Enhancing Online Presence during the Sudden Transition to Online Teaching - Case Studies of Macau Award-Winning University Teachers' Practices and Phronesis

Oct 15, 2026

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Research about the sudden shift from offline to online in Macau during the pandemic remains limited. This study applies the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework as a deductive thematic analysis template to interview six award-winning teachers at a teaching-oriented tertiary institute about their online teaching practices across social, cognitive, and teaching presence. Findings from the collective case study indicate partial alignment with COI-recommended practices, while teachers’ applied skills reflect accumulated phronesis, aimed at caring for student learning amid uncertainty. The study innovates and extends COI as guidance for complex teaching contexts.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Pandemic-driven shift to online teaching

Macau context and local teaching challenges

Background and prior research at Macau Metropolitan Institute

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 48 Issue 5 | Article 5 | | --- | --- | | 2023
Enhancing Online Presence during the Sudden Transition to Online Teaching: Case Studies of Macau Award-Winning University Teachers' Practices and Phronesis
Yulong Marvin Li
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
Jing Sun
University of Macau
Hong Chen
City University of Macau
Xiaojing Liu
Beijing Normal University
Follow this and additional works at: [https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte)
Part of the Higher Education and Teaching Commons | | Recommended Citation Li, Y., Sun, J., Chen, H., & Liu, X. (2023) . Enhancing Online Presence during the Sudden Transition to Online Teaching: Case Studies of Macau Award-Winning University Teachers' Practices and Phronesis. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 48(5) . [https://doi.org/10.14221/1835-517X.6204](https://doi.org/10.14221/1835-517X.6204) [This Journal Article is posted at Research Online.](This Journal Article is posted at Research Online.)[ ](This Journal Article is posted at Research Online.)[https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol48/iss5/5](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol48/iss5/5) Enhancing Online Presence during the Sudden Transition to Online Teaching: Case Studies of Macau Award-Winning University Teachers' Practices and Phronesis Yulong Li The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China Jing Sun University of Macau, Macau Hong Chen City University of Macau, Macau Xiaojing Liu Beijing Normal University, China Abstract: Research about the sudden transition from offline to online in Macau during the pandemic is limited. Using the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework as the deductive thematic analysis template, we interviewed six award-winning teachers at a teachingoriented local tertiary institute about their online teaching practices concerning social, cognitive, and teaching kinds ofpresence. As the result of the collective case study, we found that the teachers, to some extent, echoed the good practices recommended in the COI in improving online presence. Meanwhile, the six teachers' seemingly practical skills reflected their accumulated phronesis or wisdom of practice. It is because the teachers' overarching aim was to guarantee their students' learning with care during the pandemic. By emphasising practices and phronesis, we innovate and expand on the COI as suggestions for teachers facing uncertainties and complexities of classroom teaching. Introduction At the beginning of 2020, universities worldwide faced an emergency; most were on lockdown, and face-to-face teaching was shifted online. In such a rapid transition, many students encountered various challenges. These challenges included insufficient Internet and hardware resources at home, inadequate IT skills (Cranfield et al., 2021), insufficient selfregulation (Yeung & Yau, 2022), feelings of isolation and anxiety (Howcroft & Mercer, 2022), fatigue and demotivation due to prolonged computer use (Zizka & Probst, 2022), and the lack of prompt feedback from peers and teachers (Conrad et al., 2021; Siah et al., 2022; Warfvinge et al., 2022) . However, numerous studies have reported the positive experiences of online teaching during the pandemic, including those conducted by Almahasees et al.(2021) in Jordan, Van Wig et al. (2022) in the United States, and Poláková and Klímová(2021) in Slovakia. Generally speaking, the quality of students' online experience is influenced by multiple relationships, including learner-to-resource, learner-to-content, learner-to-learner, learner-to-faculty, and learner-to-technology (Zizka & Probst, 2022) . In Macau, a former Portuguese colony in the Far East and a special administrative region (SAR) of China since 1999, the pandemic also hit suddenly in 2020. Consequently, most university teachers in Macau started searching for online platforms to continue teaching using collaborative tools such a

FAQs

What framework guides the analysis of the teachers’ practices in this study?

The study uses the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework as a deductive thematic analysis template to examine online teaching practices and different kinds of presence.

How did the researchers collect data for the case study?

They interviewed six award-winning teachers at a teaching-oriented local tertiary institute about their online teaching practices during the sudden transition.

What does the study conclude about the teachers’ skills and their relationship to COI?

The teachers’ practices to some extent echo COI-recommended approaches, and their seemingly practical skills also reflect accumulated phronesis or wisdom of practice.

Oct 15, 2026

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