Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) have made online education a top innovation strategy (Magda & Buban, 2018). However, leadership has identified both the lack of faculty buy-in and issues of organizational culture (OC) as barriers to innovation (Magda & Buban, 2018).
In 2019, 46% reported teaching at least one online course (Lederman, 2019). However, in Spring 2020, researchers found that 95% of courses were taught online at 4 year institutions (Fox et. al, 2020). Due to the pandemic, many faculty were forced to teach online for the first time (Means & Neisler, 2020). While this may seem like nearly full adoption of online teaching, adoption is not a one-time decision and takes place over time (Rogers, 2003). In addition, emergency transfer to online education does not equate with thoughtfully-developed online courses (Means & Neisler, 2020). IHEs must support faculty adoption long term. One potential consideration is faculty's OC, which has been shown to predict innovation (Tellis et al., 2009), and influence technology use (Boichuk & Fast, 2017) and online teaching practices (Zhu, 2015).
This presentation will share highlights of a mixed-methods study that explored the influence of OC on faculty’s adoption of online teaching as well as reactions of faculty forced to move online due to the pandemic. Participants will explore their own OC and consider how it may impact their teaching or willingness to innovate. Implications for practice will also be shared.
Faye Furutomo
Christine Sorensen Irvine