ABSTRACT
The whole world has been knocked down by the Pandemic COVID-19 crisis which had impacted people's health globally, including death among people mostly with comorbidity. Some even lost their loved ones. Huge number of people lost jobs due to economic depression that incurred due to restricted movement control orders imposed globally. Whole pandemic events culminated into affecting physical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual well-being. On the flip side, these have been indicated as essential mechanisms to cope up with the current adaptation during this crisis. Role of Existential Intelligence's (Ex I) in influencing Adversity Quotient (AQ) while handling crisis is still immature. The connection between Ex I and AQ is able to provide a bigger picture to stakeholders namely customers, employees, investors, suppliers and vendors, communities, and government in improving the current situation, especially during the post-crisis recovery period. In the present paper, an attempt is made to unravel Ex I adaptation and its contribution towards high AQ in various scenarios. There is no precise test developed pertaining to Ex I as a full-fledged intelligence. However, certain characteristics of Ex I are interconnected to spiritual or religious aspects. Certain degrees of relation are identified between Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ), Spiritual Quotient (SQ), and Adversity Quotient (AQ) as foundation for intrapersonal competencies. Therefore, existentialism creates self-realization while handling crisis such as Pandemic COVID-19, appreciating every life moment which is deep rooted in the spiritual and religious teachings. Further in-depth research is needed to better appreciate or understand the contribution of Ex I on AQ for overall well-being of the society in the challenging global environment. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the challenges encountered by educators conducting online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysian and Indonesian higher learning institutions. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to obtain information in this study. The respondents comprised 250 educators from Malaysian and Indonesian higher learning institutions. A self-developed Likert-scale online questionnaire was given to the respondents. The study findings revealed that Malaysian educators faced greater challenges in mental health, time management, and assessments. In comparison, Indonesian educators experienced more challenges in demonstrating compassion to students during online teaching. Educators in both countries encountered poor internet connectivity, lack of interaction and engagement with students, stress, and anxiety. Opportunities created by the COVID-19 pandemic comprise exploring and learning online teaching tools, producing online teaching and learning materials, conducting research, and writing research papers for publication. Recommendations for addressing online teaching challenges and suggestions for future research are also discussed. © 2023, Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.