Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Lisa Yamagata-Lynch

Committee Members

Enilda Romero-Hall, Karen Boyd, Miriam Bender Larson

Abstract

This qualitative, descriptive multiple-case study investigated the online teaching experiences of seven undergraduate microbiology faculty at public universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigated instructors unfamiliar with synchronous online course development to (a) describe how they designed online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, (b) discover what influenced how they designed those courses, and (c) detail why they made the respective design decisions. It leaned into the theoretical tenets of social constructivism and followed a multiple case study approach, relying on interviews and document analysis. Instructors were recruited through criterion-based convenience sampling and snowball methods. They were faculty who traditionally taught in-person large-sized microbiology courses prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. They transitioned to an online learning modality during the pandemic. The study findings revealed that participant instructors exercised similar overlapping design judgments as they redesigned their courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants indicated that they developed synchronous online courses within the institution’s learning management systems, integrated open educational resources, and utilized various teaching tools, including digital games. They encouraged students to interact and work in teams, enabling them to co-construct their learning. However, instructors wrestled with balancing many teaching demands against anxious students’ expectations. Instructors also grappled with ways to accommodate diverse students’ needs while promoting equity, diversity, accessibility, and inclusion in an online learning environment. Most notably, there was tension between finding efficient ways to maintain rigor and protect assessment integrity while empathizing with students. As demand for synchronous online learning increases, the study’s findings aim to make explicit the connection between design judgment research and practice. The goal of this study was to draw attention to instructors’ unconscious assumptions, behaviors, attitudes, thoughts, experiences, beliefs, culture, goals, and skills that influenced design decisions, particularly during disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It aimed to empower the instructional design community members with awareness and sensitivity to what instructors bring with them to the collaborative design process.

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