Aim/Purpose: This study aims to examine the challenges faculty members face with online teaching practices in public universities in Karachi, Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Faculty members’ pedagogical experiences were examined by following the approach of the technology acceptance model (TAM) framework presented by Davis in 1986 and 1989. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected educational activities and disrupted the traditional norms of education at colleges and universities in the world, and, as a result, teaching and learning have shifted to online. Accordingly, the outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic has unexpectedly forced educators and educational leaders to analyze pedagogical measures to offer quality education to students and make changes to their curriculum and instruction. Methodology: This study used a mixed-method research design with closed-ended surveys and interviews. The researchers distributed online questionnaires and conducted phone call interviews, followed by simple random sampling approach to strengthen data collection and analysis. The research data were analyzed through descriptive statistical tests, including mean, standard deviation, and Pearson correlation, and thematic analysis. Contribution: By examining the challenges faculty members face with online teaching practices, this study contributes to the literature knowledge to advance the Practical-Knowledge gap (the lack of empirical studies in the context of practice and theoretical perspective) by knowing faculty members’ experiences and attitudes regarding online teaching in public universities in Karachi, Pakistan. The adopted framework of the technology acceptance model provides confirmation of reliability in the context of higher education institutions, which can help explore pedagogical challenges and practices of teachers who teach online in other provinces in Pakistan, cultures, and countries. This study provides suggestions to online teachers in Pakistan to sort out their challenges. Findings: The findings highlight a favorable attitude of faculty members’ usage of virtual platforms for teaching. Likewise, faculty members encountered several challenges that caused restrictions in accomplishing competent teaching and learning. Furthermore, faculty members lacked sound experience in conducting online classes and were not given adequate technical assistance or ICT infrastructure to cope with the technical challenges. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is recommended by this study that teachers should be given adequate professional development opportunities to develop technical and ICT infrastructure competencies to facilitate them to successfully teach online. Recommendation for Researchers: Another study should be conducted at the national level to reinforce the understanding and generalization of this study’s results. Furthermore, this study assessed public universities faculty members’ experiences through self-reported surveys and interviews. However, future researchers should employ other means and methods of examination such as private universities, public universities, primary schools, middle schools, secondary schools, and observations or focus group discussions to broaden the understanding of online teaching practices and challenges in Pakistan. Impact on Society: By examining faculty members’ experiences and challenges of teaching online, this study will help educators and educational leaders to raise the quality of online teaching in Pakistan by knowing the appropriate solutions and recommendations. Future Research: This study examined the adoption of three ICT indicators through pedagogical practices such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitude to use. For future studies, researchers and practitioners should evaluate other indicators such as students’ learning outcomes.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly shifted education from traditional to an online version, which was an emergent state for teachers and students. The substantive situation thus raises the importance of technology integration in education, and teachers are required to update their competencies, respectively. In this regard, the study assessed online teaching competencies of faculty members following, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) model. Closed-ended surveys were employed for quantitative analysis of randomly selected 256 faculty members from public universities in Karachi, Pakistan. Results indicated that teachers possessed adequate levels of knowledge across all the domains of TPACK. The highest competency was obtained by content knowledge (CK), while technological knowledge (TK) was reported at the lowest level. Furthermore, a significant difference was noted in terms of gender and teaching experience. Correspondingly, the study proposes that the TPACK model should be employed in the professional development programs to develop teachers’ TPACK for integrating information communication and technology in the pedagogical practices. The findings of the study present a constructive overview of teachers’ digital competencies and technology use in teaching and learning in the time of the COVID-19 and also play a significant role in the integration of technology in the post-pandemic time in higher education. The study also suggests relevant educational authorities and policymakers for assessing and enhancing the technological competencies of teachers for quality online education.
Aim/Purpose: This study seeks to investigate the factors that influence online students’ continued usage intention toward e-learning systems by presenting an extended model that is based on the Delone and McLean (2003) IS success model (D&M ISS model). Background: The use of e-learning systems in this era has become a vital element of delivering higher education. Learning via e-learning systems has significant benefits that support conventional learning. Thus, it is crucial to measure the success of e-learning systems’ implementation. Methodology: This study was conducted with 590 undergraduate and postgraduate students from three private universities in Jordan, and data was gathered via an online self-report questionnaire. Contribution: Theoretically, this study advances the literature and empirically examines a modified version of the D&M ISS model by including context-specific factors that are drivers of successful implementations of e-learning systems. Findings: The path analysis with structural equation modelling confirms that students’ satisfaction and their continued usage intention regarding the e-learning system are positively related to service quality, system quality, and information quality. Self-directed learning, however, has a negative effect on satisfaction and continued usage intention. Furthermore, the findings reveal that both satisfaction and continued usage intention positively influence students’ perceptions of perceived academic performance. Recommendations for Practitioners: The quality of learning content format and design are recognized as fundamental factors for e-learning success. Thus, both instructors and e-learning developers should provide reliable, accurate, and up-to-date learning materials. This directs e-learning developers toward designing systems with simple and useful functionalities that embrace the essential features that enable students to perform the required tasks effectively and to access and share learning materials flexibly. Furthermore, the current study reveals that self-directed learning (SDL) is a key barrier to successful e-learning system employment. It has a negative impact on satisfaction (SAT) and continued usage intention (CUI). Thus, developing students’ skills related to SDL is deemed a necessity. This could be attained by designing contemporary pedagogical curricula that are based on student-centered learning. This approach to learning encourages students to acquire self-regulatory skills and be accountable for their learning. This environment has to be supported by pedagogical tools (e.g., synchronous/asynchronous communication channels and multimedia tools) to enable effective interaction between instructors and students. Recommendation for Researchers: The current study does not investigate the role of potential moderators that might influence the research model’s relationships. Future studies might tackle such limitation by examining the moderating effect of computer self-efficacy and culture. Impact on Society: This study reveals that the success of e-learning systems depends not only on the quality of the information, system, and service but also on student self-directed learning. Future Research: The sample employed for this study was selected from three private universities in Jordan; consequently, the results cannot be generalized to the entire student population of Jordan. Further research, therefore, should focus on targeting a larger scope by including public universities, which in turn would enhance the generalizability of the findings. In addition, this cross-sectional study was conducted using a quantitative method based on the use of self-reported online survey to gather data. Thus, future research should consider longitudinal study that employs a mixed methods approach to reveal additional constructs and insights regarding e-learning system adoption by students.
The rapid expansion of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has transformed learners into digital learners, requiring teachers to integrate technology into their pedagogical approaches, where teachers’ attitudes, technological knowledge, and skills play a significant role in its effective integration. From this perspective, the current study presents teachers’ perceptions regarding technology integration in their teaching-learning practices at all educational levels in light of the previous studies performed in the last 5 years in Pakistan. The findings reveal that teachers exhibit positive perceptions regarding technology integration in teaching-learning practices. They believe that technology-incorporated teaching assists them in enhancing their instructional practices effectively, making the learning process exciting and interactive, and keeping learners motivated. Regarding barriers, the slow speed of the internet, load shedding, lack of infrastructure, online teaching experience, and training were reported as the main obstacles that hinder teachers from effective integration of ICT into their teaching practices. Accordingly, the study findings suggest that concerned authorities should set clear and effective policies to make efficient use of ICT by allocating a sufficient budget and ensuring all necessary facilitation (e.g., ICT infrastructure, tools, software, internet, and labs) in all educational institutions. Furthermore, particular attention should be devoted to supplying adequate opportunities for the career development of teachers in developing technological competencies, which help them successfully use ICT in their instructional practices.
Introduction . The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the world to pause. One hundred and eighty-eight countries have imposed countrywide school closures, affecting more than 1.5 billion children and youths. The majority of academic leaders are currently encouraging online education to resolve this crisis. This study aimed to investigate international medical students’ (IMS) experiences of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Data were collected online using a validated questionnaire and one open-ended question, presented on the Google forms platform. The study attracted responses from 1,107 IMS volunteer participants. IBM SPSS v. 25, GraphPad Prism v. 9, and MindManager v. 2018 were used for data analysis. All variables were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. The Mann–Whitney U test was used in subgroup analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis test was also applied for year-wise comparisons. Open-ended text responses were analyzed qualitatively, extracting themes by which responses were classified. Results Among 1,107 respondents, a total of 67.8% were males, and the majority (63.1%) of the IMS were in the age group of 21–23 years. The results show that more than half of the respondents reported their Internet connection quality as poor to average. Poor Internet connection severely affected IMS online learning experience. Persistent and recurrent issues with Internet access became a significant concern for IMS. Lack of electricity is one of the factors that can contribute to poor learning output and dissatisfaction with online teaching. IMS perceive online medical education as unhelpful in several phases of the training, such as improving their clinical skills, knowledge, and discussion skills. Conclusions During these unprecedented periods, online teaching has allowed medical education to continue. However, IMS are generally dissatisfied with online teaching. Medical students must visualize the human body, so supportive technologies are important to compensate for the lack of clinical practices. Medical institutions may need to invest in faculty training programs and continually adjust to enhance the content of online training and international partnerships. A switch from conventional face-to-face teaching to a fully functional virtual education framework in the medical education field will take time and experience.
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