Chapter 1: Introduction: Our Story and Our Methods

The field of educational psychology has undergone profound transformations in recent years, driven primarily by the rapid integration of technology into the realms of teaching and learning.

One result of this rapid expansion of technology is the growth of online, hybrid, and blended learning. Enrollment in online courses has increased steadily for more than a decade, with the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerating this trend (Hamilton, 2023; World Economic Forum, 2022). While some online course design is grounded in the 20-year history of research on effective online instruction, including appropriate selection and integration of technology and facilitation of communities of learners in the online classroom, the pandemic prompted what is more appropriately called emergency remote teaching, where courses that were designed to be taught in-person were abruptly converted to an online format to respond to the emergency (Hodges et al., 2020). This period of rapid change has expanded the horizons of education but has also posed unprecedented challenges to educators, students, and researchers. These challenges are especially salient to university faculty in teacher preparation programs, who must simultaneously adapt their own teaching to the changing conditions and provide guidance for their students who will soon need to do the same in their own classrooms.