Education Management During COVID-19 : A Single Case Study of Swedish Higher Education Institute Jönköping University

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Education Management During COVID-19

A Single Case Study of Swedish Higher Education Institute Jönköping University

Thesis Within: General Management

Number of Credits: 15

Program of Study: Engineering Management

Author: Josef Vernersson and Samer Zaid Al-Kilani

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i Acknowledgment

The authors would like to show an immense gratitude to those that contributed to the completion of this master thesis. A huge thank you to our supervisor Tommaso Minola for his patience, guidance and supports through the entire process. We also appreciate the feedback from peer researcher during seminars. We must express our gratitude to our families for understanding and supporting us during

these busy times.

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Master Thesis in General Management

Title: Education Management During COVID-19

Authors: Josef Vernersson and Samer Zaid Al-Kilani Supervisor: Tommaso Minola

Date: 2021-05-24

Key terms: Education Management, COVID-19, Teaching, Learning, Sweden, Grading.

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is the most discussed topic since the beginning of the year. Moreover, today's society faces various problems caused by the COVID-19 crisis requiring new knowledge and strategies since various social institutions are affected in different ways, and the education system is included between these institutions. In fact, higher education institutions witnessed a huge transition from traditional classroom-based teaching to a virtual approach and online education. While higher education may have transformed and moved to online due to COVID-19, it is unknown whether the transition resulted in a changed direction for education management. Purpose: This study aims to take a deeper look into how students and teachers are affected by COVID-19 for a higher education institution in Sweden by seeking through how online platforms are used and how it is affecting the users of education. Moreover, the study aims to know what changed in management practices and grading strategies for a sustainable university education quality during pandemics and emergencies.

Method: Fulfilling the purpose, qualitative research design gathering empirical data by conducting semi-structured interviews with both students and teachers and taking a single case study approach for Swedish higher education Institute (Jönköping University) using the benefit of various perspectives from different schools that Jönköping University has. Also, higher education in Sweden combines the perspective from both students and teachers as it is on the concept 'freedom with responsibility' with students mainly pursuing their studies on their own or in groups and not focusing on the teacher perspective only. Another unique asset for Sweden higher education is the possibility to access all data collected about schools and students, such as grades which are classified as secondary data.

Conclusion: The results show that the transition affected the education management since it impacted the organizing and communicating. Then results showed some factors, such as an earlier experience played a role in adapting education management changes since a new concept of teaching developed within this transition with adapted teaching strategies, and students responded to that by improved learning plans. Another main finding in education management aspects is the grading strategies where it was found that the criteria did not change, but exams got modified, leading to changes in the grade patterns that can be described as unnormal. All of that was concluded in a framework according to our findings and research work.

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Table of Figures

Figure 1: Research Map ... 5

Figure 2: Research Design Structure ... 18

Figure 3: Conceptual Analysis Framework: Changing Education Management and Grading Strategies . 24 Figure 4: grading rates before and during COVID in mathematics 1 ... 34

Figure 5: grading rates before and during COVID-19 in programming ... 35

Figure 6: grading rates before and during COVID-19 in entrepreneurship 1 ... 36

Figure 7: Conceptual Framework from analysis and literature review ... 43

Figure 8: mathematics 1, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 56

Figure 11:programming, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 57

Figure 12: computer science, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 58

Figure 13: Research Methods, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 59

Figure 14: entrepreneurship 1, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 59

Figure 15: entrepreneurship 2, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 60

Figure 16: Bachelor Thesis, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 60

Figure 17: Co-production, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 61

Figure 18: Childcare 1, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 61

Figure 19: Health and Disability, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 62

Figure 20: Psychology, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 62

Figure 21: Prosthetics, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 63

Figure 22: occupational therapy, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 63

Figure 23: Intervention Processes, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 64

Figure 24: Disability Research, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 64

Figure 25: Childcare 2, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 65

Figure 26: Communication, grading rates before and during COVID-19. ... 65

Table of Appendix

Appendix 1: Codes, Categories and Themes ... 49

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Page | 1 1. Introduction

1.1 Background and Problem Research

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported in the Chinese city Wuhan in December 2019, was recognized by China as a new virus in the third week of January 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) initially described it as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) at the end of January and finally recognized it as a pandemic on March 11, 2020 (WHO, 2020). The existence of COVID-19 pandemic resulted in devastating socio-economic challenges across the world. In an attempt to handle the situation, many countries have implemented restrictive measures to reduce social gatherings and promote social distancing. This meant the closure of higher learning institutions and a huge shift from traditional classroom-based teaching and learning to a virtual approach. While higher education may have transformed and moved to online due to COVID-19, it is unknown whether this transformation results in positive education management. In fact, Beech and Anseel (2020) also see the evolution of new approaches to management education and research that might contain the seeds for a future look for our communities, such as the move to online learning may stimulate an increase in blended and more accessible forms of education to support life-long learning. Brammer and Clark (2020) state that this puts pressure on institutional systems of quality assurance as well as the increasing workload for faculty and professional staff. This required support for colleagues, including the development of formal training on software and communities of practice through which good practices were shared.

Furthermore, the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) sets up a framework named "Education 2030". The framework calls for increased efforts to provide sustainable development goal 4 "Quality Education" in emergencies: "Education in emergency contexts is immediately protective, providing life-saving knowledge and skills and psychosocial support to those affected by crises. Education also equips children, youth and adults for a sustainable future, with the skills to prevent disaster, conflict and disease" (UNESCO, 2015, p.34) This statement indicates that educational institutions carry a great responsibility during times of crisis. From a technical point of view, the use of new emerging technologies such as web-conferencing platforms raises significant problems relating to codes of ethics, data regulation, and security, and many others.

Higher education providers play a crucial role in supporting economies and promoting societal well-being (Ratten, 2017; Ratten, 2020). As conveners of large groups of people, universities had to obtain similar precautionary measures to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on higher education and beyond (Liguori and Winkler, 2020). In fact, Higher Education Institutes demand management models adequate to their characteristics and the current context of changes. This will contribute to these organizations to meet the challenges, turning more competitive, sustainable and related to society (Scaglione, 2019). However, it is still unclear whether or how governments will seek to

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Page | 2 support the financial sustainability of the university sector within the COVID-19 situation (Brammer and Clark 2020).

Sweden is well-known for its innovative and progressive outlook on life, this is also reflected in the higher education system. Moreover, according to Sweden.se (n.d), Sweden is ranked among the world leaders in higher education as it is home to some of the world's best universities. The amount of international students enrolled at Swedish universities and colleges is increasing, and the ratio of those who are accepted is above half.

Sweden.se (n.d) states that students in Sweden are encouraged to think critically, which lays the foundation for creativity and innovation. In fact, Students in Sweden are not spoon-fed their education. Instead, they are expected to take full responsibility for their own learning. This results that students graduate well-prepared for the challenges and demands of working life, where they will be required to navigate complex situations where there is often no easy solution.

In Sweden, Jönköping University (JU) is a member of the European University Association (EUA) and The Association of Swedish Higher Education (SUHF). JU works based on an agreement with the Government of Sweden and complies with national degree regulations and quality requirements. The university is formulated as a corporate group with non-profit JU Foundation as the parent organization and six wholly owned subsidiaries (4 schools between them): the School of Health and Welfare, the School of Education and Communication, Jönköping International Business School, the School of Engineering.

The Government of Sweden has introduced national regulations and general advice for this disease during the pandemic and Jönköping University has adjusted the operations. Although Jönköping University is a professional-oriented university characterized by a high degree of internationalization, an entrepreneurial spirit. Furthermore, the university has an extensive collaboration with surrounding society, even more, during one year, approximately 2,400 international students from some 70 countries study at the university. However, the goal for the adjustments to the operations is to reduce instances of physical contact, which leads to more digital meetings and increased work from home.

The major sudden transition in the education system during this emergent situation led to the discovery of many challenges and aspects. In fact, Mseleku (2020) states that while many studies have been published on the pandemic, only a few studies address the depth of learning and E-teaching outcomes, associated challenges and opportunities during the period of COVID-19. Furthermore, UNESCO 2020 sees that it is time to roll out a serious educational recovery package. Lost learning is no longer being considered in days and weeks but in months. In fact, the most vulnerable have been hardest hit, the pandemic widened inequalities, amplifying a pre-existing learning crisis.

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Page | 3 1.2 Purpose and Research Questions

In this study, we are going to take a deeper look into how students and teachers are affected by COVID-19 for a higher education institution in Sweden. Seeking through how online platforms are used and how it is affecting the users and the education and what changed in management practices and grading strategies for a sustainable university education quality during pandemics and emergencies.

Teaching model applied at Swedish universities and university colleges is based on the concept of ‘freedom with responsibility’. This means that students have somewhat less teacher-led time than is usual elsewhere. A large part of the learning process takes place outside of the classroom, with students mainly pursuing their studies on their own or in groups (Sweden.se, n.d). Even more, today there is a lack of published studies from Sweden about COVID-19 and higher education just concerning about the education for the levels below university, although higher education in Sweden combines the perspective from both students and teachers. On the other hand, there are many studies from countries with a similar higher education system when it comes to the level of digitalization and teaching strategies and it was focusing more from teacher’s perspective only. Regarding this, it would be a unique opportunity to study the effects of the pandemic as students with the collaboration with Teachers in Sweden at the University of Jönköping as the possibility to compare four schools at the same place in a single case study to see how students and teachers from different schools are affected and how the different schools try to manage the problems in order to obtain some adaptable strategies and plans.

How has higher education management changed along the online transition from the perspective of students and teachers?

In school you get the lesson first and then the test, but in life you get the test and then the lesson (Haskins, 2006). In particular, as it will be shown in the following chapter that education management is involved in planning, strategizing of teaching and learning, but there was a lack of studies published for the grading strategies during the pandemic. This is important as many students care mostly in their graduation process not in learning, understanding, and knowledge, but also the received grade. In fact, students find themselves struggling for good grades since these are a prerequisite for later getting the best chances on the labor market (Ehlers and Schwager, 2016). Moreover, Grades are strictly connected with the quality, breadth and depth of students’ academic achievement (Sadler, 2009). On the other hand, there is another unique asset that separates Sweden's higher education from the majority country’s is the possibility to access all data collected about schools and students such as grades and fulfilled exams before and during the pandemic.

The term ‘grading’ in Sweden refers to make a decision about a student’s overall performance in relation to the grading criteria of a course (Jönsson, n.d.). Furthermore, grading criteria is also

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Page | 4 closely related to the assessment, because grading is simply based on the assessment, therefore both should be discussed when looking into the students learning outcome (Dahlgren, 2009). There is also data that shows that the judging criteria have a significant effect on students’ overall performance and learning. Furthermore, the way assessments are done have shown effecting what the student’s choice of focus and learning approach (Dahlgren, 2009).

In Sweden, it is up to the individual teacher to set the grade based on the performance of the student (Jönsson, n.d.). The reliability of teacher’s assessment, especially when it up to the individual teacher to set them has been questioned, and the outcome may be a significant influence on the life for thousands of the individual students each year in Sweden (Swedish National Agency of Education, 2019), and this shows the importance of grades. Today there are large differences between the assigned grade by the teachers and the exams results in most of the subjects in Sweden (Swedish National Agency of Education, 2019). Therefore, it is aimed for understanding deeply if pandemic has made the grades go up or down or possibly made the grades fairer because of a more equal assessment when the teacher does not have the same contact with the students. Furthermore, formulated the following research question for this particular:

how has grading strategy changed along the online transition in Sweden?

To sum up and following up further research and implementing our look deeper, the thesis will be based on the following research questions:

• How has higher education management changed along the online transition from the perspective of students and teachers?

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Page | 5 2. Literature Review

To have a better understanding for the ground of the research, this chapter will aim to provide detailed theoretical knowledge. Firstly, it begins defining the education management then the appearance of COVID-19, which led to the transition into online and e-learning appearance. Following the impact of COVID-19 on the different education management systems. Then discussing more on several strategies and management practices were developed by different countries to handle the situation. Finally, to describe the future of the education management and strategies in the long term after the pandemic seeking through gaps founded and future recommendations in various research.

2.1 Organization of The Review Search

Our literature review was conducted using a systematic approach, where the main purpose of a systematic approach is identifying and describing in the most comprehensive way, the topic that has been researched (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018), which in this case is the education management during COVID-19.

To find relevant articles for this literature review, the search engine databases were “Google Scholar”, “Scopus” and “JU Primo”. Also, the “snowballing technique” was used to search for relative articles. After reviewing the literature in the following sections, the following research framework map was made to make sense and sum up the theoretical frame of reference:

Figure 1: Research Map Source: Self Prepared Education

Management AND Covid-19

Normal Education Management

Transition to Distance Online Education and E-Learning Appearance of COVID-19 Impact of Covid-19 Education Management Impact on Students Impact on Teachers Impact on Courses Managing and handling

the situation Emergent Strategies

Grading Among Education Management

Gaps and Future Research The Future of Education

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Page | 6 2.2 Introduction to Education Management During COVID-19

2.2.1 Education Management

Education, as we know, is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world. Education has systematic stakeholders (Administration, academics and teachers, students, governments, etc.) and calendar around the world and at all levels of the education, management is needed. “Education management” which is defined as “in practice entails delegation, which involves being assigned, accepting and carrying the responsibility for the proper functioning of a system in which others participate in an educational institution, and implies an organizational hierarchy. ‘Carrying the responsibility’ is a metaphorical description of a state of mind and does not necessarily entail actions, though it implies them and frequently prompts them”. (Fertig et al., 2019 P.505). moreover, Fertig et al. (2019) sees the importance of the responsibility in education management with “who” is responsible and “for what” since Educational management necessitates a designated individual having the responsibility for the functioning of a system in which others participate in an educational institution". Also, it was stated that “education management supposed to be the process of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the activities of an institution by utilizing human and material resources so as to effectively and efficiently accomplish teaching and learning” (Nneka, 2020. P.236) and Education management, according to (Nneka 2020; Babalolo 2006), is about evolving, strategizing, planning, organizing, directing and supervising the whole process of teaching and learning which takes place at all levels of the formal education system.

Although scholars seek to recognize between administration and management, for example, Hughes (2012); Fertig et al. (2019) noticed that essential differences are not easy to sustain. That includes the major findings relates depends on the nature of responsibility. Positions in the upper levels of an organizational hierarchy noticed as management positions, with administration positions featuring lower down (Fertig et al.2019). That concludes that education management can be called as education administration.

Education management/administration for the higher education institutes with its multiple stakeholders has a huge responsibility, planning, organizing, directing, controlling and other processes due to the importance of the higher education on the society and in normal days is already facing challenges and problems. Beech and Anseel (2020) state that Higher education (HE), especially, Management and Business Education, is facing an unseen crisis. Business schools and learned societies are dealing with several pressing short-term problems that potentially threaten their existence.

2.2.2 Appearance of COVID-19

Under an electron microscope in December 2019, Chinese authorities noticed pneumonia of unknown cause among the citizens of Wuhan, China. On January 7th, 2020, the reason was detected - a new virus known as the Coronavirus, which causes a sickness called COVID-19. Twenty-three days later (January, the 30th), the World Health Organisation (hereafter: WHO)

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Page | 7 declared the Coronavirus as “public health emergency with international concerns” (WHO, 2020) – the start of the Coronavirus crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Daniel (2020) states that COVID-19 is the greatest challenge that the national wide education systems have ever faced. Also, Scott (2020) is describing the rapid changes in education as a ‘pivot’ where everything is put on the tip during the pandemic. On the other hand, Wu (2020) thinks we should use the change as an opportunity to measure the agility of the national education system. Also, Scott (2020) thinks it is important to use this period to take the opportunity and interrogate our past educational foundations and examinate if they are still relevant in a digital era. However, most of the educational institutions around the globe already had plans or had begun to use technology for increasing efficiency, but the outbreak of COVID-19 forced all educational institutions to make the transferring time to online learning go down from years ahead to just a few days.

In an attempt to handle the situation, many countries have implemented restrictive measures to reduce social gatherings and to promote social distancing. This meant the closure of higher learning institutions and a huge transition from traditional classroom-based teaching and learning to virtual approach. In fact, Education did not stop, instead online collaboration of Learning Management System and digital tools which ensured a safe distance (Ilieva and Ankova 2020). Although the Digital transition of the higher education was already a goal on European Union's Strategies for a long time through the introduction of new information and communication technologies (Ilieva and Ankova 2020), this sudden transition led to new online education era names as “e-learning”.

2.2.3 Distance Education and E-learning Transition

Distance education has a longer history than just during COVID-19, it was first introduced via mail and letter to remote villages. Later the inventions of the radio and television took over, in later years the possibility to use fiber and satellites have made it possible for us to have live teaching and formed the expression e-learning (Isman, 2011). Distance education and e-learning are nowadays only a computer-based teaching method, in which the communication between students and teachers is provided via the internet in cases where classroom education cannot be performed due to limitations to meet physically (Eygü and Karaman, 2013). According to Althunaibat (2020); Haghshenas (2019) e-learning refers to offer, organize and manage e-learning activities within a system, such as student enrolment, exams, assignments, course descriptions, lesson plans, messages, syllabus, basic course materials, etc. Also, (Ülker and Yılmaz, 2016; Holmes and Gardner, 2006; Yilmaz, 2012) defined e-learning which digital training contents are provided to participants through the internet, intranet or extranet connection and participants are provided with several options of communication. In general, e-learning is the ability to access learning tools (learning resources) anytime and anywhere. In General, the pandemic has necessitated the biggest and fastest transition of pedagogic and assessment practice in contemporary universities histories. This force pressure on education management and institutional systems of quality assurance and governance as well as increasing workload for faculty and professional staff. Moreover, COVID-19 caused, and is to some degree still causing, considerable stress, uncertainty, and work for faculty (Brammer and Clark, 2020). However, some

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Page | 8 benefits are also seen: the distance education is better for the sustainability when students and teachers don’t need to transport to meet (Akinbadewa and Sofowora, 2020). Another benefit is the reduced educations costs (Al-Husban, 2020).

2.3 Impact of COVID-19 on Education Management

This sudden transition led to disorder in processes of planning, organizing and other various processes in the education management. In fact, that effect happened due to the impact of COVID-19 on different education management system parties (students, teachers and courses). Also, it impacted the strategies and management practices to handle this situation and the future of the education management and strategies with further points for future research and recommendations. Ratten, (2020); DeVany, (2020) noticed that the impact of COVID-19 on the global education system has been deep and impacted all areas of teaching, research and service. The impact on education management for higher education was also noticed when Ilieva and Yankova, (2020) stated that the outbreak of infection has resulted in the suspension of teaching and studying processes, changed course schedules with lower attendance, led to unsatisfied examination results and in the long run will likely adversely affect over the students’ careers. However, Ratten, (2020); Ratten, (2017) states that within this online transition universities have had to think differently and obtain new learning, teaching and engagement practices within social distancing. This has meant that universities have dived into a new digital world, much of which is unparalleled territory to adapt to the new environment. This crisis on the education management for universities discovered for various positive sides, although Doyle and Brady, (2018) state that the outcomes in the emergent paradigm are not always predicted since they are not simply random or merely fortuitous. Much of the media focus on the impact of COVID-19 on education has had a negative side without considering the positive effects in terms of a rapid increase in digital skills and practices (Ratten, 2020; Parnell et al., 2020). Ratten, (2020); Williams et al., (2017) sees that the impact of a crisis depends on how an entity handles it, which means entities who see a crisis as an opportunity to learn will perceive it in a more favorable way. A crisis gives entities a chance to change and learn very quickly (Ratten, 2020; Grewal and Tansuhaj, 2001). Brammer and Clark, (2020) noticed that one of the most positive experiences of COVID-19 to witness the scale, scope, speed, and quality of colleagues’ adaptation to new circumstances and the receptivity within our communities to experiment with new ways of engaging with teaching and research. Even more, according to Stewart and Khan (2021) when circumstances change, new thinking is needed that would take into account the changes within the context and purposefully pursue targeted outcomes under challenging circumstances.

2.3.1 Impact of COVID - 19 on Students

According to Brammer and Clark, (2020) students are the business school’s most affected stakeholder throughout the pandemic and were at the forefront of business school’s minds when designing and implementing responses, also COVID-19 had led to significant numbers of students experiencing hardship, including international students that are stranded in their country of study throughout the pandemic. In fact, Ratten, (2020); DeVaney et al. (2020) states that at the peak of disruption during April 2020, more than 1.6 billion students were affected, which represents over

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Page | 9 91% of students in the world. Beech and Anseel, (2020) noticed that a potential drop in student numbers has led to financial insecurity, recruitment freezes and possibly mergers and take-overs in the sector. During the COVID-19 crisis students’ needs and behaviors got changed (Ratten, 2020). The lives of students have been changed in many ways, including the loss of internships, dislocations from their homes and campuses and the need to adapt with new technologies in addition to the content area (Krishnamurthy, 2020; Govindarajan and Srivastava, 2020). Problems that have been raised from the students during the COVID-19 are generally related to the process of understanding the lessons such as that teachers cover the topic too quickly. Other problems are technical problems, getting feedback, limited interaction, lack of motivation and longing for the school environment (Hebebci et al., 2020). Bao (2020) is on the same track and thinks that the problems will not occur from technical issues, the student is rather facing problems with learning attitude, which is an outcome of lack of self-discipline, suitable learning materials or a good environment when they must stay at home. Several important skills that can be helpful to learn in campus learning such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are valued in business (Ratten, 2020; Ferreira et al., 2017). As the opposite of online learning, the classroom learning method is more realistic, where students have an opportunity to debate, deliberate, and discuss with their class teachers and friends (Mseleku, 2020; Radha et al., 2020). Furthermore, during COVID-19 students tend to only communicate over digital media, rather than face to face when sharing ideas, even though the information seems to get through much of information and ideas is partly missing because of the lack of the missing physicals meetings (Britt, 2006). In addition, the open-ended learning environment provides a method to increase interpersonal and communication skills. These soft skills are increasingly being needed in society because of more emphasis on personability (Ratten, 2020; Ratten and Jones, 2018). In contrast, Student bodies are becoming more interested in the student experience and linkage to job outcomes. This means that students must be prepared for the types of skills they require in the workforce. To handle this the gap between education and job skills needs to be narrowed to consider emerging workplace trends. Recently, there has been more investment in work skills that incorporate some form of digital technology. This is useful to deal with the workforce requirements derived from the digital age. In addition, because of the frequently changing world individuals are reskilling to acquire needed skills. This means that lifelong learning is encouraged to acquire skills that are needed in the digital age (Ratten, 2020). For the last or second last year students the COVID-19 crisis can be affecting much more the just their education, moving from undergraduate to graduate education or moving to employment have some extra challenges during COVID-19. The research made by Daniel (2020) does show that many of the students doing these critical transitions are worrying for the long-time disadvantages compared to those who had a “normal” graduation and moved to the “working life”. Also, Sahu (2020) thinks students may get a serious impact on their future careers because of COVID when the students graduate.

The big change and online teaching have increased the grade of stress that students are exposed to (Sahu, 2020). For the international students not only the stress about school, health and safety are an issue, they also have big concerns for the wellbeing of their family’s that are often in another country far away (Watson and Sottile 2010). To ensure the health and wellbeing of students, consulting services in mental health as well as general wellbeing should be available (Sahu, 2020). Any student having a problem with heightened anxiety about COVID-19 should have proper

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Page | 10 psychological support to consult them (Al-Rabiaah et al., 2020). Furthermore, if a student does not have the possibility to attend an online class because of illness or other disturbance the university should have indulgence with this and make sure that material is available after the session and that the student's grades are not impacted.

2.3.2 Impact of COVID - 19 on Teachers

As Almaiah et al., (2020) state that online learning is not new to learners, nor is distance learning. However, COVID-19 is calling for the need to discover online teaching and learning opportunities. Moreover, Mseleku, (2020) states that academics or teachers act as a critical role in their respective higher education institutions as facilitators of online learning. All of that concludes the vital role of the teachers in the education management for this online transition era. Mseleku, (2020) concluded that both students and academics were not prepared for an online learning experience in this pandemic era. COVID-19 impacted educators and showed significant health and workplace implications particularly for educators (Ratten, 2020; Bacq et al., 2020). In fact, academics did not have sufficient time to have better knowledge and adapt for the new technologies of teaching platforms (Mseleku, 2020; Burgess and Sievertsen, 2020; Chen et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020). Furthermore, some of them showed the lack of knowledge in information technologies which affected directly to their understanding of online teaching and that resulted in the education management process for the institution (Mseleku, 2020; Chen et al., 2020). The lack of knowledge may cause academics to try follow their old teaching tracks, Scott (2020) thinks one of the greatest risks of the education during COVID-19 is that everybody strives to get as close to “normal” education as possible, without asking themselves if the prior curriculum was suitable for online education for students and supervisors. Moreover, Scott (2020) argues that school-management should ask themself if the best way of teaching online is just to copy the methods from face-to-face teaching. Academics within this transition face-to-face some various problems such as knowing how to arrange online classes, how to carry out online teaching according to the plan without hurting the education management process, choosing the suitable online teaching platform, and knowing how to monitor the effect and quality of online teaching, which will lead to the decrease in user satisfaction (Mseleku, 2020; Chen et al., 2020; Goh and Sandars, 2020; Teras et al., 2020). Also, some dilemmas about how to engage with students in an online format while keeping the same level of interaction as face-to-face formats (Ratten, 2020; Weick and Sutcliffe, 2011). Those educators are looking to incorporate more real-life scenarios might consider the impact of technology on interaction and the availability of real-life scenarios (Ratten, 2020; Palalic et al., 2017). Having a practical and real-life environment is important considerations for educators, so they should need to urgently incorporate an entrepreneurial mindset since the education sector affects many other parts of society (Ratten., 2020). Other teachers are lifting up problems such as network issues and lack of awareness by the students (Hebebci et al., 2020). However, the biggest problem from Hebebci et al., (2020) study is experienced by the teachers during the pandemic is the lack of interaction, to make this better Hebebci, et al., (2020) suggests increasing the questions and answers during the teaching session.

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Page | 11 2.3.3 Impact of COVID - 19 on Courses

Another impact caused by COVID-19 that links between the students and teachers in the education system which is the impact on courses. Since this emergent pandemic crisis affected the whole education management system, without a doubt it affected the courses in education too. Mseleku, (2020); Wahid et al. (2020) further argued that online learning is particularly not suitable for students who study sciences in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics as conducting experimental learning is nearly impossible online. Although Liguori and Winkler, (2020) state that business students obtain most of their business basics from their business core classes and not only or primarily from an entrepreneurship classroom despite that there is overlap, this transition in the education system also affected the entrepreneurship education since it is not novel and it has failed to obtain a widespread adoption, in part because contemporary approaches to entrepreneurship education stress the need for deliberate practice, real-world immersion, and experiential approaches (Liguori, and Winkler, 2020; Kassean et al., 2015; Neck and Green, 2011; Neck et al., 2014). Another concern by Zhong, (2020) is the problems that occurs in courses, especially in times of change like COVID-19. These problems have generally been discussed with the relevant course instructor face to face, however, because of the online learning a delayed as occurred. Problems are more often communicated via email during COVID-19 rather than oral, it takes much more time and effort to pinpoint the problem to inform the course instructor in this way of communication.

The fast transition did give no time to teachers to put complex plans for online learning in work, plans that normally have a time horizon of years. Because of this, Daniel (2020) recommends teachers to work with what they know and already have, giving full attention to reassuring students are much more important than trying to implement new pedagogy’s more suitable for online teaching. Daniel (2020) emphasizes that it is not necessary to have all material available online at fixed times, instead it is better for students to have an on-demand access where students can find materials on their own. Furthermore, Daniel (2020) thinks teachers can check the participation periodically and only make online announcements for creating an asynchronous digital classroom where teachers and students get room to breathe and work when they are available. However, Daniel (2020) also thinks that it is very important to still follow the curriculum and use assessments or examinations for having fixed points and goals. Also, Sahu (2020) thinks the impact of the assessment and evaluation may be grate duo to the change to online teaching. Scott (2020) is taking the assessment problem to another level and arguing whether or not the assessments should be changed to be fairer to all students and what teachers can do to support the social connections between students, one solution for this may be to arrange virtual groups one eating lunch. To make the students keep up the interest, which is one of the hardest parts. To keep up the interest for the full semester Daniel (2020) recommend varying the assignments and examinations by type and structure, also Bao (2020) recommend various methods to modify the students' homework and in that way strengthen the active learning by students.

2.4 Strategies for Managing Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

Today, society faces several problems caused by the COVID-19 crisis that requires new knowledge and strategies (Ratten and Jones, 2020). After this pandemic crisis emerged, managing

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Page | 12 education for this new era is still challenging due to changing environmental conditions resulting from digital transition more entrepreneurial skills are needed (Ratten and Jones, 2020; Jones et al., 2017). This is particularly evident and in knowledge-intensive industries that are characterized by the requirement for innovation. Secondly, the COVID-19 pandemic needs an entrepreneurial mindset to adapt with the change. This helps to build creative thinking but also resilience needed in the new economic context (Ratten and Jones, 2020; Jones et al., 2018). Not only teachers but educational designers, executives, administrators, examiners, system designers and even the students (multiple stakeholders in the education management) are being asked to change their thinking about how formal higher education is delivered and learned and who is responsible for that learning. Also, solutions require new approaches, and these may build as enactors work collaboratively on them. Each of the stakeholders’ responsibilities must be balanced and weighed up. Enactors must seek support and engage in an adaptive design challenge Stewart and Khan (2021). It is therefore argued that effective online teaching and learning system needs proper planning and adequate investment (Mseleku, 2020; Demuyakor,2020). Also, universities must develop innovative ways to deliver teaching without compromising quality (Mseleku, 2020; Ratten, 2020).

Successful use of an e-learning system depends on understanding and handling adaption factors and the challenges that face the current e-learning system (Almaiah et al., 2020). Trying to investigate more about these factors and challenges, (Almaiah et al., 2020; Al Kenan et al., 2013; Chen and Tseng, 2012) classified the challenges that affect the actual use of e-learning into four categories: management challenges, technological challenges, implementation challenges and cultural challenges. Also, Almaiah et al., (2020) identified further findings of the critical challenges facing the usage of E-learning system during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are Change management issues (that change management is one of the challenging issues, since it touches government policies and legislation, students, and instructor) and E-learning system technical issues (e-learning system must be easier to use in order to ensure the student’s efficacy regarding his/her capacity to use it).

This implements the need for a definition called as Education Innovation Strategies “defined as commitments to improving or using new teaching and learning practices” (Ratten, 2020, P.758). Many authors state that well-defined and executed strategies lead to sustainable business and growth (Fenech et al., 2020; Carpenter and Sanders, 2013; Lynch, 2018; Wheelen et al., 2018; David and David, 2016; Coulter and Coulter, 2008). This concludes that it is crucial for administrators of educational institutions to develop an effective strategic plan that would likely prevent the occurrence of a crisis event or minimize the impact if one occurs (Wang and Hutchins, 2010).

Hebebci et al., (2020) finds that the biggest problem experienced by the teachers is the lack of interaction, the problem makes distance education not suitable for informal, spontaneous and open discussion in the virtual classrooms. The lack of interaction in distance education is related to a low involvement, lack of communication and problems to connect. To make this better Hebebci et al., (2020) suggests increasing the questions and answers during the teaching session. Bao (2020) Has several suggestions teachers can do to enhance the learning outcome of online education, to

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Page | 13 start with Bao (2020) thinks it is important to divide the teaching session into smaller parts, each lasting 20-25min to keep the focus from students. Another recommendation is that teachers should slow down their speech to make sure students understand the key points, teachers are also recommended by Bao (2020) to have a discussion section where student can exchange their understanding and viewpoints. To keep the online sessions as effective as possible and make them more interesting for students, Bao (2020) also recommend teachers to hand out readings and short submissions before classes.

Emergent strategies are developed through active experimenting, learning, and adjusting (Fenech et al., 2020; Lynch, 2018). Even more, it was noticed majorly that emergent strategies got developed more by experimenting and thereby building experience. In fact, According to Fenech et al., (2020) participants with previous experience of mixed learning and online learning described how such experiences helped them in the process of adapting to a new teaching strategy that was fully online. Also, Other participants had concrete experience in using little online tools within a face-to-face teaching environment, which they also described as helpful in times of emergent teaching strategies. That concluded in Fenech et al., (2020) study and this conclusion connects with Mitroff’s crisis management model (Wang and Hutchins, 2010). The main finding is that emergent teaching strategies in times of crisis develop from concrete experience, observation, reflection, active experimentation, diverging (viewing situation from many perspectives and brainstorming) and accommodation (carrying out plans and experiments and adapting to immediate circumstances. In the alternative, emergent, paradigm, the change leader is not just an observer or interpreter of events but is a committed participant immersed in whatever interactions are at play. The role of change leaders is extended beyond the application of trusted models and methods learned from past experience in effecting change to the engagement with others in making sense of a complex and uncertain present, collectively sensing what may emerge from this context and co-creating responses and actions deal with it (Doyle and Brady, 2018; Bushe and Marshak, 2016).

2.4.1 Implementing Strategies in Education Management During COVID-19

Higher education institutes are in a rapid constant change due to increasing needs in contemporary society. This brings the necessity of reforming and restructuring the universities to become more responsive to the requirements of the global knowledge-based society (Scaglione et al., 2019; Marginson, 2010). Also, the problem is the rate of change in the world is too fast and high for this educational structure to sustain (Krishnamurthy, 2020). Moreover, Managers at universities need to incorporate this ambiguity into their forecasting about future trends, so thinking in a proactive and futuristic manner (Ratten, 2020). In fact, the main case for implementing this emergent approach is that the complex and constantly evolving environment in which higher education operates needs a more complex conceptualization of strategizing for change (Doyle and Brady, 2018, Askling and Stensaker, 2002; Manning, 2013; Stewart et al., 2016). Within this complex environment, leaders must still attend to the processes that keep the institution functioning effectively. They must continuously analyze and be seen to respond to the evident needs of students, staff and other stakeholders.

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Page | 14 The existing crisis also creates opportunities to rethink our focus and role in the society (Beech and Anseel, 2020). Following the crisis management plans especially Mitroff’s and emergent strategies discussed previously, it was found that several strategies in education were implemented and would be helpful to build on. Bao (2020) did a case study at Peaking University in China after concluding challenges in the online education. That resulted in several instructional strategies that support the education management processes during COVID-19 and these strategies got developed through experiment, learning and adjusting. Bao (2020) instructional strategies stated that firstly, making emergency prepared plans for unexpected problems to solve all kinds of unexpected issues timely. In fact, faculty need to prepare Plan B or even Plan C before education start and inform students in advance. That would match the first two phases of Mitroff’s crisis management model (signal detection and probing/preparation). Second, dividing the teaching content into smaller units to help students concentrate content of the in-class teaching into different topics and extract a modular teaching method. Third, emphasizing the use of “voice” in teaching. Therefore, in online teaching, it should appropriately slow down their speech in order to allow students to capture key knowledge points. These two strategies can be stated as in the third (containment/damage limitation) and fourth (business recovery) phases in Mitroff’s model, which they allow the university to respond to the education management processes, strategies and planning, so further damage in the education process is prevented and enact procedures to continue normal business activities. Fourth, working with teaching assistants and obtain online supports from them that would implement the no-fault learning phase in Mitroff’s model. Following the re-design phase in Mitroff’s model, Bao (2020) state in the strategy that fifth, strengthening students' active learning ability outside class, which recommended that faculty should use various methods to moderately modify students' homework and reading requirements to strengthen students' active learning outside of class. Sixth, a recommendation for combining online learning and offline self-learning effectively.

In addition, COVID-19 is leading to major structural change in Higher education, forced by the competitive dynamics of brand strength, shifting student demands, the development and generating of new learning technologies, the reduction in international students, and the entry of large technology companies into the market (Brammer and Clark 2020). Following this, Immersive technologies such as discussed reality have become more popular in education fields such as engineering that require practical examples. This has meant a quick need for the use of artificial intelligence as a teaching tool to complement existing methods (Ratten, 2020). In fact, in the world of AI and automation, learning can come from many directions. Also, Using AI-based career planning and management since technology tools are now expected by students not just for instruction, but also for other aspects of their experience (Krishnamurthy 2020).

Sahu (2020) Suggest making a task force to deal with COVID-19, the task force is suggested to be put together with members from different parts of the university such as academics, human recourses, health staff, student fairs, facility management, enrollment management and other stakeholders of the university. Sahu (2020) recommends that the task force should meet regularly to make the decisions that are critical. Lim (2020) is also suggesting that a training program for all personal teaching students should be implemented as fast as possible to tackle the online learning platform. Furthermore, Lim (2020) suggests that students should be extra well informed about exams, assignments and projects to ensure no information gets lost in all the information flow

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Page | 15 during online teaching. To ensure this students and staff should receive regular email or other notifications not only about upcoming tasks, but also general information. The make sure the transitions go smooth teachers should carefully pay attention to students experiences to make the new way of teaching richer and more effective (Sahu, 2020).

2.5 Grading Among Education Management in Sweden

“Grading is positions grouping on certain grounds (the definition of “weight,” classification, etc.) aiming to standardize remuneration in an organization” (Kirillov et al., 2015. P. 174; Chemekov, 2007). Moreover, “Grading refers to the symbols assigned to individual pieces of student work or composite measures of student performance on student report cards” (Brookhart et al., 2016. P. 804). The grading targets for assessing all positions and management levels depending on their results impact independently either this is a company or Higher Education Institution (Kirillov et al., 2015). In school you get the lesson first and then the test, but in life you get the test and then the lesson (Haskins, 2006). Grades are strictly equivalent with the quality, breadth and depth of students’ academic achievement and internationally having grades to represent levels of academic achievement is almost universal practice (Sadler, 2009). Grading is important as many students care mostly in their graduation process not in learning, understanding, and knowledge, but also the received grade. In fact, students find themselves struggling for good grades since these are a prerequisite for later getting the best chances on the labour market (Ehlers and Schwager, 2016). Moreover, the transition to the online education might have a serious problem that is already struggling in the normal education called the grade inflation, which Ehlers and Schwager (2016) stated that it is when students receive better grades without any corresponding increase in ability. In Sweden it is up to the individual teacher to set the grade based on the performance of the student (Jönsson, n.d.). Therefore, the reliability of teacher’s assessment, especially when it up to the individual teacher to set them has been questioned, and the outcome may be a significant influence on the life for thousands of the individual l students each year in Sweden (Swedish National Agency of Education, 2019). Today there is a large difference between the assigned grade by the teachers and the test exams results in most of the subjects in Sweden (Swedish National Agency of Education, 2019). Going one step further, the term ‘grading’ in Sweden, refers to decide about a student’s overall performance in relation to the grading criteria of a course (Jönsson, n.d.). Furthermore, grading criteria is also closely related to the assessment because grading is simply based on the assessment, therefore both should be discussed when looking into the students learning outcome (Dahlgren, 2009). There is also data that shows that the judgment criteria’s have a significant effect on students’ overall performance and learning. Furthermore, the way assessments are done have shown effecting what the student’s choice of focus and learning approach (Dahlgren, 2009).

2.6 The Future of Education Management

Following up a prolonged pandemic will require Universities to obtain flexible and resilient models of education that enable continuous adaptation to different phases of the “new normal”. (Brammer and Clark 2020). Moreover, Business schools must keep in consideration that the transition is taking place not just with their current students, but also with their future students and

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Page | 16 it should pay attention to how the pandemic is shifting contours in the business world (Krishnamurthy 2020). Moving forward in the future, it seems that even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides there will be an existing legacy of online learning (Ratten, 2020; Kirk and Rifkin, 2020). However, over 50% of the teachers think this period will make the future online teaching better, still they think it will never replace traditional education in school (Hebebci, Bertizand Alan, 2020). However, Scott (2020) thinks it is important to use this period of extraordinary time to take the opportunity and interrogate our past educational foundations and examinate if they are still relevant in a digital era.

According to Govindarajan and Srivastava (n.d.), universities will be in multiple pathways and they should select one of these strategies for the education management paths after the pandemic: “Augmented Immersive Residential Model” which insists on having the normal life back but with developed question of how can the new digital capabilities make the residential experience even better? “Hybrid Model” which is a combination between the residential model and online learning but using the gap of determining the varying degrees of face-to-face, real-time virtual, and asynchronous-virtual experiences required for each course and determining offerings can only be manifested in person. “Fully Online Model” where is the opposite of the first model.

2.7 Gaps and future research

Following up with the discussion in the previous sections and seeking for further gaps summed as the following:

• There were many studies about education management from different higher education countries when it comes to the level of digitalization and teaching strategies, but today there is a lack of published studies of education management from Sweden higher education about COVID-19 just concerning about the education for the levels below university although higher education in Sweden combines the perspective from both students and teachers as it is on the concept ‘freedom with responsibility’. This means that students have somewhat less teacher-led time than is usual elsewhere. In fact, a large part of the learning process in Sweden takes place outside of the classroom, with students mainly pursuing their studies on their own or in groups.

• As education management is about evolving, strategizing, planning, organizing, directing, and supervising the whole process of teaching and learning, there was a lack of discussion about the emergent strategies and crisis management plans effect and techniques from the student’s perspective and mostly from teachers only although students act a major role in the education management since mostly focused on teachers and teaching. Moreover, this point would be supportive to the higher education Sweden concept as students are playing a vital role. • One of the aspects in education management is strategizing and it was mentioned various topics

within strategizing the teaching and continuing education. However, there was a lack of studies published for the strategies in grading during the pandemic, although it was mentioned previously that many students care mostly in their graduation process not in learning, understanding, and knowledge, but also the received grade. In fact, students find themselves struggling for good grades as these are a requirement for later getting the best chances on the

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Page | 17 labour market. Also, Grades are strictly equivalent with the quality, breadth and depth of students’ academic achievement.

• Lack of discussion about the education management strategizing and planning during COVID-19 for the courses like engineering, entrepreneurship and others, which combines between experiments and scientific knowledge.

On the other hand, there were several points for further research. Beech and Anseel (2020) see that management research needs to fit in the business and societal stakeholders in the research process, not only as end-users but as co-designers of research questions and design. Zhang et al., (2020) state that it is difficult to predict the duration of the emergency that would be creating a great challenge for educational activities. It has not been able to answer questions such as what the characteristics and modes of online education are and how teaching can be connected during and after the epidemic. Liguori and Winkler (2020) state two points in the event for entrepreneurship education and would be the same for the courses that combine the scientific education and laboratory experiments. First, teaching students to adapt to market conditions, to remain agile, and to innovate, so this is a major challenge to practice. Second, there is not yet developed the tools and capacity necessary to aware that it is possible to do effectively in an online format, despite there likely being much more capability to do. There is a central question that is of interest to many is whether online learning is better and effective than class-based learning since it is related to the education management definition. Few studies (Mseleku, 2020; Flores and Gago, 2020; Mariia, and Strzelecki, 2020; Wargadinata et al., 2020; Wendelboe et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020) tried to address this puzzle. Moreover, Mseleku (2020) addressed that there is few and limited research about the impact of COVID-19 on students' academic performance and this is probably due to lack of data that measures academic outcomes during the COVID-19 period. Finally, Wang and Hutchins (2010) stated that more cases need to be studied to enrich our understanding of crisis management practices in the educational setting. Particularly, it should be encouraged for researchers to study cases of success to identify “the best practices” in crisis management. Although this point from Wang and Hutchins (2010) is important, however, there was a lack of research and connection to education management during a crisis such as this COVID-19 pandemic. Also, it might be transferred into several strategies “the best strategies” that can handle the education management during this crisis and pandemic.

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Page | 18 3. Methodology

3.1 Research Design

The role of research designs is to obtain the structure of study activities to facilitate the achievement of the purpose of the research. Exploratory experiments appear to develop from the discovery of such phenomena and instead seek to investigate certain particular phenomena (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018; Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2009).

The general summary of our methodology to find the answers for our research questions is illustrated in the following framework:

• How has higher education management changed along the online transition from the perspective of students and teachers?

• How has grading strategy changed along the online transition in Sweden?

Figure 2: Research Design Structure Source: Self Prepared

Research Philosophy

Ontology: Relativistic

Epistemology: Social Constructivism

Research Approach Inductive Approach

Research Method Case Method: Single Case Study

Primary Data Collection Semi-Structure Interviews

Primary Data Analysis

Grounded Analysis

- Goal: Generalize from data to themes.

- Result: Generalization of themes, description of qualities, propositions.

Qualitative Research.

Semi–Structured Interviews with different students and teachers (lecturers and administrator role).

Constant comparison (data-data, data-theory); construct definition).

One Swedish Higher education Institute: Jönköping University.

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Page | 19 In this research, through the literature review it was found within the gaps a lack of stated strategies and plans of education management for higher education in Sweden although it was found a variety of strategies are applied between different countries to ensure the education management during this crisis when it comes to the level of digitalization and teaching strategies in higher education institutes. Moreover, these founded education management practices from different countries were from teachers’ perspectives without considering students, although there was well research on the impact on students and student is the most important stakeholder. Furthermore, education management involved planning and strategizing teaching and learning, but there was a lack of studies published for the grading strategies during the pandemic.

Regarding this, it would be a great opportunity to search combining these arguments as they can be found in the higher education of Sweden. As a result, that would lead to propose a framework of strategies that would ensure the education management for high education in Sweden when it comes to the level of digitization during COVID-19.

According to Patton (2015) illuminate meanings, study how things work, study people’s perspectives and experiences, study how do system works and what are the consequences, understand how and why context matters, identify unintended consequences and making comparisons to discover important patterns and themes across cases are the seven contributions for qualitative research. Therefore, it was chosen a qualitative research study to explore the previously defined research problems.

3.2 Research philosophy

The philosophical view is a major concern to the authors, to explain the way the data is used and analyzed. In fact, for any research activity, the philosophical factors effect on the delivery outcomes. Moreover, knowledge of philosophy can help researchers to realize which designs will be effective (Easterby-Smith M. et al., 2018). According to Ontology of research describes how the author defines the nature of reality. Furthermore, Epistemology is defined as the assumptions about the best ways of inquiring into the nature of the world (Easterby-Smith M. et al., 2018). A relativistic perspective in ontology has been applied because the authors think there will be many different views and answers depending on whose perspective you are looking from. In epistemology, it was chosen social constructivism position to be an interactive way to work with this research as the idea of ‘reality’ is determined by people rather than by objective and external factors, moreover, as students and teachers are part of what is being observed and the authors are also interacting with the interview persons when we are gathering our data.

3.3 Research Approach

Three main research approaches are existing which are abductive, inductive, and deductive (Saunders, 2016). The structure of thinking between data checking of current theories and constructing theories of gathered different evidence varies between these approaches (Collis, 2014). Deductive research is developing hypotheses (or a hypothesis) based on current established theories and then establish a testing method to evaluate the hypothesis by empirical observation. Inductive research is a method that generates a theory from data (Collis, 2014). Therefore, the

Education Management During COVID-19 : A Single Case Study of Swedish Higher Education Institute Jönköping University