Teaching Challenges and Opportunities in Higher Education during COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 has forced higher educational institutions to make a fast change from face-to-face learning into online learning system. However, the latter provides many opportunities, but it encompasses many challenges. Thus, its implementation necessitates a careful flexible strategy based on a continuous evaluation. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the learning system in Lebanese higher educational institutions. Based on a sample of 263 students and 48 instructors from 10 universities, the result of this study reveals that the implemented online system during COVID-19 has some advantages like time management and flexibility for both instructors and students. However, several disadvantages of online learning have been revealed during the pandemic period in Lebanon like absence of social interaction, logistic problems, pressure on instructors, lack of training on online learning and difficulty of know-how transfer from instructors to students. With the appearance of COVID-19 Delta Variant, Lebanese universities have to improve their online learning methods to balance between health care conditions, instructors’ competences and students’ motivation.