Remote Teaching during COVID-19 pandemic in Higher Education Institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain: Challenges and Innovative Solutions

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unexpected and drastic changes to the way individuals work and their workplaces. As a way to control and limit the spread of the virus, almost all service providers from different sectors needed to move to a remote working setting to follow the safety efforts and social distancing measures imposed by health authorities. This sudden change has carried with it many difficulties especially within the educational sector because of its strong reliance on social interaction. This study aims to identify some of the main challenges affecting the teaching environment after the shift to remote teaching. To achieve this, unstructured interviews were conducted with faculty members from a higher education institution in Bahrain. Three human-centered design and ideation tools were used to analyze the interviews' outcomes and to propose solutions Creative Matrix, Lotus Blossom, and Three Hats. The proposed solutions using the first two tools were further analyzed using the Three Hats methodology. Accordingly, four viable solutions were selected and proposed as a way to improve the online teaching environment and solve the majority of the identified challenges. The proposed solutions are designing a rewarding and motivation system, using AI-based course content optimization and assessment creation system, students' cheating prevention mechanism, and creating clear and precise policies and procedures to control the online teaching/learning environment. © 2021 IEEE.