Online Teaching Experience during the COVID-19 in Pakistan: Pedagogy–Technology Balance and Student Engagement

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of university teachers who participated in online teaching for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative method of data collection and inductive thematic analysis were used. The data were collected through a semistructured interview from 11 faculty members who teach in various universities in Pakistan. The analysis presented five themes of the online teaching experience: culture and gender-related issues, teaching effectiveness, challenges in online teaching, coping strategies, and faculty’s’ post-COVID-19 perceptions. The findings reflect that the faculty prioritized to focus on immediate online instructional matters in the wake of the pandemic with a lack of emphasis on global practices for online learning. Experienced and young faculty reported disparities in striking a balance between pedagogy and technology. Moreover, despite the limitations, the experience itself prepared the faculty for a blended learning approach and increased their awareness of global and future challenges. The implications were reported based on the findings.

Teacher technostress and coping mechanisms during Covid-19 pandemic: A systematic review

“…Year Aim (Amri et al, 2020(Amri et al, ) 2020 To assess the magnitude results of burnout and associated factors among primary school teachers in Kenitra in Morocco during this confinement period. (Abid et al, 2021) 2021…”

“…With the scale of the cyber threat set to continue to rise, teachers also face problems like inappropriate content and glitches when using online platforms to teach. Other than that, using non-educational applications without knowing their privacy setting is mainly dangerous (Abid et al, 2021). This privacy issue has become more dangerous when teachers reported receiving calls from unknown numbers regularly.…”

“…This is because, when working from home, female teachers are more bound by stereotypes of having to do homework like cooking, serving meals and cleaning (Dogra & Kaushal, 2021). In fact, a study in India found that female teachers are at a high level of stress when they have to divide their time to teach, take care of their children and mind children, while doing other tasks (Abid et al, 2021). Male teachers, on the other hand, are thought to be unimpressed by the move.…”

“…This situation has made educators anxious as they need to cater to various students' needs, while making sure all students have their own study room (Auger & Formentin, 2021). As reported by Abid et al (2021), students from underprivileged areas were adversely affected when emergency eLearning was implemented (Petrakova et al, 2021;Uzun et al, 2021). Students had a problem with online lessons because they were frequently sidetracked by other things, such as social media.…”

Impact of Perceived Skillset and Organizational Traits on Digital Wellbeing of Teachers: Mediating Role of Resilience

“…Moreover, where operations have been transformed, the communication, collaboration, and resilient capabilities of an individual and a team are much more needed than ever (Buzzanell, 2018 ). COVID-19 has set a new landscape for education delivery both for students and teachers in Pakistan (Abid et al, 2021 ), creating the opportunity to think about technological transformation. The activities have been modified with improved digital technology and remote work, but these modifications are bringing a slew of unanticipated surprises to the forefront.…”