ABSTRACT
In spring 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many faculty members teaching face-to-face suddenly found themselves in an unprecedented situation: the rest of the semester had to be immediately transitioned to an online format. Especially challenging it was for activities that were designed as highly interactive and targeted towards the achievement of authentic learner's experience in the real physical world. In this chapter, we report a case study of a transfer of an in-person social simulation to the online environment with a specific focus on creating the teaching presence in the new environment. The social simulation was developed by three universities in the Baltic States as part of an Erasmus+ Strategic partnership project for training undergraduate and graduate communication science students’ transversal competencies such as being able to work with complex information, collaborate, negotiate, take strategic decisions and cope creatively with high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity. There has not been much research on making this type of sudden transition from in-person to online teaching; therefore this study provides valuable insight in instructors’ considerations and reflections on the lessons learned regarding such elements of teaching presence as planning, re-designing and carrying out the social simulation without losing focus on the original learning goals. First, the specificity of the process is discussed, the choices of tools, the rules and the preparatory work before the actual simulation. Second, the authors outline the role changes: when a tutor becomes a mentor that can provide consultations in real time, follow the timetable, announce and coordinate activities and organize consultation-type ‘real-time’ chat to answer all prospective questions.
