This article offers a valuable perspective on how emergency remote teaching transformed the beliefs and conceptions of university instructors during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of its main contributions is that it does not limit itself to describing general difficulties of virtual education, but rather examines specific key variables such as technological-pedagogical self-efficacy, reflective practice, institutional support, and conceptions of ICT-mediated assessment.
The study is relevant because it situates these changes within a real context of forced adaptation, showing that the teaching experience during the health emergency not only involved operational challenges, but also modifications in how online teaching is understood.
From a methodological standpoint, the research presents a clear and consistent structure, supported by a pretest–posttest design applied to instructors from a Colombian university. Among the most relevant findings is the increase in technological-pedagogical self-efficacy, suggesting that practical experience strengthened teachers’ confidence in using technology for instruction.
However, the study also highlights a decrease in the perception of institutional support, an especially interesting result because it nuances the idea that adaptation depended solely on individual effort. Likewise, the article emphasizes that ICT-mediated assessment remained one of the most problematic aspects, due to concerns about its validity, plagiarism, and the difficulty of replacing traditional face-to-face evaluation strategies.
As a critical review, it can be said that the article successfully balances quantitative analysis with a qualitative understanding of teachers’ experiences, enriching the interpretation of the results. Its main strength lies in demonstrating that remote teaching did not produce homogeneous changes: while some instructors developed new skills and learning, others maintained reservations regarding interaction, infrastructure, and assessment.
Among its limitations, the authors themselves acknowledge that the study was conducted in a single institution and with a limited sample, which restricts the generalization of the findings. Even so, it is a solid, up-to-date, and useful work for understanding how the health crisis accelerated processes of teaching transformation that remain relevant for higher education.
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How to Cite: Ricardo, C., & Vieira, C. (2023). Higher Education Instructors’ Beliefs and Conceptions about Remote Education during COVID-19. RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 26(1), 17–37. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.26.1.33966
