de/87413

[email protected]

1 E-Mail: [email protected]

Editorial · DOI: 10.3217/zfhe-16-03/01

Chaka CHAKA2 (Pretoria)

COVID-19 as a prime driver of rapid technological experimentation in higher-education teaching and learning: An overview of reviews

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a new era of rapid scholarly publications (e. g., peer-reviewed journal articles and non-peer-reviewed preprints). Included among such publications are reviews and reviews of reviews, both of which take longer to publish under normal circumstances. This is more so for overviews. Therefore, the current overview reviewed 18 review articles published between March 2020 and March 2021. It did so by investigating online technologies for teaching and learning used by higher education institutions (HEIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and by examining major themes, main fi ndings, key conclusions, and other characteristics of these 18 reviews. One of its fi ndings is that online pivoting tends to signal a necessary change and innovation embraced by HEIs during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a pandemic technological change and innovation that underpins their SoTL.

Keywords

overview, COVID-19, higher education, online technologies, characteristics

1 Introduction

When the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) broke out in Wuhan, in China, in December 2019, and was subsequently declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) early in 2020 (CHAKA, 2020; ROMLI et al., 2020; SOHRABI et al., 2020; WHO, 2020), it became an overnight game-changer in many spheres of human life. Among these several spheres affected by COVID-19 is higher education (HE). Within the HE sector, teaching and learning, scholarly research, and administration were among the most affected areas. In respect of teaching and learning, the concomitant campus closures in response to physical distancing were followed by a rapid transition from in-person classes to online classes, or in some cases, to emergency remote classes. This move was intended to ensure academic business continuity by universities world-wide, and varied both across countries and across universities (TADESSE & MULUYE, 2020; TALIB, BETTAYEB & OMER, 2021).

As the paper focuses on technological experimentation in teaching and learning in the HE sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, both online and emergency teaching need briefly defining. Online teaching is a web-driven e-learning traditionally used for distance learning purposes. It is mostly deployed as an intentional and wellplanned strategy embedded in and operationalized as part of institutional curriculum and pedagogy. In this context, emergency remote teaching (ERT) is a rapid form of teaching implemented with bare minimum resources, often resulting in poor outcomes (BATES, 2015, 2020; CHAKA, 2020; HODGES et al., 2020). Both online and emergency remote teaching as adopted by most higher education institutions (HEIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic serve as an instance of technological experimentation that took place during this period. They, then, temporarily became modes of teaching and learning with which most HEIs experimented so as to maintain their academic business continuity during this period.

In this regard, this paper sets out to investigate instances of technological experimentation related to online technologies for teaching and learning used by HEIs during the COVID-19 pandemic. It does so by providing an overview of 18 review articles published during the pandemic period, from March 2020 to March 2021. Primarily, it examines major themes, main findings, key conclusions, and other characteristics of these 18 review studies.

2 Situating issues

Overviews of reviews are conducted to investigate issues raised by or related to reviews of primary studies. In this case, they can examine reviews; literature reviews; scoping reviews; rapid reviews; narrative reviews; synthesis reviews; critical reviews; systematic reviews; systematic literature reviews; or meta-analyses. As overviews focus on second-order publications, publications that investigated primary studies, their primary units of analysis are aspects or characteristics of those secondary publications (KIM et al., 2018; PARÉ et al., 2015; ROMLI et al., 2020). However, PIEPER et al. (2012) maintain that there is no standard definition of overviews and that as a genre, overviews are often not definitively defined whenever they are employed.

Some of the benefits of conducting overviews include: formulating research problems of different reviews in broader terms; harnessing, integrating, or aggregating findings of several review studies; delineating trends emerging from multiple reviews; identifying gaps in current reviews; and broadening the knowledge base of existing reviews. Nevertheless, overviews have shortcomings. Among these shortcomings are a lack of methodological credibility, bias, out-datedness, and a lack of uniform reporting guidelines (PIEPER et al., 2012; POLANIN, MAYNARD & DELL, 2016).

3 Methods

As a relatively emerging genre for investigating characteristics of second-order studies, overviews do not yet have universally established guidelines undergirding them as is the case with established genres such as synthesis reviews, systematic reviews, systematic literature reviews, or meta-analyses. As such, they utilize the research protocols and some of the reporting guidelines applied by systematic reviews and systematic literature reviews (KIM et al., 2018; PARÉ et al., 2015; ROMLI et al., 2020). They also employ the search procedures recommended by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement (MOHER et al., 2009; ROMLI et al., 2020). One tool used to assess the quality of systematic reviews is A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2) tool (GATES et al., 2018; SHEA et al., 2017).

Based on the foregoing points, the current overview utilized PRISMA, and adapted and used some of the elements of AMSTAR 2. Additionally, it employed variations of search and identification strategies commonly used by systematic literature reviews. It, then, followed four phases in its data search and data collection process: planning; selection; extraction; and execution (OKOLI, 2015).

3.1 Planning

This phase consisted of three stages: establishing the purpose of the current over-view, identifying the characteristics of the 18 review studies, and formulating research questions. The purpose of the present overview was: to identify online technologies for teaching and learning and the major themes (characteristics) related to HE in the 18 selected review articles; and to integrate and synthesize the main findings and the key conclusions of these reviews (see Table 1).

Table 1: Characteristics of the eighteen review studies

Eleven key characteristics investigated in each review study

Author(s) and year of publication

Discipline(s)/Subject area(s)

Country

Online/digital technologies used for teaching and learning in HE during COVID-19

Review type

Major themes

Databases

Main findings

Research design

Key conclusions)

Sample

size(s)

The overview, then, formulated the following research questions (RQs).

RQ 1: What are research designs and sample sizes employed by 18 review studies?

RQ 2: What types of online technologies are used as part of technological experimentation for teaching and learning during COVID-19 in the HE sector as reported by these review studies?

RQ 3: Do the major themes, main findings, and key conclusions of these review studies reflect any change and innovation for HE teaching and learning?

3.2 Selection

Four stages comprised this phase of the overview: identifying keywords; identifying databases; inclusion/exclusion criteria; and searching for and selecting studies. Search keywords were selected according to the title, the focus, and the purpose of the overview. To this end, strings of keywords were created and queried in keeping with the respective databases used as exemplified below:

Google search engine: review AND Covid-19 AND higher education AND online technologies AND teaching and learning

Microsoft Academic: (review) AND (Covid-19) AND (higher education) AND (online technologies) AND (teaching and learning)

Scopus: “review” OR “Covid-19” OR “higher education” OR “online” OR “digital” OR “virtual” OR “e-Learning” OR “e-learning” OR “technologies”

These keyword strings were combined with the three Boolean search commands, AND, OR and NOT. Where applicable, keywords were enclosed in parentheses and double quotations marks. In addition, different iterations of these keywords were used, and in other instances, these keywords were replaced with their equivalents.

Fourteen databases, which comprised an online search engine and an academic social networking platform, were identified and used for purposes of searching for review articles. These were: Google; Google Scholar; Microsoft Academic; Semantic Scholar; ERIC; IEEE Xplore; JSTOR; ProQuest; ScienceDirect; Scopus; Springer-Link; Taylor & Francis Online; Wiley Online Library; and ResearchGate.

Table 2: Inclusion/Exclusion criteria

Criteria

Inclusion

Exclusion

Time period

Reviews published between 2020 and March 2021

Reviews not published between 2020 and March 2021

Types of articles

Reviews published in peer-reviewed journals

Reviews not published in peer-reviewed journals (e.g., preprints)

Databases

Use of at least one bibliographic dotobose

No use of any bibliographic database

Content and focus of articles

Reviews whose focus is on the use of online/digital technologies for teachingand learning in HE as a result of COVID-19

Reviews focusing on the use of online/digital technologies for teaching and learning in HE, but which use has not been occasioned by COVID-19

Language of publication

Reviews published in English

Reviews not published in English

After the two stages mentioned above had been completed, inclusion/exclusion criteria were developed (see Table 2). Then, the search and selection of candidate articles was conducted. The search was conducted between 30 January 2021 and 31 March 2021. This search was informed by and based on the keyword strings mentioned above, and was carried out on the 14 aforesaid databases. Several queries run on these databases, together with bespoke ancestry searches, returned a total of 2,200 articles. In the end, 18 articles were judged as relevant and were retained after those not meeting the review criteria had been excluded (see Figure 1). Any ensuing disagreements were resolved through consensus.

Figure 1: PRISMA flowchart for screening articles

3.3 Extraction

The extraction phase consisted of assessing the quality of the included studies and a data extraction strategy. All the extracted articles were assessed to ensure that they met a methodological quality applicable to review articles. They were assessed according to composite criteria drawn from elements of three quality assessment tools: the study quality assessment tools (NATIONAL HEART, LUNG, AND BLOOD INSTITUTE, n.d.); the A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2) (GATES et al., 2018; SHEA et al., 2009); and KITCHENHAM et al.’s (2009) quality assessment questions. The composite criteria were 12 in total (see Table 3).

Table 3: Quality assessment questions (GATES et al., 2018; KITCHENHAM et al., 2009; NATIONAL HEART, LUNG, AND BLOOD INSTITUTE, n.d.; SHEA et al., 2009)

Quality assessment questions

1.

Is the review based on a focused question that is sufficiently formulated and described?

2.

Are eligibility criteria for included and excluded studies predefined and specified?

3.

Were three more electronic databases searched?

4.

Was a comprehensive literature search conducted?

5.

Is the sample size (e.g., the number of included publications) reported?

6.

Were titles, abstracts, and full-text articles collectively and independently reviewed for inclusion and exclusion to minimize bias?

7.

Are the review aims/purposes clearly stated?

8.

Was the status of publication (.e.g., peer-reviewed or grey literature) employed as an inclusion criterion?

9.

Was a list of reviewed publications (included and excluded) provided?

10.

Were the characteristics of the included publications provided?

11.

Was the quality of the included publications assessed and reported?

12.

Was the possibility of publication bias reported and assessed?

3.4 Execution