Teachers' experiences of teaching online during COVID-19: implications for postpandemic professional development

As a result of the Great Online Transition (GOT) that occurred during COVID-19, it is increasingly necessary to understand the digital competencies that are required for online and blended learning in the postpandemic era. Postquarantine, higher education institutions must return to on-campus face-to-face learning, a situation which raises questions concerning how to retain the lessons learned from this period of the forced acquisition and innovation of online teaching competencies. In this article, we present the results of an interview-based study of teachers' experiences of online teaching during the pandemic. One hundred fifty-one teachers were interviewed over a period of 2 years during the pandemic. We conducted a hybrid thematic analysis to systematize teachers' experiences. Our results show that despite the problems faced due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, several lessons were learned: teachers employed an array of digital tools to maintain content delivery and promote interaction, deepened their understanding of course design and assessment, and developed an empathic disposition to understand students' situations. We build upon these experiences to generate recommendations for developing digital competencies following the GOT.