EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of a Long Shift to Online Learning in a Saudi University during the Coronavirus Pandemic (original) (raw)
Related papers
2023
Discovering the new variants of Coronavirus by the end of 2020 pushed many countries to continue suspending universities and schools. A complete change to online learning seemed the only available option to continue education given the detection of new Coronavirus variants. Such a long time of using online learning can display how teachers experience this hard time of the pandemic. The researchers performed this study to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions of online learning in a Saudi university during this period. They aimed to have a closer look at EFL teachers’ perceptions of the sudden shift into online learning. They focused on the teachers’ benefits, drawbacks, and suggestions. They used a questionnaire and interviews to collect qualitative data to answer research questions. Results showed five benefits and two drawbacks of using online learning to teach English in that Saudi university. The benefits are being a good and useful option of teaching during Coronavirus, motivation of teachers, ease of access and use, interacting between teachers and students, and being less teacher-centered. The drawbacks are disruption by poor Internet and technical issues and cheating by students on assessments. The participants provided some suggestions to improve the benefits and overcome the drawbacks.
Transition to Online EFL Teaching in Saudi Arabian Universities during the COVID-19 Outbreak
Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) , 2022
As a result of the coronavirus crisis and the new restrictions and mandates set by governments around the globe, many educational institutions decided to suspend in-person classes and replace them with online instruction. Universities in Saudi Arabia shifted their entire delivery of teaching to the online platform and closed their doors. This unprecedented and unexpected online transition had several consequences. The present paper examines how instructors in Saudi universities reflected on this transition and the extent to which they were ready for such an unforeseen change. The current study is significant for helping instructors rise to the challenges resulting from the wholescale and ongling transition to online teaching and learning in the wake of COVID-19 and the subsequent suspension of face-to-face instruction. In addition, this study seeks to examine the attitudes and readiness of participants from eight universities in Saudi Arabia in the broader context. The results revealed that instructors have positive attitudes towards utilising online tools and were knowledgeable of the significant advantages of integrating online tools and content into their teaching of English language as a foreign language. (EFL); however, they reported that they were not adequately prepared and that they experienced distress and suffered due to the obligation to acquire new digital skills within a very short period.
Teachers’ Perception of Online Learning during Pandemic Covid-19
Jurnal Penelitian Pendidikan, 2020
Since March 2020, the case of coronavirus disease or known as Covid-19, has become a global pandemic. According to UNESCO, schools are closed in about 100 countries due to a public health emergency, including Indonesia. The condition forces teachers to make the transition of the way they teach from face to face learning to online learning. This study investigated EFL teachers’ Perception of online English language learning. Their perceptions were analyzed in three aspects: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and their attitude toward online English language learning. This study employed a descriptive design with a qualitative approach. A survey questionnaire and interview were used in this study to elicit the responses of 102 Junior High School English teachers in Bandung. This study's findings revealed that the participants showed a positive perception of the usefulness and ease of use of online learning systems during pandemic Covid-19. Still, more than half of the te...
Scrutinizing Saudi EFL Teachers' Cognitions about Online Teaching to Tide Over COVID-19
2021
Ensuring learning continuity during COVID-19 school closure became a priority for the government of Saudi Arabia, which turned teaching to information and communication technology (ICT), requiring teachers to move to online delivery of lessons. As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the remarkable rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely on digital platforms. As the online teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Saudi Arabian universities faces new challenges, EFL teachers have been positively exploring new solutions. To understand how EFL teachers were coping with the challenges, the researcher set up a study to examine EFL teachers’ cognitions about online teaching in response to the disruption of typical teaching plans. This study takes a qualitative approach by analyzing in-depth interviews with four Saudi EFL university teachers. Through thematic analysis, we found that teachers had explicit cognitions about the features, advantages, and constraints of online EFL teaching. They acquired ICT literacy through online workshops, understanding students’ learning needs, and online teaching practice. This study also revealed that EFL teachers always have their ideas, unique ways of doing things, and preferences. Conclusively, beneath teachers' behavior always, there are beliefs, knowledge, and related constructs that influence what they do. Hence, it became clear that if we want to understand what teachers do comprehensively, we need to know what they believe, what they know, their attitudes, and their perceptions. Then, if we want to promote change, we need to look at beliefs.
Saudi EFL University Instructors’ Perceptions of Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Journal of Language Teaching and Research
This study aimed to investigate the EFL university instructors’ perceptions of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants were 32; 87.5% of them were females while 12.5% were males. They belonged to many higher educational institutions in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected using an online questionnaire. This questionnaire included four parts which were (1) the participants’ demographic information, (2) the advantages of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, (3) the disadvantages of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally (4) the effectiveness of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results revealed that most of the participants had a more dominant positive attitude regarding online learning activities although some of them claimed that there were some negative aspects that should be taken into consideration. Online education is fundamentally characterized by its flexibility, being chargeless, and enabling EFL instructors ...
Teaching English Online in the Times of Covid-19 at a Saudi University: Opportunities and Challenges
International Journal of Linguistics, 2023
During the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in the late 2020, online learning has become a coercive solution and a last resort, not just a luxurious option of learning style. The forced sudden transition from face-to-face educational system to online education is an unprecedented phenomenon that represented a challenge in itself, therefore, needed to be explored and studied thoroughly. This study, based on a sequential explanatory mixed methods research design, aims to explore the opportunities and challenges of teaching English online in the times of Covid-19 through surveying English language instructors in the context of a Saudi government university in the city of Jeddah in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study utilised a survey approach using an adopted questionnaire to 41 instructors (23 males and 18 females). Analyses of the data indicated that the majority of the teachers were knowledgeable and experienced enough with the online platforms, however, they were overwhelmed with the unexpected and sudden transformation to the full mode online learning. Furthermore, a large number of the participants expressed their initial frustration trying to adjust to the full mode online system, however, they found ample opportunities for more teaching and learning flexibility with an autonomous learning provision for the students.
EFL Students’ Perspectives on e-Learning in a Saudi University during Coronavirus Variants
مجلة کلية التربية فى العلوم التربوية
The researchers investigated the advantages and disadvantages of the sudden shift to e-learning from the perspectives of Saudi EFL students during COVID-19. That shift was the only learning option for a long time to come after the existence of new variants of the virus. Studying students' perspectives during the pandemic was important to display how they took responsibility for their learning, interact with the teachers, and collaborate. The researchers performed this study to describe: (a) EFL students' perspectives on e-learning, (b) advantages of e-learning for EFL, and (c) disadvantages of e-learning for EFL in Saudi Arabia during Coronavirus variants. A self-devised questionnaire and individual interviews were administered virtually during COVID-19 with male EFL students while they were studying an integrated-skills English course as an intermediate-level course in the PYP of a Saudi university. Using the Constant Comparative Method to analyze the qualitative data resulted in eight benefits and four drawbacks of e-learning for the Saudi EFL context. Most students viewed that e-learning and Social Media as supporting platforms of their learning while a few of them did not think favorably of e-learning. Recommendations were offered to enhance the benefits and decrease the drawbacks.
Teachers’ Perception of Online Teaching during Covid-19: A study at UTAS-Ibra, Oman
Journal of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, 2021
The Covid-19 outbreak led to the closure of educational institutions and affected all the stakeholders in varied ways. As an interim measure, the online mode of teaching has been adopted all over the world. This transition, with its own pros and cons, has provided a path for continuing with education even during the pandemic. This new scenario involves financial and non-financial aspects with regard to education, and there is therefore a need to study the transition carefully.This study aims to explore and describe Teachers’ Perception on online teaching. A quantitative research design has been adopted for the study. A structured questionnaire was used (N=56) for data collection from teachers. The study participants were the teachers at the English Language Centre at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (Ibra), Sultanate of Oman. The findings of the study confirm that online teaching has been successful during covid-19 outbreak.
Tracking Saudi EFL Students’ Reflections of Online Learning During Coronavirus: Different Rounds
Frontiers in Education, 2021
The sudden shift into online learning due to COVID-19 has produced many challenges and new educational approaches across all educational systems. Language learning systems were enforced to utilize fully remote education solutions. Responding to COVID-19 is a crucial investigation to find out the challenges, barriers, suggestions, concerns, and deficiencies of teaching English in Saudi Arabia. It also assists in developing the Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context in the future and support its students, teachers, and policymakers. This study tracks the influence of this shift on the EFL students in a Saudi high school. Data collection depends on reflective questions sent to the students through the survey and WhatsApp Group three times during the pandemic: April 2020, October 2020, and April 2021. The results show that students faced several threats, ambiguities, and deficiencies that are classified into: (a) students' emotions, (b) learning environment, (c) student characteristics, and (d) deficiencies and needs. The students gradually acquired experience to deal with those issues and cope with their frustration. Then, they performed in either positive or negative ways depending on their acceptance of the online learning context. The study ends with some implications to efficiently use different virtual tools in the EFL context.
EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Online Education Amidst Covid-19 Pandemic in Thailand
European Proceedings of Educational Sciences, 2023
This mixed-method study had two aims. One was to explore Thai university EFL teachers' perceptions toward online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The other was to exemplify the influential relationships between teachers' perceptions and their instructional practices. To do so, the researcher recruited 26 EFL teachers from four research universities in the Greater Bangkok Area. All completed and returned a questionnaire; 14 agreed to be interviewed; and 11 consented to classroom observations. Findings were discussed in twofold. Numerical data demonstrated teacher participants' neutral feelings toward online education. Descriptive data listed several factors influencing these teachers' capabilities with online education. They were, for example, prior experiences with online education, computer literacy, personal comfort, and digital readiness, to name only a few. The qualitative study also revealed that online platforms and students were the main factors that influenced changes in teachers' practices. Overall, findings of this current study revealed factors contributing to EFL teachers' readiness for the sudden shift to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand. The mandatory sudden shift to online education left teachers without a choice. As a result, they tended to perceive more difficulties, particularly those who have limited experience. However, over time they found certain strategies along with the help to resolve the difficulties. This study also amplified teachers’ voices in calling for the betterment of future online teaching and learning through five strategies.