University Professor’s Digital Image: Transition from Conventional

Image in the COVID-19 Pandemic Period

Tatiana Isaeva

Rostov State Transport University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Keywords: Image, University Professor’s Digital Image, Self-presentation, Higher Education, The Covid 19 Pandemic.

Abstract: Penetrated into pedagogical research from PR, advertising and politics, the concept of "image" is actively

used to describe the ideal portrait of a university professor and his/her most demanded professional skills. As

a result of rapid spreading of electronic technologies into the educational process of universities, especially

during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become possible to form university professor’s digital image. The

relevance of this study lies in the fact that the essence of "professor’s digital image", its content and structure,

as well as the ways of posting information in the electronic environment have been studied not sufficiently.

In the paper, several trends in the scientific interpretation of the concept of "image" were identified, and the

author's definition of the concept of "university professor’s digital image" was also suggested. The structure

and main functions of the professor's digital image, developed for the first time, convince that its purposeful

formation should be perceived as a compulsory element of the professional activity of a university educator,

since the digital image not only contributes to the growth of professor’s authority and recognition, but can

also attract more interested agents to interact with the university.

1 INTRODUCTION

Any achievements in the service industries are

inextricably linked with the concept of "image", i.e.

with the perception of an object or person in the mass

consciousness. It is quite logical that in recent years

this concept has been applied to a university professor

(by the term "university professor" we mean all

teaching staff of higher educational institutions

(hereinafter HEI), regardless of the position held). As

A. Mynbayeva and K. Yessenova state: “Personal

image contributes to professional's competitiveness

in the labor market, especially in the modern

globalizing world ... it encourages personal self-

fulfillment through recognition by the society and

personal success” (Mynbayeva and Yessenova,

2016). In most cases, the professor's image is

considered as a set of ideas about the activities of a

university educator, “expressively coloured

stereotype”, formed on the basis of information

provided by the media or discussed in the family

(Luchinkina et al., 2019); the educator’s ability to

identify himself with the academic community and

experience loyalty to his / her HEIs (Rodrígueza et

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7338-9198

al., 2019).

The surveys of students, their parents and

colleagues as target groups, with which a professor

has the closest contacts, are conventional sources of

ideas about his/her image (Guzhva, 2017; Mynbayeva

and Yessenova, 2016).

However, this interpretation of the concept of

"professor's image" seems insufficient due to the

changes in the professional activities of university

faculty as a result of the transition to remote learning

during the COVID-19 pandemic and the boom in the

use of various electronic technologies and conference

platforms during two recent years. Moreover, the

researchers draw attention to the fact that in the

modern electronic educational environment, the

university educator has real conditions for active

formation of his/her digital image in order to present

professional activities and the results achieved in

accordance with the updated goals (Lukashenko et al.,

2021). Thus, the professor’s image can be formed not

only spontaneously, but also purposefully

(Mynbayeva and Yessenova, 2016). However, as the

analysis of scientific publications proves, studies of

the digital image in this direction, its nature, structure,

Isaeva, T.

University Professor’s Digital Image: Transition from Conventional Image in the COVID-19 Pandemic Period.

DOI: 10.5220/0011119100003439

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference "COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals" (RTCOV 2021), pages 273-279

ISBN: 978-989-758-617-0

273

methods of location in the electronic environment

have not been conducted yet.

Therefore, the purpose of our research is to

identify the nature of the university professor’s image

as a whole, and also his/her digital image as a special

form of self-presentation and self-actualization in the

electronic environment.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

Both theoretical (critical study and analysis of

scientific publications in Philosophy, Pedagogy,

Psychology, Sociology, synthesis, comparison,

generalization) and practical (questionnaire and

online survey) methods of research were used to find

the changes in the professor’s image during COVID-

19 pandemic.

The study involved 38 respondents, who

presented all levels of university staff, of different age

groups and gender, working at 7 universities of the

Russian Federation. The data were collected by

means of electronic survey.

3 RESULTS

3.1 To the Meaning of the Term

“Image”

During many centuries, there have been many

complications with the word “image” in science,

firstly, due to its polysemy and, secondly because of

dissimilarity of its meanings in different languages.

In Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic

English, the word “image” has the following

meanings: a picture (visual or mental), a statue, a

reflection, an appearance, a representation, exact

counterpart of something / somebody else, a

generalized idea or reputation that other people have

of the person, organization or the goods, the

impression that a person, an organization, a product,

etc. gives to the public (Oxford Dictionary).

So, the first layer of scientific contradictions arose

due to availability of various meanings of the word

“image” connected with different ways of our

perception of an object (visual, mental, verbal, etc.).

Besides, the word “image” can be used in two

opposite connotations: on the one hand, it implies to

be only a copy of the real object, on the other hand,

we can judge ourselves to what extent this copy is

faithful and accurate. Moreover, image as a term is

connected with a very significant issue that is called

“the fundamental question of Philosophy”: how we

perceive the reality; if this reality and these images

can exist without us; how exact our impressions and

ideas are; and what our conscience adds to the

images. It was this quite complicated and

contradictory nature of the concept “image” that gave

it the status of the interdisciplinary term.

With the development of trade in the 20-th

century, the word “image” acquired the meaning

connected with the attempts of a person, a product or

an organization to become highly popular thanks to

his or its appearance, high achievements or quality

and capability to keep this popularity for rather long

time. Since that period, the word “image” has been

borrowed in a number of other languages from

English, precisely in this very meaning. To

distinguish it from the meanings of “a reflection”, “a

figure”, other lexical units exist in some languages,

for example, in Russian − “obraz” or in German −

“die Gestalt”, though, in the English language,

polysemy of “image” has increased even more. Since

many scientific articles are written in English, this

semantic contradiction have given rise for a new

wave of misunderstanding or misuse of the term

“image”.

3.2 Image as One of the Fundamental

Concepts in Philosophy

In historical terms, "image" not as a word, but as a

concept was known even in Ancient Egypt, where

every effort was made to achieve the maximum

similarity between the pharaohs and the existing

concept of the celestials: in skin complexion,

eyebrow shape, clothing, etc.

In Antiquity, the foundations of modern

imagology were laid: the greatest popularity in

society is achieved by a person whose spiritual purity

is combined with physical beauty or strength,

therefore, the ways of forming the image of rulers and

sovereigns were an integral part of ancient

philosophy.

The Renaissance highlighted the visual perception

of the image of a person, his/her beauty and harmony

with nature as one of the prerogatives. The

importance of the image was especially vividly

described in the works of N. Machiavelli, who noted

that the inner qualities of the ruler would not be

immediately visible to those around him, but special

attention should be paid to his image: “Everyone sees

what you appear to be, few really know what you are,

and those few dare not oppose themselves to the

opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the

state to defend them” (Machiavelli, Ch. 18, 2019).

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The era of capitalism brought with it the

awareness of the need to “serve the goods in the best

possible way,” therefore, in the works of Francis

Bacon, antiquity is criticized for inattention to

manners, human behaviour, ability to conduct a

conversation, use facial expressions and other non-

verbal means of communication. At the same time,

the philosopher recognized situations when a person

had to play a different role, to pretend if he wanted to

achieve success (Bacon, 2011).

Theoretical ideas related to the role of image / die

Gestalt in the process of sensory perception and

cognitive activity reached their summit in the works

of I. Kant. As Samantha Matherne puts it, the

philosopher's reasoning about a person's desire to

externally show such qualities that he considers

important for attracting the attention of others, the

ability of self-presentation and broadcasting one’s

“ego” through the image to other people in the

process of interaction are especially significant

(Matherne, 2015).

We find further development of theoretical ideas

about the image in G.W. Hegel's works, in which the

process of transition from contemplation to

comprehension, imagination, and awareness based on

the systematization of individual images was

substantiated (Hegel, 2018). E. Fromm, in his turn,

focuses on the role of a positive image, which,

according to his opinion, is nothing more than a way

to adapt to the surrounding reality (Fromm, 1994).

3.3 University Professor’s Image in

Scientific Research

For hundreds of years the concept of “Teacher’s

image” or “Professor’s image” has been considered

one of the most influential effects on the developing

personality of a young person thanks to it possibility

to combine professional, personal and moral qualities

of the teacher. As A.I. Luchinkina et al. put it, “the

characteristics of the teacher’s image include the

audio-visual culture of the individual, the system of

moral and ethical values of the teacher, teacher’s

behaviour in various aspects, pedagogical reflection,

teacher’s status and self-assessment, a certain set of

personal qualities” (Luchinkina et al., 2019).

Till recently, in pedagogical and psychological

articles, two main trends of dealing with “teacher’s

image” could be traced. According to one of them,

image of a modern university professor was presented

through his/her main activities (educational, research,

enlightening, etc.), personal traits and competences

required for a successful implementation of the

professional tasks (Litvinova, Bushmina, 2020).

According to the second trend, “professor’s

image” can be judged through the opinions of

students, their parents and colleagues and their ideas

of his / her features, abilities, attitudes towards the

surrounding people and mastery of the subject, which

stay in their memory after contacts with the person

(Guzhva, 2017).

In this article, I would like to focus on another

manifestation of the professor's image, namely, on the

conscious and purposeful formation of an idea of

him/her as a knowledgeable, highly skilled educator

and authoritative scientist in the eyes of the academic

community and among students. In this meaning,

according to A. Mynbayeva and K. Yessenova, image

is created by the educator as a kind of information

capsule, which includes his/her personal features,

reputation and authority to represent the individual in

information society (Mynbayeva and Yessenova,

2016). And M.A. Lukashenko and A.A. Ozhgikhina

propose to consider the image as a tool of pedagogical

influence and mandatory competence of a professor,

which reflects his/her purposeful work on self-

development and professional self-perfection

(Lukashenko and Ozhgikhina, 2019).

Figure 1: The most effective ways of forming the university

professor’s image in “pre-electronic” time.

In this sense, I understand " university professor’s

image" as a result of purposeful actions of both the

professor and/or the educational institution, in which

he / she works to create in the minds of students, the

academic community and the interested social

environment a positive portrait of an educator and

scientist possessing to a full extent all the qualities,

abilities, competences for the effective

implementation of all types of professional activities,

Participation in conferences/ symposium

Scientific publications

Personal contacts

"Word of mouth"

Other

University Professor’s Digital Image: Transition from Conventional Image in the COVID-19 Pandemic Period

275

as well as able to present the results of the work in the

form of scientific publications, textbooks, training

materials and other achievements to prove their

efficacy, credibility and relevance in the professional

market of educational and research services.

Before the advent of computer technologies,

social networks and various information bases on the

Internet, such an image of a university professor as

evidence of the high level of his/her professional and

research skills was created mainly through real

contacts in the professional environment. Information

about the success and achievements of a certain

professor was disseminated in rather narrow circles of

colleagues, scientists, and students

As a result of our survey in order to determine the

most effective conditions for the formation of the

university professor’s image in the “pre-electronic

era” (the participants were 38 professors from 7

universities of the Russian Federation, and 22 of them

had professional experience before the 1990s), we

obtained the following results: “Participation in

scientific conferences / seminars / meetings of

dissertation councils" was the most popular answer

(84%), followed by "Scientific publications" (48%);

“Personal contacts” (42%); “Word of mouth” (14%),

“Other” (8%) (Fig. 1).

The situation changed radically in the early

2000s. with the introduction of computer

technologies and the use of Internet resources in the

educational process. As social networks expanded

and electronic connections were established with

colleagues in other cities, the professors got the

opportunity to make virtual contacts and form their

“digital image” by means of personal e-mail and

accounts on social networks.

Moreover, if in the “pre-COVID” period the

majority of professors were rather indifferent to their

digital image and did not care much about its

development, then, as the results of our survey show,

during the times of lockdown, restrictions on social

and professional contacts, and the transition of

education to remote learning, professors realized that

availability of a digital image could significantly

increase their rankings, both among students and

colleagues.

The task of forming a special type of reputation -

a high-skilled professional who is fluent in all modern

conference platforms, digital learning technologies,

social networks and resource bases, forced the

professors of Russian universities to master the listed

digital resources in the shortest possible time and start

creating their digital image. It should be borne in

mind that if to create a conventional image, professors

would use various kinds of activities that involve

contact in real communication during classes or

during scientific events, then locations in the

electronic space are required for a digital image.

University

Professor’s

Image

Conventional

(Biologica l)

Image

Digital Image

Visual

Image

(optical idea,

appe arance)

Verbal Image

(speech, writing)

Graphic Image

(handwriting, notes,

letters)

Resources of

Scientific

Publications

Self-Presentation

Mental Image

(ideas, memories)

Social Networks

Educational

Resources

(e-lectures, e-

textbooks, etc.)

Figure 2: University professor’s images.

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There were several attempts to present

classification of image in general (Mitchell, 1984)

and university professor’s image in particular as well

as its structural components (Mynbayeva and

Yessenova, 2016; Harrison, 2021). We consider that

introduction of distant and remote learning during

COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced the

professor’s image, which has acquired such a new

form as a digital image and its manifestations that are

presented in figure 2.

We consider it necessary to introduce into the

pedagogical thesaurus the concept of "digital image

location", by which we mean a deliberately created

personal account, channel or personal page, in which

a university professor or an educational institution

where he / she works, or a public organization that

aggregates information about employees of HEI, can

post information about their professional activities

and their success in order to participate in various

kinds of professional events, increase personal

authority and self-presentation in the academic

environment. According to the interviewed

respondents who took part in our survey, the digital

image of a modern Russian professor has the

following locations (fig. 3):

 a personal account in the Electronic

Information and Educational Environment

(EIEE) of the university (100%), as this is a

requirement of the Ministry of Science and

Higher Education of the Russian Federation;

 personal accounts in Electronic Libraries

(hereinafter - EL: in the Russian scientific EL

e-library, university EL, Yurayt EL, IPRBooks,

etc.) (88%);

 accounts in social networks (mainly

VKontakte, LinkedIn, Facebook,

ResearchGate, etc.) (74%);

 accounts on foreign search Internet platforms

that combine databases of publications in

scientific journals and patents (SCOPUS, Web

of Science, etc.) (65%), since it is during the

pandemic that the requirements for the

availability of publications in international

databases for Russian professors have

increased significantly;

 personal website or blog (32%);

 channel on YouTube video hosting (24%);

 personal pages on the websites of public

organizations (for example, the Russian

Academy of Natural Sciences (https://rae.ru/),

Professor Rating (https://professorrating.org/),

one of the leading Internet sites in Russia with

a rating of universities and teachers in Russia,

Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, etc.) (18%).

Figure 3: Locations of professor’s digital image.

At the same time, the respondents noted that a

number of locations, for example, a personal account

in the University EIEE or on the websites of some EL

(with the exception of the e-library), although they are

considered the most common locations containing

information about university professors, are not

effective in forming their digital image, as external

users or students do not have access to them. The

most effective, in their opinion, are personal sites,

blogs and YouTube posts due to their accessibility

through search queries, but their creation requires

specialized skills in the field of digital technology and

they are constantly time-consuming.

3.4 Professor’s Digital Image

Not so long ago, before the onset of the COVID-19

pandemic, researchers noted that Russian teachers lag

significantly behind their foreign counterparts in the

frequency, efficiency and diversity of the use of

electronic devices and digital technologies in the

classroom (Lukashenko et al., 2021). However, the

situation changed dramatically in connection with the

introduction of distance learning in early 2020, when

university professors practically “overnight” had to

master the technologies of online classes on

conference platforms, synchronous and asynchronous

interaction with students, training and knowledge

control in the EIEE of their universities. At all

subsequent stages of the transition from F2F to

remote learning, such emotional stress no longer

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Personal pages on the

websites of public

organizations

YouTube video channel

Accounts in international

data bases

Accounts in social

networks

Accounts in electronic

libraries

Account in the EIEE

Personal website or blog

University Professor’s Digital Image: Transition from Conventional Image in the COVID-19 Pandemic Period

277

arose, since during this time the experience of

professors in the digital environment has grown

significantly, they worked out electronic lectures

(Isaeva, 2021), accumulated electronic databases of

assignments and visual presentations, and also

mastered various electronic learning technologies

(electronic simulation technologies (Isaeva et al.,

2021), Mind Maps (Odaryuk, 2021), etc.).

Due to the threat of COVID-19, the faculty and

students practically switched to "online existence",

using the capabilities of the university EIEE, social

networks, and unlimited Internet resources for

education and personal development (Lukashenko et

al., 2021). In parallel with these processes, professors,

finding themselves in a situation of forced social

restrictions and limitation of personal contacts,

realized the need to transfer their educational and

scientific experience to the electronic environment,

the resources of which they could use to implement

their professional activities and develop their image,

but now the digital one.

Professor’s digital image, as we understand it, is a

set of personal and professional information posted in

the electronic space both by the university faculty

member himself or by various public organizations in

order to present the results of his/her activities in

education and research.

As noted in a number of studies, during the

pandemic, university faculty while teaching classes

remotely has faced special difficulties associated with

changing the perception of their image by students on

computer screens. To more effectively broadcast their

digital image, professors had to rethink the choice of

clothing, makeup, posture, facial expressions,

gestures and other means of non-verbal behaviour

(Isaeva and Goryunova, 2021; Nemr et al., 2021).

The information posted by professors on social

networks, YouTube, WhatsApp, synchronous and

asynchronous interaction platforms has become more

purposeful and deliberate, and there is a clear

tendency to observe pedagogical tact and pedagogical

ethics. M.A. Lukashenko, N.V. Gromova and A.A.

Ozhgikhina managed to identify several strategies for

using social networks, depending on the goals being

solved and personal attitude to the possibilities of

these resources in promoting their image

(Lukashenko et al., 2021).

Overall, the distance learning experience gained

during the COVID-19 pandemic has played a positive

role in advancing university professors towards

creating their digital image.

4 DISCUSSION

Creating of the university professor’s digital image

during the COVID-19 pandemic has great potential in

the future due to the following functions:

 - comparison of the professor's achievements in

educational, research, and other types of

professional activity with the achievements of

his/her colleagues, both at the level of

educational institution and in the academic

community as well, in order to increase the tacit

professional rating;

 - increasing the students’ motivation to study

with this particular professor;

 - ensuring the recognition of the professor in

student groups and the academic community;

 - creation of an "electronic portfolio"

containing educational and methodological

materials (cases, video and audio materials,

educational simulators, Mind maps, etc.) for

conducting classes;

 - establishing scientific contacts with scientists

from all over the world;

 - search for potential students for tutoring;

 - advertising of the professor's achievements

for the purpose of promotion or search for a

new job;

 - a practical resource for obtaining financial

rewards.

However, speaking about positive effects of the

digital image, some negative consequences should be

taken into account, for example:

 - cyberbullying, cyber harassment, trolling and

excessive critique of the professors during

online and offline electronic contacts within

different educational, ideological, scientific,

political, religious and non-ideological settings

due to the possibility of anonymous reviews of

the electronic posters in social networks and

unidentified presence at the lessons in the

conditions of distant education during COVID-

19 pandemic (Noakes and Noakes, 2021);

 - the loss of a certain amount of morality, so

valued earlier as the main personal qualities of

an educator, in the pursuit of outwardly catchy

and technical modern effects in the digital

image that can give a momentary effect

(Mynbayeva and Yessenova, 2016).

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5 CONCLUSION

During the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the rapid

growth in the use of electronic technologies,

favourable conditions have developed for transition

from the conventional image of a university professor

to digital image in the information environment:

 - professors have acquired important skills in

working with electronic resources;

 - the need to transfer the entire learning process

to a remote mode led to creation of online

courses by means of modern electronic

technologies and a variety of Internet

resources;

 - interested educational agents have obtained

more time to spend on social networks and

work out educational digital materials;

 - the presence of a well-formed digital image

has begun to bring real dividends in the form of

private tutoring, inviting professors to various

online seminars and conferences, which not

only increases their authority, but sometimes is

accompanied by financial payments, which are

important during the economic crisis;

 - the recognition of a professor on the network

is accompanied by an increase in his popularity

among students and colleagues, is an important

factor in the growth of his/her rating both at the

university level and in the world educational

community.

The image of a professor in the information

society, including a digital image, is no longer “a

matter of personal interest”, but a compulsory tool in

organizing pedagogical communication with

students, which ensures their high motivation and the

effectiveness of the educational process, as well as an

effective lever in the establishment of scientific

contacts with scientists from all over the world,

without which the scientific activity of a university

professor is inconceivable today.

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