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

Konrad Kulikowski,Łukasz Sułkowski,Sylwia Przytuła

doi:10.3390/su13052752

Konrad Kulikowski, Łukasz Sułkowski + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052752

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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.

Highlights

The Covid-19 pandemic is leading to transformations on a global scale that span a wide spectrum of social, economic, and cultural change [1]
We suggest that the academic attitudes towards e-learning might moderate the relationships between motivating job potential and academic teachers’ engagement, satisfaction, and exhaustion
Our results provide some initial evidence that during the pandemic-forced e-learning, many teachers might perceive their motivating job potential as lower than before

Summary

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic is leading to transformations on a global scale that span a wide spectrum of social, economic, and cultural change [1]. The key change is the very fast virtualization of the didactic process, which is manifested by the implementation of e-learning on a large, unprecedented scale [2]. There has been a rapid, broad need for “learning of e-learning” by faculty, students, and university administration [3]. This is challenging because e-learning in higher education was often marginal in relation to contact learning before the pandemic [4]. Higher education has a critical role to play in leading the society towards a more sustainable way of life [5].

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