INTRODUCTION
The educators all over the globe shifted their teaching paradigm from the traditional face – to – face to virtual learning. The sudden changes were not only experienced by the academe but everyone in different fields. This is because of COVID- 19 that is not only causing health crises around the world, but it is also affecting all spheres of life, including the field of education. The newly identified β-coronavirus was first named the 2019-novel coronavirus first occurred at Wuhan, China, in December 2019. On February 11, 2020, the 2019- novel coronavirus was officially named SARS-CoV-2 by the World Health Organization (WHO), also known as the COVID-19 (Guo et al., 2020). Teachers do not have choice but to explore different online platforms to continue the delivery of learning. They are force to create their own learning packets, explore alternative activities, attend different webinars that will prepare them in the new ways of conducting classes and even investigating strategies of assessing student’s learning. The WHO advised educators and students to conduct alternative learning due to the COVID-19 outbreak to mitigate school cancellation of classes through providing a resource list of the World Bank’s Edtech teams to provide some online materials that can be used during the pandemic. The program aims to elevate the loss of learning and provide remote learning opportunities while schools are closed. Furthermore, the mandate provides guiding principles and delivery of online classes and approaches to be given by stakeholders like teachers and parents (World Bank, 2020a).
Teachers are caught unprepared and surprised of the difficulties of the new platform. But while some are uncertain if they can, majority of the teachers accepted the challenges and are still giving their best to make sure that their students still able to get the quality of education they deserve.
According to Craig (2019), institutions have focused on providing faculty with technological training to enhance their online teaching, but many online instructors would like to learn more effective pedagogical practices. This phenomenological study determines what experienced, award-winning South Dakota e-learning instructors perceive to be effective pedagogical practices.
Horvitz (2015) in his study measured professors’ online teaching self efficacy using survey research methods. Results showed that online teaching self-efficacy was high among the professors surveyed with no self-efficacy scores lower than 3.69 out of 5. The perception of student learning was the independent variable with the greatest impact on self-efficacy. Other variables that had a significant relationship with self-efficacy sub-scales were semesters taught online, future interest in teaching online, gender, satisfaction with teaching online, and academic discipline. The results suggest directions for faculty development interventions such as training and support structures.
In the study conducted by Oksana (2019) about faculty satisfaction in the online environment, overall level of online faculty satisfaction at the institution, major concerns and motivating factors associated with online faculty satisfaction, and the differences between more and less satisfied online instructors were identified. One hundred two online instructors responded to the online faculty satisfaction survey. Results indicate a moderately positive level of faculty satisfaction with online teaching. Major frustrations were associated with technological difficulties, the lack of face-to-face contact, and student involvement. Satisfying elements pertained to flexibility, access, and student diversity. More satisfied online instructors reported a higher degree of student-to-instructor interaction than their less satisfied counterparts. The classification analysis resulted in 88.5% of online instructors being correctly classified.
Orr in 2009 mentioned that, the institution’s recognition of faculty members’ efforts to teach online in relation to the traditional concepts of scholarship, tenure, and promotion is an important motivational factor for sustaining effectiveness in the online learning environment. This study examined institutional efforts to alleviate or overcome challenges faced by faculty members in creating and teaching online courses, and we investigated faculty members’ perceptions regarding these institutional efforts.
In Lloyd study in 2012, in institutions of higher learning, there is an increased demand and need for online courses. However, the number of faculty developing and teaching these courses does not match the growth in online education. The purpose of Lloyd study was to determine the perceived barriers to online teaching experienced by various faculty groups at a public institution located in the southeastern United States using a new survey instrument, which was developed from recent research findings. The study sought to identify the most prevalent barriers to online instruction for the faculty group surveyed. In addition, the findings identified prevalent barriers for faculty groups in an effort to inform administrative decisions concerning policy, training, and compensation as well as to facilitate involvement for specific types of online instruction for faculty development. A number of novel and important differences were found in the perceived barriers that exist between faculty groups on four constructs identified through an exploratory factor analysis. The factors found were: (1) interpersonal barriers; (2) institutional barriers; (3) training and technology barriers; and (4) cost/benefit analysis barriers.
This study focused on the experiences and challenges of the teachers in online learning. It explored how teachers plan and prepare their lessons, assess student’s learning and communicate with their teachers.
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