Navigating pedagogical transitions : Perceptions of teaching effectiveness in the era of emergency remote teaching during COVID-19

Author's Biography

Ritu Lohtia PhD is the Director of Robinson’s Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Online Degree Completion Program. Since its launch in autumn 2020 under her leadership, the programme has grown significantly, expanding from two to four majors and from nine students to over 350 by autumn 2024. The programme now has close to 80 graduates. Ritu has been a faculty member at Georgia State University since autumn 1990 and spent two years (1994–96) in Japan as a visiting assistant professor at Keio University and a visiting researcher at Waseda University. Ritu chaired the RCB Digital Support Network, helping the college transition over 600 face-to-face (F2F) classes to online learning in just two weeks. She was selected to participate in the 2023–24 cohort of the Leadership Academy for Women Faculty at Georgia State University. Her current research focuses on the effectiveness of online marketing strategies and student success in hybrid and online courses. Previously, her research in business-to-business marketing examined buyer–seller relationships in the US and Japan and strategies for increasing marketing effectiveness. Ritu has published over 45 articles in journals such as the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management and Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. She currently serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing and served on the editorial review board of the Journal of Organizational Relationships.

Kevin P. Giang Barrera MBA is a Doctoral Candidate of business administration with concentration in marketing at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University (GSU). He also holds a Master of Science in marketing from Georgia State University, a Master of Business Administration from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV, Brazil) and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the Universidad Nacional Experimental del Tachira (UNET, Venezuela). His research interests focus on the impact of technology in marketing, digital and social media marketing, innovation and customer experience. Kevin’s incipient work on the implications of the metaverse for marketing research and practice is published in the Journal of Business Research. Currently, Kevin serves as the Vice-Chair of Special Events for the American Marketing Association (AMA) Marketing for Higher Education Special Interest Group (HigherEd SIG). He also served as the Chair of the AMA Doctoral Student Special Interest Group (DocSIG) in 2022–23. Kevin has served as an ad-hoc reviewer for the Journal of Business Research (JBR), Journal of Product and Innovation Management (JPIM) and California Management Review. Before embarking on his PhD, Kevin worked for several years in new product development for the automotive industry.

Richard J. Fendler PhD is a Clinical Professor of Finance in the Robinson College of Business (RCB) at Georgia State University (GSU). He has over 35 years’ experience in higher education. Richard is a leader in the university in developing and teaching online courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has won teaching, instructional innovation and service awards at GSU, and currently serves as the RCB representation to the Academic Integrity Task Force that is examining academic honesty in online courses. Richard’s main research interest is the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). He has several publications in top-ranked SoTL journals, and he is the co-author of a 7th edition textbook entitled Lectures in Corporate Finance. Richard is also the co-editor of the Journal of Financial Education, and an associate editor for the Online Learning journal.

Kathryn E. Crowther Dr Kathryn Crowther is the Associate Director of Teaching Effectiveness in the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Online Education (CETLOE) and the Director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program at Georgia State University. She specializes in pedagogical best practices, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), inclusive pedagogy and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Kathryn is also a Professor of English at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College where she teaches First-Year Composition, British Literature and a ‘Project Lab’ course on Disability, Access, and Inclusion. In 2019, she won the Perimeter College Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. Her research and publications focus on SoTL, High-Impact Practices in teaching, Disability Studies and Victorian literature. Her current research focuses on place-based and project-based learning and its relationship to student success and retention. Kathryn was selected to participate in the 2023–24 cohort of the Leadership Academy for Women at Georgia State University. She served as the Secretary of the Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium (SRFIDC) from 2019–23. In 2024, Kathryn was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to expand project-based learning courses at Perimeter College. She is also the co-director on an NEH grant focused on place-based learning in Atlanta.