Teachers’ Perspectives in Higher Education on Using Educational Technology During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Observations for Ghana, India, and Serbia

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this research was to understand the significant changes and challenges regarding teaching experiences during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis in three universities, one each in Africa, Asia, and Europe. The study provides information on how teachers adapted to online teaching under COVID-19 conditions. Methods: We employed a descriptive phenomenology approach and used an online survey with open-ended questions to collect the data. Braun and Clarke’s six steps of thematic analysis based on the traditions of descriptive phenomenology were employed to analyze the data. Results: The teachers’ adaptive mechanisms to the COVID-19 crisis could be described through the following steps: identifying the teaching challenges, developing awareness of personal learning challenges, initiating the process of learning by doing, and recognizing the lessons learned. Conclusions: A global teacher’s network could be established to encourage professionals from different fields of education to build conventional wisdom in the awareness of the need to constantly try out new strategies with cutting-edge technologies. Implication for Practice: The results provide evidence of ways that future reactions by higher education to global crises can be anticipated. Further, the research provides an understanding of teachers’ adaptation strategies during the COVID-19 crisis. Complementary studies show that institutions should be prepared in terms of both material and human resources for emergency remote teaching (ERT), and students should also be prepared mentally and materially for such unprecedented online teaching delivery and learning. Findings of the present study point to the benefit of faculty using communities of practice as an environment for learning and adapting to emergency situations.