Proceedings of The 6th International Academic Conference on Education
Year: 2023
DOI:
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The Aftermath of COVID 19: Future Insights for Teachers’ Professional Development in Higher Education
Doaa Hamam, Ajrina Hysaj
ABSTRACT:
This presentation is meant to show the findings of a study about the future of professional development in higher education. As the pandemic hit in 2020, most educational institutions worldwide had to shift their face-to-face classes to online. This initiated the need for more professional development programs, especially in the higher education sector, to be able to deal with the new challenges arising from the necessity to teach online. It is true that teaching online was considered before the pandemic, but now it is no longer a luxury. Knowing that professional development programs are an essential component for the success of the online teaching process, there was a need to explore the changes that should occur to enhance these programs. This study proposed two research questions about higher education teachers’ readiness to deliver online classes and their future needs in professional development programs. A sample of higher education teachers responded to a Likert scale survey with two open-ended questions. The findings indicate that higher education teachers were prepared to teach online; however, they faced some challenges. These challenges are technical issues and teaching with technology. These challenges could be addressed by some changes and adjustments to the current professional development programs.
keywords: Higher Education Sector, Higher Education Teachers, Professional Development, Online teaching, Teaching and learning