The Post-Pandemic Era of Digital Teaching: A Qualitative Study of Teachers' Perspectives

Abstract

As time passes, our society has embraced living with the highly infec- tious Covid-19 virus. As of March 2022, most restrictions have been lifted in Norway, and life is slowly returning to normal. Students are returning to univer- sity campuses, and classes are held again physically. However, the question re- mains whether universities will still apply digital teaching to offer students more flexibility. This research investigates the higher education teachers’ perspectives towards the continuation of digital teaching in the post-pandemic era. This single case study provides in-depth information taken from interviews. The respondents are information technology (IT), computer engineers, and information systems (IS) teachers from the University of South-Eastern Norway. A thematic analysis explored patterns between the literature and the empirical study. The implications from this study propose a framework with six factors that affect teachers’ per- spectives towards digital teaching in the aftermath of the pandemic. Teachers promote a well-balanced mix of technology with physical teaching activities, suggesting that digital teaching tools should serve a specific purpose and contrib- ute to the learning outcome. A well-balanced blend of technology with physical teaching activities suggests that digital teaching tools should serve a particular purpose and contribute to the learning outcome.