Transition to Distance Education in 2020: Challenges among University Faculty in Sweden

This study aims to describe the challenges that faculty faced in the transition to distance education in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. The study presents the results from a nationwide questionnaire, answered by 1,963 individuals, concerning the transition among university faculty in Sweden. The results highlight the main obstacles and describe the practices in teaching, supervision, and examination. Educators faced challenges regarding technology, pedagogy, and working conditions. According to them, distance education was lacking in several ways, including best practices for distance education and online teaching and IT support and employer support. Simultaneously, the crisis resulted in a huge leap forward in distance education. Three months after onset, about half of the respondents had tried some new pedagogical ideas and were more positive towards distance education than they were in the past.