Teachers’ Perceptions of Virtual Learning Platforms during Covid-19:a Study at Utas-Ibra, Oman

Abstract

Online education was introduced as a provisional measure to continue with teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the beginning, teachers and students faced a lot of challenges such as lack of availability of gadgets, lack of technological skills, and technical issues. Nonetheless, they overcame the issues to a great extent in the course of time. Many research studies have been conducted across the globe to investigate the use and efficacy of virtual learning platforms, especially in the educational sector, but only few studies have been conducted in this area at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS), Oman. Hence this study was conducted to explore teachers’ perceptions of Virtual Learning Platforms during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study participants (N=56) were the teachers of English Language Centre of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Ibra, Oman. The findings of the study have implications for policy redirections. The present study confirmed the previous research findings that virtual learning platforms indeed played a vital role in facilitating online education during the Covid-19 pandemic. Key Words: Virtual learning platforms, education, covid-19, efficacy, perception