Teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic: Teachers' perspectives

Abstract

The current study aimed to explore EFL instructors’ perceptions toward online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, with special emphasis on the challenges they faced, and the advantages and disadvantages of this mode of education. The participants in this study were 43 EFL faculty members from the Departments of English at Qassim University in Saudi Arabia. Data for this research were collected by distributing a semi-structured survey designed by the researcher. The results showed that the top advantage of distance teaching was normally protection from the illness. Distance teaching also provided the opportunity to experiment with alternative teaching methods, tools, and assessments. Further, teachers felt exempted from some of the burdens associated with in-person teaching and were allowed to focus on the core role of their profession. Despite these benefits, the participants revealed that e-teaching cannot easily replace traditional education. All in all, the participants reported that e-teaching has advantages for professors, but this is not necessarily the case for students. Implications of these findings are provided, such as training teachers to deal with e-teaching mediums efficiently, keep pace with sudden adjustments, and create monitoring measures to ensure that instructors do not become complacent.