ABSTRACT
Online education was introduced as a provisional measure to continue with teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the beginning, teachers and students faced a lot of challenges such as lack of availability of gadgets, lack of technological skills, and technical issues. Nonetheless, they overcame the issues to a great extent in the course of time. Many research studies have been conducted across the globe to investigate the use and efficacy of virtual learning platforms, especially in the educational sector, but only few studies have been conducted in this area at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS), Oman. Hence this study was conducted to explore teachers' perceptions of Virtual Learning Platforms during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study participants (N=56) were the teachers of English Language Centre of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Ibra, Oman. The findings of the study have implications for policy redirections. The present study confirmed the previous research findings that virtual learning platforms indeed played a vital role in facilitating online education during the Covid-19 pandemic. © The Electrochemical Society
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 outbreak forced educational institutions to close, and it had a wide range of consequences. As a stopgap measure, online education is being used around the world. Although it has its own drawbacks and advantages, this change has provided a way for students to continue their education despite the pandemic. Policies were made to accommodate the alternative pedagogical and assessment methods. At this stage, it is essential to study to what extent these alternative teaching and assessment methods are effective. Hence this study investigates teachers' opinions of online teaching and online assessment during the covid-19 pandemic adopting quantitative research methodology. Teachers' responses were gathered via a structured questionnaire (N=55) and the respondents were the teachers of English, University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Ibra, Oman. The study results have implications for policy redirections. It's clear from the study's results that online instruction and assessment worked well during the covid-19 outbreak. © The Electrochemical Society