Reshaping the faculty professional competence: from face to face teaching to remote learning

The spread of the Covid-19 virus initiated an explosion of change, which immediately addressed HEI a demand to rearrange their faculty and students to an unprecedented model of remote learning (RL). The objective is to evaluate the experience of HEI faculty in the improvement of their competence in the implementation of RL. The analysis of literature and educational development guidelines (30 units). Empirical data: 346 faculty questionnaires, 2 focus groups of faculty and students from 14 HEIs. As a result of continuing education activities and self-paced training, the level of digital skills of faculty increased by +0.55 Likert points (scale 1-5), currently reaching 4.09 points. Faculty have gained extensive experience in RL delivering on various platforms and tools, digitalisation of study materials, as evidenced by the fact that 69% of faculty often use study materials designed by themselves. However the summative approach is more frequent in the assessment of study results and one-sided feedback on the performance is more common, although the examinations in the digital environment have become more diverse. The study identified different pedagogical risks in implementing RL as more significant than social, technical and physical or medical risks. Despite the fact that HEIs have provided a large number of capacity building activities to faculty, 24% of the HEIs surveyed still have insufficient provision. The technical, pedagogical and psychological competence of faculty should be assessed and improved as a whole, conceptualizing it as pedagogical digital competence. The main challenge faculty faced during RL was the provision of active learning and teaching, which is why future training should focus on pedagogical reasoning and quality aspects of the study process. Faculty signify translocality as the main benefit of the experience of organizing RL, which enables flexibility, but still indicate the challenges in competence development and pedagogical evidence.