Exploring online teaching competence in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic: insights from Sarawak, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Exploring online teaching competencies is paramount in the pandemic setting. This study explores and compares the perceived importance of teachers’ online teaching competence and ability in two higher education (HE) institutions in Sarawak, Malaysia. The study employs the validated Faculty Readiness to Teach Online (FRTO) instrument which assesses four online teaching competencies: Course Design, Course Communication, Time Management, and Technical Competence, to gather data. The findings from 156 respondents revealed that Course Design was rated highest for online teaching competence and ability, followed by Course Communication, Time Management, and Technical Competence. A multivariate analysis of variance, MANOVA, was conducted to examine whether demographic variables made a difference in teachers’ perceived importance and ability. All demographic variables did not influence the perceived importance of online teaching competence and ability. Further analysis from the t-test revealed no significant variation between the perceived importance of online teaching competence and ability. The findings highlight opportunities for strategic orientation to change during crisis. Further qualitative and longitudinal research among more HE institutions is needed to uncover whether such perceptions were articulated into online teaching practices. Implications for pedagogy and policy are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Faculty preparedness
• higher education
• Malaysia
• online teaching
• online teaching competence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman

Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman is Associate Professor the Executive Dean of Research and is the Director of the Center for Education Research in Swinburne Sarawak. An award-winning multidisciplinary researcher driven by equity and access issues, she has been involved in transformative and impactful research projects with government, industry, and higher education partners. Dr Ida is part of the team for the ‘Building Connections for Enterprising Women’ project, a project that received ‘Highly Commended’ for the Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award 2018, ranked First Place for the Swinburne Research Impact Award 2019 and ‘Highly Commended’ for Emerald Interdisciplinary Impact Grant in 2019. She won the UN Women Malaysia Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Award for the Community and Industry Engagement Category in 2020.

Augustus Raymond Segar

Augustus Raymond Segar is the Acting Head of the School of Design and Arts at Swinburne University. Throughout his career, he has worked with various industry partners and government bodies, including Nokia, Microsoft Malaysia, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Sarawak Multimedia Authority, Sarawak Digital Economy, Tabung Ekonomi Gagasan Anak Bumiputera Sarawak, SME Corporation, Sarawak Tourism Board and Borneo Convention Centre Kuching. This led to important milestones for the University, which has included the signing of MoU, partnership, project commercialisation, formation of the course advisory committee and securing numerous commercial, industry projects and grants. He is also actively involved as a trainer, facilitator, and mentor for budding start-ups within the local creative industry ecosystem. Augustus specialises in Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) and currently teaches in the areas of new technologies, interactive applications, games and animation.