Exploring the Impact of Online Teaching on Academic Identities: The Emerging Complexities of Workplace Learning

Abstract

The contextual changes in teaching and learning that have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the need for an enhanced understanding of the intersection between the academic work of teaching and well-being. This chapter aims to explore how academics build and sustain their identities in digital spaces and what key conceptual solutions they hold to enable their own effective workplace learning. Semi-structured interviews with 11 academics of all ranks involving part- and full-timers working in a private university in the Republic of Cyprus were conducted. The findings reveal complexities and uncertainties facing academics in digital spaces, which led to their transformative learning, as the threshold concepts of their education philosophy were challenged. The chapter concludes by summarising suggestions for academics and institutions on how to support the development of academic digital competencies, ones that might be adopted in an attempt to create a more purposeful provision of ongoing workplace learning for academics in a post-pandemic era.