Faculties’ Satisfaction With Distance Education During COVID-19 Outbreak in Jordan

Fadi Jarab,Walid Al-Qerem,Anan S Jarab,Meriam Banyhani

doi:10.3389/feduc.2022.789648

Abstract

Although online teaching has been implemented worldwide, specifically in higher education, resistance to technology use exists, as faculty members may lack technology familiarity and may require both guidance and training. The present study evaluated faculty members’ satisfaction towards distance teaching as imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey which evaluated socio-demographics and faculties ‘satisfaction toward distance education was validated and completed by 286 faculties from different faculty-fields of education across all Universities in Jordan. Factor analysis was conducted to validate the questionnaire and univariable analysis was conducted to evaluate demographic variables association with satisfaction degree. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the most suitable structure for the study data was a 3-factor model constructed from 21 items. The three factors were students-related factor, institution-related factor and technology-related factor. The scores for the three factors were 2.66, 2.00 and 3.33 out of 5 respectively. Faculties who received training for online teaching and those who have attended courses as a trainee were more satisfied with distance education. In conclusion, the faculties’ low satisfaction level reported in the present study shows margin for distance education improvement by conducting intensive training courses for online teaching with the aim of improving faculties’ satisfaction levels towards a web-based teaching environment and hence improving education outcomes.

Highlights

Traditional learning is a type of education that involves the gathering of a teacher and group of students at a facility where face-to-face learning interactions occur (Ciccarelli, 2020)
With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, distance learning is progressively becoming a more fundamental part of education with the help of “e-learning”, rather than traditional learning, which is another type of learning utilizing electronic technologies to access educational curriculum outside of a traditional classroom” (Lawless, 2018; World Economic Forum, 2020)
With the adoption of this type of learning medium on the rise, faculty members are required to discover new techniques in order to prepare, organize, deliver, and assess courses and learning materials for online teaching, as it is argued that the online teaching value is different from that in a traditional classroom setting (Martin et al, 2019)

Summary

Introduction

Traditional learning is a type of education that involves the gathering of a teacher and group of students at a facility where face-to-face learning interactions occur (Ciccarelli, 2020). In spite of the advantages of eLearning, disadvantages have been identified, including the lack of interaction between both parties due to remoteness, requiring a stronger motivation than required in a traditional classroom; the negative effect on the students’ communication skills; and the less efficient technique of learning compared to the face-to-face learning process (Perrin et al, 2015; Masters degree, 2020). With the adoption of this type of learning medium on the rise, faculty members are required to discover new techniques in order to prepare, organize, deliver, and assess courses and learning materials for online teaching, as it is argued that the online teaching value is different from that in a traditional classroom setting (Martin et al, 2019). Faculties must develop instructional strategies in order to improve their students’ learning engagement, as dividing the teaching content into smaller portions to aid their focus, improve their speech to help students apprehend key points, and many more (Bao, 2020)

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