Lucy Mackintosh, University of Hertfordshire, UK

Goetz [1] defines compassion as ‘the ability to notice physical or social distress in others and take action to address it’, with active listening, empathy, desire to help, inclusivity, understanding emotions, promoting silence, and creating a safe space being the main components of compassion in a teaching environment [2]. To understand the importance of compassion in teaching for student success, this study focusses on how an increased use of online teaching has negatively affected compassionate teaching and how that relates to student satisfaction. The present study uses a self-developed survey measure, in which, 44 undergraduate psychology students from each year group anonymously rate the use of the compassionate components. The results showed a significant correlation between hours of face-to-face teaching and compassionate scores and compassionate and enjoyment scores. Future research should consider how implementing compassion pedagogy in online learning affects enjoyment scores

COVID-19, Coronavirus, Online Teaching, Compassion, Higher Education