The Future of Distance Learning as Perceived by Faculty Members

Abstract

A questionnaire survey of 33,987 faculty members in April 2020 revealed predominantly negative evaluations of learning effectiveness in the context of distance learning, as compared to in-person instruction, and a rather pessimistic vision of the future of higher education in Russia. This article formulates hypotheses about the reasons of such attitudes among faculty members and provides arguments for possible opinion shifts and alleviation of resistance to technological change. The paramount problem consists in the contradiction between the acceptance of the idea and value of digital innovation and the rejection of such at the level of personal teaching practices. During expert interviews, faculty members were offered alternative scenarios of the future. The data obtained was then used to analyze the attitudes and beliefs behind their resistance and to find out which perceptions of the future correlated with negative and positive evaluations of distance learning.

Keywords

• higher education
• distance learning
• ict
• defensive pessimism
• organizational change
• in-person instruction
• extramural learning
• academic freedom of faculty members
• resistance to change
• covid‑19