The COVID-19 outbreak forced educational institutions to close, and it had a wide range of consequences. As a stopgap measure, online education is being used around the world. Although it has its own drawbacks and advantages, this change has provided a way for students to continue their education despite the pandemic. Policies were made to accommodate the alternative pedagogical and assessment methods. At this stage, it is essential to study to what extent these alternative teaching and assessment methods are effective. Hence this study investigates teachers’ opinions of online teaching and online assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic adopting quantitative research methodology. Teachers' responses were gathered via a structured questionnaire (N=55) and the respondents were the teachers of English, University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Ibra, Oman. The study results have implications for policy redirections. It's clear from the study's results that online instruction and assessment worked well during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Omani students were introduced to Independent Learning Tools, such as MyELT, Moodle, and MS Teams, during the Covid-19 pandemic. They used these tools for their study throughout the pandemic. Hence, this research investigated how satisfied were Omani students with independent learning tools during Covid-19. This study is significant because it has pedagogical implications for all the stakeholders, such as teachers, students, and policymakers. This study adopted a quantitative research method. A self-prepared questionnaire was distributed to students for data collection. Study participants were students from Level one, Level two, Level three, and Level four of the General Foundation Program in the English Language Center at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Ibra, Oman. About 227 (N=227) students participated in the survey. Study findings suggest that students’ satisfaction with independent learning tools is above average. Conducting similar research studies in other Higher Educational Institutions in Oman will help make and sustain policy decisions.

Online education was introduced as a provisional measure to continue with teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the beginning, teachers and students faced a lot of challenges such as lack of availability of gadgets, lack of technological skills, and technical issues. Nonetheless, they overcame the issues to a great extent in the course of time. Many research studies have been conducted across the globe to investigate the use and efficacy of virtual learning platforms, especially in the educational sector, but only few studies have been conducted in this area at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS), Oman. Hence this study was conducted to explore teachers’ perceptions of Virtual Learning Platforms during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study participants (N=56) were the teachers of English Language Centre of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Ibra, Oman. The findings of the study have implications for policy redirections. The present study confirmed the previous research findings that virtual learning platforms indeed played a vital role in facilitating online education during the Covid-19 pandemic. Key Words: Virtual learning platforms, education, covid-19, efficacy, perception

The present quantitative research study investigates students’ perceptions of the use and efficacy of error correction symbols on written drafts. The study is significant because it has pedagogical implications for teachers, students, and policymakers. It answers the pertinent research question “whether the use of error correction symbols on students’ written drafts is helpful for students in improving their writing accuracy or not”. A structured questionnaire was distributed to students (N=396) via Moodle LMS to collect data. Study participants were General Foundation Program students in the English Language Centre of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Ibra, Sultanate of Oman. The findings of this study suggest that the students found the use of error correction symbols on their written drafts practical, helpful, and effective in improving their writing accuracy. Nevertheless, a similar research study needs to be conducted in other higher educational institutions in Oman to sustain the policy directions.

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