COVID-19 Educator Survey (Full Report)

5. Discussion For many of our respondents, the transition to online learning, teaching and training may not be a temporary response to the emergency crisis, but could lead to a shift towards permanent digitalisation of higher education and adult training. Over 70% of the adult educators think that delivering teaching, assessment, and training related work online is the future of higher education, continuing education and lifelong learning. Unlike educators from other countries (e.g., Watermeyer, Crick, Knight and Goodall, 2020), our respondents from Singapore tended to be more positive in rating the impact of this online transition due to COVID-19 on their work, learning outcomes, learner wellbeing as well as their own health and well-being.

Online education and training is seen to provide enhanced accessibility for learners, support learners in developing digital skills as well as the knowledge and skills needed for employment in an increasingly globalised labour market. The advantages of online migration are also seen in the potential costaffordances and the generally non-negative impact on effectiveness of such provisions, although some voiced concerns about technology fatigue and growing reservations about its side effects. Still, the overall optimism bodes well for the HE and TAE sectors in Singapore, with its advanced digital infrastructure and the centrality of its policy focus on skills towards a digital future that supports learners and workers to emerge stronger from the pandemic.

Along with the overall positive sentiments, the online migration is viewed by majority of our respondents as a call for paradigm-change in education. They describe the physical lock-downs caused by COVID-19 as providing an opportunity for pedagogical experimentation and innovation, and professional growth among educators. It is perceived as a positive interruption and turning point away from traditional methods. Our results showed that educators have been proactive in adjusting to changing needs, ensuring learning continuity, and have at the same time tried to protect the learning experience and learning outcome: “Due to the COVID-19 situation, we teachers have transformed our teaching methods without compromising on the quality and delivery of knowledge disseminated to our students. Online teaching has opened up new avenues to improvise our teaching and made it an exciting challenge that motivates us to re-invent ourselves for a better tomorrow.”

While adult educators were cautiously optimistic about their job prospects, there was also the fear that those who fail to make the necessary digital leap to keep up with this shift within the sector will be left behind. We find that the accelerated digitalisation caused by COVID-19 is seen as reshaping rather than replacing educators’ roles. In such terms, respondents expressed the need for professional development in the design, development and assessment of online learning as a core component for continuing improvement. In addition to attending formal, professional development programmes, adult educators also reported receiving support at the community level as particularly helpful, such as mentoring and peer support. They also conducted self-directed informal learning through webinars and online platforms to learn the best practices for online learning and then applying it to their own teaching and training.

(Cedefop, 2020; Kimenyi et al., 2020; OECD, 2020a; ILO-UNESCO-WBG, 2020). Moreover, organisational support is crucial to recognise the time commitment and increased workload of having to learn unfamiliar pedagogies and technologies. There was also an urgent need for opportunities for 36