Abstract:
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019, which has since proved to be a pandemic of variants, the educational landscape has undergone a drastic transformation as educational institutions across the globe have shifted en masse into online learning, resulting in an unprecedented paradigm shift from on-campus face-to-face instruction to a remote teaching model. Pivotal and timely, this applied linguistic survey research, aimed to investigate this “forced immersion” into academic cyberspace and the challenges created by this “emergency adoption” of virtual education by exploring 50 English language faculty members’ experiences, challenges and perceptions of three universities in three different countries. The study sought to identify and document (1) the effectiveness of online teaching, (2) the difficulties of its implementation, (3) student interaction and engagement in the online environment, and (4) factors that could enhance its efficacy. The study employed a descriptive quantitative research approach. The study concluded that the success of online distance learning is contingent on several issues. This case study provides educators and educational leaders, based on the expressed perceptions and needs of faculty, with pedagogical insights, which could be of significance to institutional strategic planning and professional development. The study generates knowledge related to applied linguistic and educational research and furthers our understanding of the challenges of online learning.
