Too much information: Exploring technology-mediated abuse in higher education online learning and teaching spaces resulting from COVID-19 and emergency remote education

Bovill, Helen

Abstract

During COVID-19, universities across the globe experienced a rapid requirement to move to online learning and teaching provision. This rapid move has been explored as emergency remote education (ERE). This paper reviews and presents some emerging literature regarding ERE, demonstrating how this created an environment where technology-mediated abuse could arise within the university context. Intentional and unintentional forms of technology-mediated abuse, within a global context, are considered with account of how intersectional characteristics can impact. The paper concludes with a set of provocations explored within an example framework. The provocations are given to situate ways of thinking which are facilitative of safer and more respectful use of technological spaces. Both the provocations and example framework aim to be useful critical tools for program and module teams to adapt in higher education institutions within the online sphere. The phenomenon of ERE is an opportunity to consider what can be learned with regard to management of technology-mediated abuse. However, a focus on ERE presents limitations in the paper because of the smaller number of academic sources at this time, due to recency of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 10, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Oct 27, 2022
• Publication Date: Aug 31, 2023
• Deposit Date: Oct 14, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 16, 2023
• Journal: Higher Education
• Print ISSN: 0018-1560
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-174X
• Publisher: Springer (part of Springer Nature)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 86
• Pages: 467–483
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00947-0
• Keywords: COVID-19 , COVID-19 Pandemic, Remote education, Teaching spaces, Online learning, Technology-mediated abuse
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10039268