Teaching before, during and after the corona pandemic: challenges and opportunities

There was a nationwide ban on face-to-face teaching at tertiary level in Switzerland from 16 March to 8 June 2020 and from 2 November 2020 to 19 March 2021 due to the coronavirus lockdown. To ensure the continuity of teaching at professional education institutions, an immediate transition from conventional teaching to distance learning was necessary which required teachers to adapt their approach quickly and flexibly.

A female student studies online.
Adobe Stock/Vadim Pastuh

We explored the opportunities and risks of this transition and the necessary shift towards digitalisation in an initial study in 2020. We asked teachers at professional education institutions how they dealt with mandatory distance learning in spring 2020.

Based on this study, we are currently conducting another study on teachers’ experiences during the second phase of distance learning. Our second study focuses on whether and how teachers’ were able to draw on their experiences with digital forms of teaching from the first phase during the second phase of distance learning and what they incorporated into regular teaching. For this purpose, we conduct semi-structured interviews with teachers from professional education institutions. The knowledge obtained about the opportunities and risks of digital forms of teaching will support teachers and professional education institutions with the task of reforming teaching to make it fit for the future.

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