The worldwide health crisis disrupted academic life and accelerated the move towards online teaching at the university (García-Morales et al., 2021). Many lecturers had to adapt to the unforeseen change this situation demanded. They were pushed to deliver technology-driven lessons with little or no previous training (Saha et al., 2022). However, the massive inclusion of online teaching in traditional universities has marked a turning point in these institutions (Torrecillas, 2020). More than ever, universities need well-prepared faculty who guarantee high-quality online teaching. Lecturers must take on some challenges caused by the constraints of the new virtual work environment. Instructors involved in the live online lectures require specific competencies to effectively foster and enhance lecturer-student interaction in class (Querol-Julián, 2021). The affordances and limitations of online and face-to-face instructional environments determine participants' interactional and discursive practices. Thus, the objective of this study is to shed some light on the influence that the digitalisation of the workplace has on classroom interaction. We have adopted a case study methodology to compare interaction in parallel lectures delivered online and face-to-face. That is, we examined two pairs of classes in Applied Physics given by the same lecturer on the very same topic in virtual and physical settings. In the online lessons, only the instructor turned on her camera. The students used their microphones and a written chat to communicate. A video dataset of about 6 hours was collected and analysed following the conversation analysis approach. We use ELAN software to carry out the multilayer annotation of the 75 episodes of interaction performed. The analysis of the parallel lectures revealed substantial differences regarding the frequency and elaboration of the episodes of interaction and the participants' agency. The study evidences the instructor's need to adapt interactive discourse strategies to the new digital teaching scenario as part of her professional development.
García-Morales, V. J., Garrido-Moreno, A., & Martín-Rojas, R. (2021). The transformation of higher education after the COVID disruption: Emerging challenges in an online learning scenario. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 196. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616059
Moorhouse, B. L., Li, Y., & Walsh, S. (2021). E-classroom interactional competencies: Mediating and assisting language learning during synchronous online lessons. RELC Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688220985274
Querol-Julián, M. (2021). How does digital context influence interaction in large live online lectures? The case of English-medium instruction. European Journal of English Studies, 25(3), 299-317. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825577.2021.1988265
Saha, S. M., Pranty, S. A., Rana, M. J., Islam, M. J., & Hossain, M. E. (2022). Teaching during a pandemic: do university teachers prefer online teaching? Heliyon, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08663
Torrecillas, C. (2020). El reto de la docencia online para las universidades públicas españolas ante la pandemia del Covid-19. ICEI Papers COVID-19 2020. Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales, Madrid. https://www.ucm.es/icei/file/iceipapercovid16
