Remote Online Teaching (ROT) in response to COVID‑19 pandemic: Exploring instructors’ experience

Abstract

Background: Due to COVID‑19 pandemic, the whole world has experienced a rapid, mass university closure and a forced transition to online teaching to minimise disruptions to the academic year. The quick transition from in‑person to online teaching is presumed to be a challenging endeavour for many novice online instructors, and it is a ‘grand experiment’ that needs to be explored. Purpose and Research question: The aim of this research was to explore the Maldivian instructors’ experience of the COVID‑19 forced transitioning to remote online teaching. The research was guided by five central questions intended to gauge information focusing on teaching and learning and assessment strategies, support received, challenges and concerns, students’ reactions to the new learning experience, and recommendations from the instructors. Methodology: The study followed a qualitative multiple‑case study approach exploring the emergency remote online teaching experience of 7 instructors from three different higher education institutions that adopted a remote online learning strategy to allow educational continuity. Participants were selected through purposive convenience and snowball sampling method. The source of data for this research was a completed semi‑structured interview questionnaire and a phone interview conducted to confirm the information provided when deemed necessary. Manual thematic coding was applied to analyse open responses, and precoded aspects adopted from literature were analysed for its absence or presence in each of the cases. Cross and within case and institution analysis was performed to enable a coherent discussion. Findings: The findings of the study revealed that many instructors adopted a variety of strategies fit for an emergency online learning context and the main form of support was focused on technology integration rather than online pedagogy. The mains concerns identified related to student disengagement, instructor and student readiness and scepticism around online teaching influenced by traditional pedagogy. Conclusion and recommendations: Going forward, online teaching has to be carefully planned, systematically designed, to be effective. Instructors need to be supported to reformulate their teaching philosophy and develop competencies necessary for online teaching.