Exploring online readiness in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the qualitative results of a larger mixed-methods study that examined teachers’ experience transitioning to online teaching and learning (OTL) in Malaysian higher education (HE) institutions to understand how academics perceived their OTL readiness and what competencies were perceived to be central during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data collected from twenty-two teachers (n = 22) (three public; three private HEs) through semi-structured in-depth interviews revealed that OTL readiness was perceived through course design, communication competence, time management, and technological competence. Additionally, agentic competence emerged as crucial in shaping resilience and adaptability during the transition to OTL. The paper makes two contributions. First, the study contributed to the literature on online teaching readiness in that reconceptualisation needs to be holistic and inclusive due to the unique HE context. Second, it provides valuable insights to those who devise training exercises and universities required to respond to them in enhancing teacher agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Online teaching and learning
• online teaching readiness
• higher education
• agency
• online teaching competence

Acknowledgement

I warmly thank Prof. Marc Lim for his support and constructive suggestions. I would like to thank the anonymous referees who gave much thought to their arguments and provided guidance to strengthen this article.

Disclosure statement

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