The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the entire world. While causing massive disruptions, COVID-19 has served as a catalyst for the digital transformation of higher education in Cambodia. This chapter discusses how the pandemic has provided opportunities for the digital transformation of Cambodian higher education. The chapter focuses on opportunities related to blended learning, online continuous professional development, and digital higher education. It also examines key challenges to the digitalization of Cambodian higher education, including limited information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and accessibility; limited digital knowledge, skills, and experience; unfavorable attitudes toward online learning; issues with the curriculum and assessment; and a lack of preparedness for ICT-enhanced education. The chapter then discusses the way forward for key stakeholders in higher education in Cambodia to support the momentum for higher education digitalization and further accelerate the digital transformation of Cambodian higher education.

Today's fast-changing world creates more challenges and demands for the work of teachers. This means that teachers must continuously develop themselves to respond to the changing needs and meet new standards of teaching practices. Guskey (2000, p. 4) advocates that "Every successful instructional improvement program, curriculum revision project, school restructuring design, or systemic reform initiative has at its center the provision of high-quality professional development." As can be observed, a greater emphasis has been placed on education reforms aimed at enhancing the quality of classroom teaching and professionally developing teachers who play a critical role in the teaching and learning process (Steyn, 2009). Steyn (2009, p. 257) further supports that "The effectiveness of reform initiatives depends on the quality of teachers and as a result, the professional development of teachers has become a major focal point of such initiatives." Thus, teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) plays an essential role in achieving such reform. What CPD does is to improve teachers' performance, and the improved performance of the teachers will also improve the students' learning outcome (Craft, 2000; Day & Sachs, 2004; Guskey & Huberman, 1995). In Cambodia, not many educational institutions, including private schools, public schools, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), have significantly focused on teachers' CPD because CPD arrangement, regardless of its forms, will involve costs, efforts, and time. Therefore, Cambodia's education is confronted by a severe shortage of qualified teachers due to insufficient pedagogical training, unsystematic and irregular provision of CPD (Phin, 2014a), and the lack of teachers' commitment to making CPD happen within their working environment (Phin and Kubota, 2016). Studies by Phin (2014a; 2014b) and Phin and Kubota (2016) showed considerable concern about inadequate CPD provision for Cambodian teachers. It is evident that feasible and well-structured CPD programs for teachers are urgently needed. In Cambodia, the concept of CPD is perhaps not clearly understood by many teachers. Therefore, understanding teachers' perceptions of their CPD is vital so that the development of CPD programs can be effective. In the context of a developing country like Cambodia, research looking at such perception is still limited. This situation necessitated this study. 1.2. Research Questions • What is Cambodian EFL teachers' perception of CPD and the CPD provided by the NGO? • What is Cambodian EFL teachers' perception of how to develop CPD to be an effective teacher training program?