Problems and Difficulties Faced by Conventional University Teachers as a Result of Shifting from Face-to-Face to Virtual Teaching Mode during the Covid-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Evidence from Lahore

Abstract

COVID-19 have an unusual breakout around the end of 2019. Due to lock down situations the online education has become the popular alternative to conventional face to face teaching, yet it comes with some issues and challenges faced by online teachers. The purpose of this study is to investigate  the challenges faced by the male and female conventional teachers shifted to online teaching due to this Pandemic. This paper focused on challenges such as pedagogical, technological, time management, online group assessments and lack of interaction. The study conducted using questionnaire survey. A sample of 70 teachers from different university of Lahore, Pakistan was selected. A five point scale questionnaire was developed to collect the data. Frequencies and  percentage were used to analyze  the overall perception of online teachers about the issues they faced. Independent samples t-test was applied to assess the difference in the perception and experiences of male and female teachers while teaching in an online setting. The correlation analysis was also applied to assess the association among the above-mentioned factors. It was observed that the teachers are mostly facing the pedagogical issues including unfamiliar courses, less visible connection with the students, multitasking and improvements in course contents, time management due to heavy workloads. Only a few teachers are facing technological issues. Most of the teachers found satisfied with the process of assessing the students in online learning. No gender differences were found regarding the issues except that female instructors face more technology-related issues than male. This research provide a baseline to investigate challenges faced by teachers in online space. To address the challenges like Pedagogical, technological, time management, online group assessments and lack of interaction, higher education institutions need to provide training, support and opportunities for the continuous professional development of teachers.