Challenges Faced by University Teachers in Virtual Education During Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Systematic Review

Background: COVID-19 affected education systems around the world. Virtual education was chosen as a solution not to stop education in schools and universities. While the resolution was adopted to prevent education in the countries, it presented new challenges and complications for university teachers. Objectives: This systematic review examines teachers' challenges during COVID-19 in virtual education. Methods: The present study is a systematic review based on the PRISMA guideline. To conduct this study, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases were searched from 1 December 2019 to 11 November 2021. The inclusion criteria for this study were original research articles published in English that examined the challenges faced by professors in virtual education during COVID-19. Results: Finally, 17 articles were included from the 2219 articles found in the initial search stage, which examined the challenges faced by Professors in virtual education. The results indicated that the most critical challenges facing Professors during the COVID-19 pandemic were as follows, in order of highest to lowest: 1) Limitations on Internet access and appropriate communication infrastructures, 2) lack of access to computer equipment and hardware, 3) low levels of familiarity and necessary training of teachers and students in working with virtual education systems. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, teachers have faced many challenges due to the existing circumstances and the rapid shift from face-to-face to virtual education. Relevant organizations and institutions should train teachers and students to apply virtual education tools properly. © 2023, Strides in Development of Medical Education is Published by Kerman University of Medical Science. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.

Digital skills in teachers of Physical Education Degree

Due to COVID-19, universities faced the challenge of moving to the virtual modality, carrying out processes of adaptation to the digital environment and integrating technological tools in classes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the digital skills of university teachers from two higher education institutions in Colombia. For data collection, the instrument implemented was the questionnaire on the digital competence of Higher Education teachers, which consists of 4 dimensions and 112 items. 105 teachers participated in the study, the study was quantitative, non-experimental and descriptive in scope. SPSS 22 software was used for data analysis and descriptive and correlational statistics were performed. Based on the results, it is highlighted that teachers use TIC in an instrumental way. The conclusions focus on the need to venture into content creation, augmented reality, innovation programs, strengthening research and the use of specific digital tools for each area of knowledge. A call is made to teachers and universities to continue promoting training and support programs to actively implement TIC in classes that require teacher qualification in educa-tional processes.

Managing large classes in virtual teaching: experiences of university teachers in Ghana during COVID-19.

This research used the qualitative multiple case study and phenomenological designs to explore how, without training, university teachers in Ghana managed large student numbers in the virtual environment during COVID-19. The study examined further the challenges the teachers faced in their virtual instructional delivery. Twelve participants drawn purposively from four large Ghanaian universities participated in individual interviews and follow-up virtual class observations. The findings revealed that the participants employed two management techniques in their virtual teaching-regulating the behaviour of learners and controlling instructional content. The research further uncovered that, although the teachers' complaints generally centred on environmental constraints and inadequate institutional support, those whose difficulties included using virtual tools did not have virtual teaching experience before the COVID period. The study supports the clarion call on university teachers involved in virtual teaching to personally seek a continual update of skills and competency in virtual delivery because it is an approach hinged on evolving technology.

Prevalence and predictors of psychological distress and common mental health concerns among filipino university teachers amid the covid-19 pandemic

The current pandemic has drastically changed the academic landscape, causing distressing experiences among students and teachers. While there are increasing studies demonstrating the psychological experiences of students during the pandemic, only a few have examined the mental health conditions of university teachers. The present study sought to address this gap by investigating the prevalence of psychological distress and common mental health disorders and their pandemic-related risk factors among Filipino university teachers. A total of 1110 university teachers self-reported their psychological distress, generalized anxiety, and major depression symptoms through an online assessment. Findings of the study revealed the overall prevalence of psychological distress at 55.6%, and anxiety and depression were 17.0% and 28.4%, respectively. Younger teachers (i.e., aged <=31 years old) and those who have less than a year of teaching experience are more likely to reach the cut-off scores for all outcomes. Further, teachers who have experienced pandemic-related adversities are highly vulnerable to psychological distress, generalized anxiety, and depression. These results offer important implications for creating psychosocial interventions that will help teachers manage their distresses amid the pandemic situation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Impact of emergency remote teaching on the mental health of teachers

Among the national contingency measures against COVID-19, the suspension of face-to-face class-es and the implementation of emergency remote teaching imposed a rapid adaptation of teachers to information and communication technologies, taking the classroom to the screens of electronic equipment. The workload increased and overlapped with domestic and family routines. This inte-grative literature review study aimed to outline the main difficulties arising from remote teaching and the impact on the mental health of university professors. Data collection was carried out in PubMed and SciELO databases using the descriptors "mental health ", "faculty " and "COVID-19 " combined with the Boolean AND operator. Articles published between 2020-2022, referring to com-plete open access observational studies, were included. After analysis, with full reading, 6 articles were selected. The results showed that along with the fears of the pandemic, changes in the work routine were factors for the intensification of common mental disorders, pointing to a silent epi-demic of mental illness in teachers.

Factors related to tertiary education teachers' use of the Microsoft Teams platform

Previous research disclosed that teachers faced challenges while using different learning management systems during the COVID-19 outbreak. This study investigated teachers' perceptions of Microsoft Teams' functionalities and the extent to which they are related to teachers' time spent on it as well as the various factors associated with their syllabus coverage. Situated within human-computer interaction theory, 157 university teachers at Chouaib Doukkali University, Morocco, were administered a questionnaire that measured their perception of the functionalities offered by Microsoft Teams. Results indicated that teachers' perceptions of the functionalities offered by learning management systems also play an intervening variable in the deployment of these tools in teaching. Hence, this paper calls for an extension and re-adaptation of existing models such as the technology acceptance model and the system usability scale to include an evaluation of the functionalities offered by these tools.

Factors related to tertiary education teachers' use of the Microsoft Teams platform

Previous research disclosed that teachers faced challenges while using different learning management systems during the COVID-19 outbreak. This study investigated teachers' perceptions of Microsoft Teams' functionalities and the extent to which they are related to teachers' time spent on it as well as the various factors associated with their syllabus coverage. Situated within human-computer interaction theory, 157 university teachers at Chouaib Doukkali University, Morocco, were administered a questionnaire that measured their perception of the functionalities offered by Microsoft Teams. Results indicated that teachers' perceptions of the functionalities offered by learning management systems also play an intervening variable in the deployment of these tools in teaching. Hence, this paper calls for an extension and re-adaptation of existing models such as the technology acceptance model and the system usability scale to include an evaluation of the functionalities offered by these tools. Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

A Research on Online Teaching Behavior of Chinese Local University Teachers Based on Cluster Analysis

COVID-19 boosted online teaching and yielded a significant amount of valuable data, yet utilizing it for education is a challenge. This study employed the K-means clustering method to analyze the online teaching behavior data of 1147 courses from a local university in East China. As a result, five types of courses with distinct teaching behaviors were identified: resource preparation (4.1%), online classroom interaction (3.6%), task evaluation (9.2%), active interaction (15.5%), and inactive interaction (67.6%). By examining the relationship between these course types and academic performance, the authors discovered no significant difference in the academic performance of students in the three course groups (i.e., resource preparation, online classroom interaction, and task evaluation) and students in the inactive interaction course group. However, there was a significant disparity in academic performance between students in active interaction courses and students in inactive interaction courses. These findings can assist teachers in planning online teaching activities more effectively and improving teaching outcomes.

University teachers' profiles based on digital innovativeness and instructional adaptation to COVID-19: Association with learning patterns and teacher demographics.

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors behind university teachers' ability to implement instructional changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online questionnaire comprised of open-ended and Likert-scale questions was administered to teachers at a Finnish university in April 2020. The sample consisted of 378 university teachers who were categorised into four groups based on their digital innovativeness and the extent to which they implemented changes to adapt their teaching practices to COVID-19 restrictions: Avoider Survival Adapters, Avoider Ambitious Adapters, Embracer Survival Adapters, and Embracer Ambitious Adapters. We examined the association between the teacher groups and their learning patterns and background characteristics. The findings showed that Embracer Ambitious Adapters have significantly more meaning-oriented and application-oriented learning patterns than Embracer Survival Adapters, though Avoider Survival Adapters have more problematic learning patterns. Furthermore, the results indicated that pedagogical training and having more teaching experience helped innovative teachers embrace more changes in their teaching practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of discipline, the results showed that teachers working in hard disciplines (e.g., physics) were more likely to belong to the Embracer Survival Adapters group, while teachers working in soft disciplines (e.g., history) were more likely to belong to the Embracer Ambitious Adapters group. Possible interpretations of these findings and perspectives for further research are discussed.

"Eyes don't say it all” - Communication challenges while wearing facemasks in class

Facemasks are personal protective equipment worn to reduce the risk of the transmission of Covid-19. University students and teachers/lecturers in Serbia are required to wear facemasks in class at all times. However, such practice may cause challenges in student-teacher communication. We present students' experiences regarding speech intelligibility in the educational setting. We distributed an anonymous online questionnaire among students from various universities. Speaking with a facemask in class creates communication challenges for teachers and students alike. Students claim that teachers often have difficulties understanding students who speak wearing masks;teachers often ask students to repeat the sentence, and teachers often ask students to speak louder. Similarly, when teachers talk with their facemasks, students often report not hearing or understanding teachers back. In turn, students would ask teachers to repeat the sentence and raise voices. Students pay more attention to teachers' facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and tone of voice. Students tend to engage their non-verbal interaction skills more often to facilitate communication. We further discuss the differences regarding students' gender and the type of facemask typically worn. We express concern that the inability to communicate clearly may cause annoyance and frustration in the academic setting. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

Personality traits, role ambiguity, and relational competence as predictors for teacher subjective wellbeing.

The coronavirus pandemic has significantly reshaped the way teaching activities are carried out, thus intensifying the stress felt by teachers. The teacher-student relationship has also changed under the influence of social constraints. Together, these have affected teachers' work efficiency and redefined their connection with the school. The present study aims to examine the extent to which personality traits, role ambiguity, and relational competence predict teacher subjective wellbeing. The study sample consisted of 105 university teachers. Three hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted separately for each of the three criterion variables used in this research: teaching efficacy, school connectedness, and teacher subjective wellbeing. The results indicated that the personality traits emotionality, extraversion, and conscientiousness are significant predictors for all three variables, while honesty-humility, agreeableness, and openness to experience are not predictors for any of the variables. However, in the third step of the regression analysis, conscientiousness was found to lose its predictive quality for the variables school connectedness and teacher subjective wellbeing, its place being taken by emotionality. Both role ambiguity and relational competence are significant predictors for teaching efficacy, for school connectedness, and for teacher subjective wellbeing. Based on these results, universities can design some measures to reduce role ambiguity of teachers and can identify areas of training needed to increase their relational competence, while simultaneously reducing the costs associated with wellbeing and productivity problems. Several training modules and courses are proposed to be designed and included in the curriculum of initial and in-service teacher training programs, in order to contribute to increasing teachers' performance.

Barriers to Removing Barriers of Online Learning

In response to the turmoil and the anxiety created by the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities transitioned to online delivery with limited support and resources. University teachers adapted to the online environment to ensure the effectiveness of students' reaching their outcomes. Using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a framework, this study analysed ethnographic data from two experienced university teacher narratives about their online teaching strategies in two different university settings, in a developed and a developing country. The results showed that teachers used more or less similar strategies based on the affordances provided within the Learning Management Systems (LMS) and by also accessing other existing technological tools. However, the results showed inequalities in students' participation due to their financial, economic, and socio-cultural backgrounds. This paper emphasises the need for investigation into personalised and inclusive learning for consolidating and accommodating social and geographical barriers to minimise inequalities in students' access to education. Students should not be deprived by the digital and technical divide limiting equal opportunities for learning and development in the so-called ‘global village' in the 21st century and beyond. © 2023 by the Association for Information Systems.

JOB SATISFACTION OF HONDURAN UNIVERSITY TEACHERS IN THE TELE- DOCENCIA MODALITY DURING HEALTH EMERGENCIES

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 forced education to migrate to remote teaching. The objective of the research was to measure the satisfaction of university teachers performing their functions through teledocency. A quantitative, descriptive and non-experimental cross-sectional methodology was used to categorize job satisfaction. The Multidimensional Scale of Teacher Job Satisfaction was used as a measuring instrument with reliability levels: a) Cronbach's Alpha 0.95, b) reliability by halves, according to the Spearman-Brown formula, 0.95. applied to a convenience sample of 146 teachers from the pu-blic and private sector, the data were processed through SPSS Statistics software, using descriptive statistics. The results showed that the variables that make up job satisfaction were categorized by teachers as follows: Interpersonal relationships 67%, Professional performance 67%, Physical environment (home) 61%, Management team 54%, Organizational factors 53%, Appraisal of work performed 51%, Participation 45% and Working conditions 41%. In general, it is concluded that tea-chers are satisfied in the performance of their duties through the tele-teaching modality;at the same time, opportunities were found that could have an impact on reducing non-satisfaction.

Educational inclusion in the perspective of university teachers from five Latin American universities: Notes on the validation of the questionnaire

University educational inclusion has been the subject of several studies at the international level and in the Latin American region in particular. The novelty of the present study lies in the fact that the diagnosis of the object of research has been carried out from a renewed theoretical basis, i.e., the incorporation of theoretical indicators not previously evaluated and which are considered by the authors as key aspects to measure educational inclusion from the viewpoint of university teachers. This made it necessary to design an instrument with technical capacity and scientific rigor, which was subjected to a validation process that provided new research horizons on the subject. A bibliometric review of Educational Inclusion and University Teaching variables was also carried out to know the current status of the scientific production published in high-impact journals indexed in the Scopus database, where the main characteristics within the volume of publications were described. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

Lecturers' perceptions of authentic assessment in times of COVID-19 pandemic: a case of Indonesian universities

PurposeThe present study aims to provide a better understanding of authentic assessment in the COVID-19 pandemic era by exploring how Indonesian lecturers perceive authentic assessment in terms of input, process and output. It also examines the issue through the theoretical lens of authentic assessment following the tenet of a five-dimensional framework (5DF) including assessment task, physical context, social context, assessment result and standard authentic criteria.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to garner data through qualitative interviews and authentic assessment questionnaires in which 48 lecturers from four universities were involved.FindingsThe study gleaned two important findings. The qualitative data showed that the university teachers enacted the cognitive assessment fruitfully. The study shows that lecturer participants experienced difficulties in integrating cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains into authentic assessment tasks during the teaching and learning process. Additionally, the results of quantitative data support the qualitative data that lecturer participants faced challenges (asking students to demonstrate or perform the tasks) in implementing both social and physical contexts in authentic assessment tasks of online learning during COVID-19 pandemic.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study addresses practical and conceptual implications. Practically, it suggests the need to facilitate the development of lecturers' technological skills to design online authentic assessment in higher education that responds to fully online assessment, such as the prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the study suggests that lecturers need to build their understanding of 5DF theoretical lens which include assessment tasks, physical contexts, social contexts, assessment result and standard authentic criteria to enhance their literacy in enacting authentic assessment.Originality/valueAlthough many studies have investigated the implementation of authentic assessment in higher education, only a few have examined how lecturers perceived online authentic assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study contributes to developing conceptual and empirical evidence regarding lecturers' perception of the implementation of authentic assessment based on 5DF theoretical lens in higher education settings during the pandemic of COVID-19.

Empowering leadership and job satisfaction of academic staff in Palestinian universities: Implications of leader-member exchange and trust in leader.

Introduction: In the aftermath of global pandemic of COVID-19, many sectors faced severe challenges to maintain security, health (psychological, and physical), and steer through the crisis by sup-porting the society. Methods: Through a quantitative approach a total of 250 surveys were distributed after a pilot test. Specifically, this research gathers data from 178 (71.2% response rate) university teachers from different universities across Palestine via surveys that address the role of empowering leaders on job satisfaction among teachers. The proposed model of the re-search was analyzed using Smart-PLS and PLS-SEM technique. Discussion and Results: The academic sector was disrupted and faced extreme changes during the pandemic, rendering teachers vulnerable and thus, role of leaders more crucial. Building on job demand-resources model, and social exchange theory, the current study examines the moderating effect of leader-member exchange (LMX) for increasing job satisfaction that can lead to enhanced overall wellbeing in the academic setting. Additionally, the mediating role of trust in leader is focused as a vital psychological element. While the results show a significantly positive effect on job satisfaction in the presence of empowering leaders, the moderating role of LMX alongside mediating impact of trust are observed. This implies that empowering leaders are highly influential in enhancing workplace for university teachers in the post-pandemic era.

Assessment of University Teachers on the Quality of Virtual Teaching

This study was carried out to evaluate the perception that the teaching staff of a private university in southern Peru had about the quality of virtual teaching conditioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted in 2022 with 341 participants, for a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 5%, measuring dimensions such as: academic aspect, materials and connectivity, participation and evaluation, and research and university social responsibility. The results showed that figures greater than the minimum proposed were reached, the best valued dimension was that of materials and connectivity and the least valued was research and university social responsibility. This change in teaching modality has represented an opportunity to improve the quality of university teaching, leaving interaction with other people-typical of attendance-in areas such as health sciences as a pending task. © 2022 IEEE.

Attitudes, skills and expectations of teachers about the virtualisation of education during Covid-19

This article presents the results of research on Mediatized Educational Practices implemented at the Faculty of Education Sciences of the National University of Entre Ríos (Argentina) during the period 2020-2021. In particular, we examined Attitudes, skills and expectations of teachers of traditionally face-toface careers: Degree in Communication, Degree in Education and Teachers in Education. From the theoretical perspective of mediatisation, we analysis various technical, organisational, social and cultural factors. It was found that during the sudden virtualisation persisted an inertia of faceto- face education, although in other ways. © 2022 Universidad de Valladolid. All rights reserved.

The Factors Influencing Chinese University Teachers' Intentions for Using the Micro-Lecture in the Post COVID-19 Era.

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a far-reaching influence on higher education and the teaching activities of teachers in Chinese universities. The intentions of teachers in universities for using the micro-lecture, one of the educational informationization products, and the influencing factors of the intentions for using micro-lectures, are changing in the post COVID-19 era. This paper, based on the Technical Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), constructed the research hypotheses for the influence factors of micro-lecture usage intentions of teachers in universities in the post COVID-19 era, and made corresponding verifications through the Structural Equation Model (SEM). As shown by the results therefrom: (1) the micro-lecture usage experience before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the usage intentions of teachers in universities; (2) the perceived usefulness influenced the usage intention directly, but the perceived ease of use did not directly produce influence; (3) policy impact had no significant influence on the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use of university teachers for micro-lecture use; (4) social relations and personal innovativeness have significant impacts on perceived usefulness, teaching objectives and micro-lecture characteristics have significant impacts on the perceived ease of use. In this paper, suggestions and opinions on popularizing micro-lecture usage in the post COVID-19 era were put forward on the basis of research conclusions therein.

The use of ICT during lockdown in higher education and the effects on university instructors.

During the pandemic, the Higher Education Institutions of Greece used Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to an unprecedented degree to respond to the requirements of distance education and research work. The aim of this article is to present the main results of a nationwide quantitative survey that involved 1183 participating university instructors, to capture the impact of the use of ICT and its effects. Results show that, whereas the overall assessment of emergency remote teaching is positive, it seems that instructors have been challenged by the extreme use of technology. Women were mostly influenced, while age didn't have an impact. Significant differences among the participating university institutions were also discovered.