Experiences and Challenges in Adopting Emergency Remote Teaching among Accounting Educators

Abstract

Emergency remote teaching (ERT) has been put into practice as a response to the global education crisis. Open and distance learning (ODL) has become a choice in executing the ERT requirement. Unfortunately, inadequate training, insufficient digital skills knowledge and little preparation have posed new experiences and challenges, especially accounting educators in executing ODL practices. Motivated by this issue, this study aims to explore the experiences and challenges of ERT during COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of accounting educators. A phenomenography study was employed through an open-ended survey involving 35 educators from a Malaysian public higher institution. The data were analysed qualitatively using NVivo 12. The result indicated that the emergence of sub-themes derived from the experiences in adopting ODL as ERT mechanism consisted of four factors: technology advancement, ubiquitous, pleasant and excitement, and impromptu transition. The study also identified five sub-themes of challenges: lack of technology savvy, quality of students' assessment, internet access problem, students' engagement and level of understanding, and social distraction. The outcomes of this study emphasize how challenging this change was for the educators, and how the faculty needs to be mentored for the future as to perceive quality education. It is suggested for future research to explore the experiences and challenges in different settings and regions. Hence, the results may benefit educators, management of higher institutions and society to identify the appropriate assistance to ease ODL practices for each context, region, locality, and country.