Covid 19 and Remote Teaching: Perceptions of the Teachers at the Lebanese University

Abstract

Due to the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic, millions of teachers and students worldwide shifted abruptly to the virtual world and tried to pursue the teaching and learning process from their homes. This may explain why the literature exploring the teachers’ views of teaching during this period is scarce. This study aims at investigating how university teachers’ perceived the challenges and possible benefits of teaching remotely during the first lock down in spring 2020 in Lebanon. Fifty three (53) teachers took part in this study. They were 39 females and 14 males belonging to four Humanities departments in the Faculty of Pedagogy/Education at the Lebanese University. The participants filled an online questionnaire including closed-ended questions about teachers’ experiences with remote teaching and the use of new technologies. Then 9 of these teachers were interviewed individually via WhatsApp for 20-30 minutes. Findings revealed that teachers received limited training to use the Microsoft Teams platform and faced some challenges designing and delivering their courses and keeping their students engaged. Despite the drawbacks the participants pointed out, they admitted they have learned to deliver synchronous and asynchronous sessions and to use various technologies that they would keep using in their traditional classes in the future. However, only five teachers declared that they would not use any of the technologies when back to the traditional face-to- face classrooms. Interviewees concluded that they feel they were ready to teach remotely in the fall semester 2020-2021 in case the Covid 19 pandemic was prolonged.