The coping of academic staff with an extreme situation: The transition from conventional teaching to online teaching

The emergence of the COVID-19 virus has generated the greatest worldwide disruption of education systems (among others) in generations. In Israel, from the beginning of the pandemic, all universities and colleges quickly adopted an online education system, while the other educational systems did similarly, in part or in full. This study examines the impact of the involuntary immersion of students and instructors into digital learning environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic – the impact on the pedagogical practices, pedagogical conceptions, and inclinations toward pedagogical change of university and college instructors during the “Corona Related Teaching Situation” (CRTS). Our research followed a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative with quantitative components. The explanatory design is a two-phase mixed methods–approach design, which began with the collection and analysis of quantitative data and was followed by the subsequent collection and analysis of qualitative data. The current report places special emphasis on the qualitative components of the research. The major contribution of this article is the development of a typology based on a conceptual model that allows for the identification of three teacher profiles that emerged during the CRTS: Experienced teachers, Enthusiastic teachers, and Cautious teachers. The study found that the main variable affecting a teacher’s fit into one of these profiles is the level of digital literacy before the crisis. Our typology can be applied to different crisis situations and can be useful for the training and development of university teachers in the field of digital literacy.