Difficulties in Teaching Online with Blackboard Learn Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Western Branch Colleges of Qassim University

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic has compelled educational institutions to shift from face-to-face teaching methods to fully online courses. This was possible with the help of information technology advances, which led to the creation of Blackboard Learn, a Learning Management System (LMS). By transitioning their systems to this newly developed LMS, the western branch colleges of Qassim University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were able to support e-learning. To investigate the influence of online learning e-courses on educational institutions and learning outcomes, this paper intends to perform surveys on both faculties and students. The survey mainly focuses on course objectives, practical skills, faculty member's responses regarding query and discussion, explanations on applied courses, problemsolving, and improving teamwork skills. A comprehensive investigation of the faculties reveals that 59.08% of faculty members believe it is challenging to facilitate course objectives due to the lack of practical lab work and other detailed knowledge exchange on applied courses, which leads to the faculties being unsatisfied with online courses when compared with traditional systems. Moreover, 77.17% of the students think it is difficult to have discussions during online courses in order to solve queries, and this diminishes their problem-solving capability. In addition, with an online course system, there is no way to physically collaborate in teams and work on team projects to improve teamwork abilities.

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