Pandemic Pedagogy: What We Learned from the Sudden Transition to Online Teaching and How It Can Help Us Prepare to Teach Writing in an Uncertain Future

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by kopisore

Pandemic spring 2020 forced a rapid shift to fully online instruction, leaving most teachers and institutions unprepared. This article synthesizes findings from a hyperlocal, programmatic survey of writing instructors’ experiences in moving teaching online during the coronavirus pandemic. It identifies challenges including increased workload, the need for pedagogy-driven rather than technology-driven instruction, attention to personal and professional well-being, and intensified logistical demands in digital teaching. The work connects local outcomes to broader scholarly discussions in online writing instruction, then outlines best practices and future research directions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

Findings from the Sudden Transition

Survey overview and participant context

Four challenges and themes reported by instructors

Local impacts within broader OWI scholarship

Practical pedagogical guidance and future research

Pandemic Pedagogy: What We Learned from the Sudden Transition to Online Teaching and How It Can Help Us Prepare to Teach Writing in an Uncertain Future Jennifer Sheppard This article reports on findings from a hyperlocal programmatic survey on writing instructors’ experiences in moving teaching online during the coronavirus pandemic. It highlights key challenges instructors reported, including a need for strategies addressing increased workload; a desire for greater experience with pedagogy- rather than technology-driven instruction; aplea for attention to personal/professional well-being; and concerns about the increased attention needed to address logistics in digital teaching. The article contextualizes these local challenges within larger scholarly conversations about online writing instruction (OWI) and offers a series of pedagogical and professional best practices relevant for future online and hybrid teaching. It concludes with a discussion of the limitations of this project and directions for future research.1 Fonmgsttheay-wat-idesphomreeadordillnerssso anthededxatrahorddiuneaoy COVIDprotestsa-1g9aianndst rhecialresultinjus--tice, 2020 was a time of historic tumult. It was also a time of massive change to the education system at all levels. While distance education generally and the work of scholars in online writing instruction (OWI) in particular have continued to expand over the last two decades, only a small minority of teachers and institutions were prepared for the abrupt transition to fully online instruction. As one Chronicle of Higher Education article described the experience, Pandemic spring 2020 was “pedagogical triage,” not the careful, deliberative work normally required to design online teaching and learning (Bessette et al.) . Although there is much uncertainty about how ongoing pandemic concerns and the large-scale online teaching precedent now set will affect higher education in coming years, it is important to document this experience and the significant impact it has had on composition instructors and their pedagogies. This article begins by examining the spring 2020 perspectives of instructors in one large writing studies program. Reflecting on responses to an anonymous departmental survey about workload and pedagogical choices in the sudden shift to online teaching, I highlight key challenges instructors reported and Composition Studies 49.1 (2021): 60–83 contextualize these local experiences within larger scholarly conversations about OWI. While responses to this survey echo many issues raised previously by OWI scholars, on a local level, they also illustrate what the rapid shift looked like in practice for both individual instructors and a program as a whole that was largely new to offering online writing instruction. After offering a set ofpractical pedagogical suggestions for addressing some of these concerns in future online and hybrid teaching, I conclude with a brief discussion of limitations of the survey and some directions for future research. What We Can Learn from the Suddenly Online Experience of Spring 2020 Like almost all of higher education, the writing studies department at my large urban public university made the abrupt, mid-semester switch to teaching all courses online in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a week of what campus administrators called an “instructional pause,”our department’s 90 instructors and the roughly 7,000 students we were teaching transitioned into various synchronous and asynchronous forms of virtual teaching.2 Prior to this change, our department offered only about 15% of our courses at a distance and about the same percentage of our faculty had completed training for online teaching.3 Near the end of the spring 2020 semester, we shared some of our challenges and successes in a virtual faculty meeting and began to think about the potential for being online again in the fall. To help us better understand everyone’s o

FAQs

What prompted the survey discussed in the article?

The survey was designed by an ad hoc committee to understand online teaching workload, pedagogical choices, and professional development needs after the abrupt transition to online teaching in spring 2020.

What four major themes emerged from instructors’ survey responses?

The article reports increased workload, a preference for pedagogy-driven instruction over technology-driven approaches, greater attention to personal/professional well-being, and heightened logistical concerns in digital teaching.

How does the article use local findings in relation to broader scholarship?

It contextualizes the program’s local experiences within larger scholarly conversations about online writing instruction, showing how the reported issues align with prior research while also reflecting how the shift played out in practice.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by kopisore