Academics blame technology for increased burnout

Almost half of faculty members across the US feel burned out because of their work, and a similar proportion (39 per cent) feel emotionally exhausted, according to a report released by WGU Labs.

While burnout among academics is nothing new, Omid Fotuhi, director of learning innovation at WGU Labs – a subset of Western Governors University – believes technology could be greatly contributing to the problem. According to the report, roughly eight in 10 faculty members feel that they are always “on the job” because of technology, while 64 per cent say technology makes it difficult to take breaks from students or work.

“Faculty now see technology as not only a permanent but also a growing influence on learning,” write the report’s authors, noting that that viewpoint can create a divide between professors who want technology in the classroom and those who do not. “Such growing chasms among faculty may pose challenges, inefficiencies, and inconsistencies in teaching and instruction, which administrators must navigate.”

This is WGU Labs’ third annual report focused on faculty. The network, a consortium that supports higher education institutions as they navigate emerging technology, also releases annual reports on administrators’ and students’ thoughts about tech and innovation in the classroom.

“We’ve been tracking perceptions, beliefs, behaviours and anticipating investment in education from faculty, students and administration, with the intention to connect the dots,” Dr Fotuhi said. “There were a lot of questions we couldn’t answer by talking to just one group.”

The faculty report surveyed 359 faculty members in November 2023, spanning community colleges, online-only colleges and bricks-and-mortar, four-year institutions.

The intersection of the reports over the years has allowed Dr Fotuhi to delve further into the latest findings. He said he has always been struck by faculty members’ ambivalence towards artificial intelligence, with many using the tools but retaining scepticism about its efficacy. According to the report, more than half (53 per cent) of instructors believe AI will enhance the student experience – although a similar percentage are not using it in their classrooms. That lines up with other reports that find that students’ AI usage far outpaces faculty use.

The scepticism may derive partly from how edtech decisions are being made. According to the latest report, 87 per cent of faculty members said their administrative team makes decisions on edtech implementation and usage. Less than 20 per cent of academics reported that their institutions sought their feedback on edtech at least once a year, and about the same percentage said their institutions involved students in the process.

“That’s where we got to the root cause: Faculty don’t feel they’re involved in the decision-making process,” Dr Fotuhi said. “They don’t think their input is valued, which fuels the idea about [technology’s] effectiveness.”

Those feelings about technology’s effectiveness play into faculty members’ thoughts about the direction of higher education overall. They acknowledge reality: according to the report, almost all faculty members (92 per cent) believe they will use more edtech tools, such as AI, in the future. The vast majority (86 per cent) also expect to spend more time delivering course content online. But 20 per cent believe higher education is heading in the wrong direction because of its focus on technology in the classroom, with just 32 per cent believing it is going in the right direction.

More worryingly, one-third (37 per cent) of faculty members said students would have lower-quality learning experiences in the future because of the increasing use of technology. A similar percentage believe that the value of higher education will decline going forward.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that outlook shifts a bit when accounting for the type of instructors being surveyed: roughly 40 per cent of those who teach online believe that higher education is headed in the right direction, in part because of its increased use of technology, while just 20 per cent of professors teaching in-person courses state the same.

Despite the difference in future outlooks, more professors are taking a positive view towards course modalities than in past reports. Seventy-nine per cent of faculty members said they feel positive about offering more modality and credential options to students, while 76 per cent feel positive about offering more hybrid courses (mixing remote and in-person instruction) for students. By contrast, the 2023 report found that just over half of faculty felt positively about institutions offering increasing numbers of online courses and programmes.

Dr Fotuhi suggested that institutions do two things to combat the rising tensions surrounding technology and burnout. First, when an institution is considering technology investments, it should offer channels for academics and students to voice their opinions on potential changes. And then, when those investments are made, the university should offer support and guidelines to implement the new infrastructure or technology.

That it is easier said than done, Dr Fotuhi acknowledged. “Most administrators, they’re just fighting to stay afloat; it’s a really difficult time for higher education. Administrators are making decisions on the limited information they have; that affects faculty on support and job satisfaction, which impacts students. It’s a systems issue, so we’re trying to connect the dots.”

This is an edited version of a story that first appeared on Inside Higher Ed.