Teaching in the Time of Covid-19: The Challenges Faced By Teachers in Initiating Online Class Sessions

Abstract

The severity of COVID-19 has called the education world to transition into cyberspace education to support the continuity of teaching and learning. The stages of Movement Control Order (MCO), Conditional MCO, and Restricted MCO have resulted in prolonged closure of schools within affected areas. In the Guidelines of Teaching and Learning (T&L) during MCO,' the Ministry of Education, Malaysia (MoE) has come up with several initiatives for the continuation of education, which include adopting the synchronous and asynchronous modes of online T&L. Nevertheless, they will not be successful if there are any barriers in the process of implementation. As teachers are the key players in preparing online classes, this research looks into the challenges that arose before they conducted the sessions. One hundred ninetytwo public secondary school teachers responded to this research through open-ended questions. Teachers were asked what the challenges are that they face in preparing, planning, and designing the online lessons. Eight themes emerged in this research; namely, time, environment, technological access, interest, knowledge, technological skills, course design, and communication self-efficacy. This study proposes problems that can be further researched for better online T&L processes.

Teachers' Perspectives of the Sudden Shift Towards Online Learning: Challenges and Future Lessons

“…Teachers had to know the whole online teaching system to cope with this new situation, even though some had never taught online before the pandemic. This result follows the results of Izhar et al (2021), who studied most of the participants and declared that preparing lessons to fit an online teaching platform is time-consuming and requires extra effort from the teachers. Akbulut et al (2020) added that even teachers with previous experience in online teachings, such as blended learning, stated that such lessons require excessive preparation time.…”

Exploring University Instructors’ Challenges in Online Teaching and Design Opportunities during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

“…Even though the instructors had limited practical experience using online platforms for educational purposes, they had to proceed with online teaching and adapt to using those necessary platforms without sufficient time to practice them (Izhar et al, 2021). Huang (2020) also reported that university instructors had to be familiar with online education platforms in a short time in response to COVID-19.…”

The Implementation of Online Learning in Rural Areas During Covid-19: Voice of Rural English Teachers

“…Some previous researchers investigated a similar topic. Izhar et al (2021) investigated the role of online learning and the goal of education. Ty found that online learning can implement information and communication technologies in the educational sector (Izhar et al, 2021).…”

“…Izhar et al (2021) investigated the role of online learning and the goal of education. Ty found that online learning can implement information and communication technologies in the educational sector (Izhar et al, 2021). For online learning, teachers and students can interact directly in the classroom.…”

“…Previous study reported that starts studying through video chats with the teacher in question, where questions are asked once and attendance is taken using VoiceNote, a feature of WhatsApp. It has become a necessity of technology in education (Izhar et al, 2021). Videos under two minutes are another format in which the materials are offered.…”