According to a report released by the WGU Lab, nearly half of teachers nationwide feel burned out by their jobs, and the same number (39%) feel emotionally exhausted.
Professor burnout is nothing new, but Omid Fotuhi, director of learning innovation at the WGU Lab, a division of Western Governors University, believes technology may be playing a big role in it: Nearly eight in 10 faculty members say they feel like they're always “on the job” because of technology, and 64 percent say technology makes it harder for them to take breaks from students and their work, according to the report.
“Faculty now see technology not only as having a lasting impact on their learning, but also as a growing influence on learning,” the report's authors wrote, noting that this view can create a divide between professors who want to incorporate technology into their classrooms and those who don't. “This growing divide among faculty can lead to challenges, inefficiencies, and inconsistencies in teaching and instruction that administrators must navigate.”
This is the third annual report from faculty-focused WGU Labs, a consortium that helps higher education institutions leverage new technologies, which also releases annual reports on administrator and student opinions of technology and innovation in the classroom.
“We've been tracking the perceptions, beliefs and behaviors of faculty, students and administrators with the intent of connecting the dots to predict investments in education,” said Dr. Fotohi. “There were a lot of questions that couldn't be answered by just talking to one group.”
The Faculty Report surveyed 359 faculty members in November 2023 across community colleges, online-only universities and brick-and-mortar four-year institutions.
Dr. Fotuhi's years of reporting allowed him to dig deeper into the latest findings. He said he has always been surprised by the ambivalent attitudes faculty have towards artificial intelligence, with many faculty using the tool but skeptical of its effectiveness. The report found that more than half of faculty (53%) believe AI will improve the student experience, yet a similar proportion of faculty are not using it in their classes. This is consistent with other reports that show student use of AI far outpaces faculty use.
This skepticism may stem in part from how decisions about educational technology are made. In the latest report, 87 percent of faculty say decisions about educational technology adoption and use are made by administrative teams. Fewer than 20 percent say their institution solicits feedback on educational technology at least once a year, and roughly the same number say they involve students in the process.
“So we get to the root cause: faculty don't feel included in the decision-making process,” Fotohi said. “They feel like their opinions aren't valued, and that feeds into their beliefs about the effectiveness of (technology).”
These sentiments about technology's effectiveness also influence faculty's thoughts about the direction of higher education overall. They acknowledge reality: According to the report, nearly all faculty (92%) believe they will make greater use of educational technology tools, such as AI, in the future. And the majority (86%) expect to spend more time delivering course content online. But 20% believe higher education is heading in the wrong direction because of the emphasis on technology in the classroom, and only 32% believe it's heading in the right direction.
Even more worrying, a third (37%) of faculty say that increased use of technology will result in a lesser quality learning experience for students in the future, and a similar proportion believe that higher education will be less valuable in the future.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the outlook changes a bit when you take into account the types of faculty surveyed: While about 40% of faculty who teach online believe higher education is heading in the right direction, in part due to increased use of technology, only 20% of professors who teach face-to-face say the same.
Despite the differences in future outlook, more faculty have a positive view of course formats compared to past reports. 79% of faculty say they are open to offering more format and credential options to students, and 76% are open to offering more hybrid courses (a combination of remote and in-person instruction) to students. In contrast, the 2023 report found that just over half of faculty are open to an increase in the number of online courses and programs their institution offers.
To combat the growing tensions around technology and burnout, Dr. Fotuhi suggested that educational institutions do two things: First, they need to provide feedback channels for professors and students to voice their opinions as they make potential technology investments. Second, they need to provide support and guidelines for adopting new infrastructure and technology after those investments are made.
He acknowledges that's easier said than done. “Most administrators are just fighting to survive. It's a really tough time in higher education,” he said. “Administrators are making decisions based on limited information, which impacts faculty support, which impacts job satisfaction, which impacts students. It's a systems issue, so we're trying to connect the dots.”
This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Inside Higher Ed.
