HEI Educators’ Views on Traditional and Online Teaching and Learning: Post Pandemic

Abstract

Every aspect of society, especially education, has been profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly all institutions and universities have transitioned from traditional learning to online teaching and learning during the outbreak in order to maintain academic continuity. The goal of the present research is to evaluate how traditional teaching and learning in HEIs, particularly during the post-pandemic period, were affected by online learning. Technology has been used for many years to enhance the teaching and learning process. Therefore, the introduction of technology into many educational contexts was hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, educators confronted a variety of difficulties they had never faced before as a result of the abrupt change to distance learning. Following a qualitative mode of inquiry, the current study sought to discover how a group of 20 South African educators handle their post-pandemic teaching. The researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured questionnaires with HEI educators to accomplish their goal. Educators were tasked with detailing their journey from in-person to fully online teaching, and later adjusting to a blended format of face-to-face and online instruction. The research aimed to enhance post-COVID-19 teaching by employing various technological, pedagogical, and administrative strategies for both online and traditional learning. In the long run, this was intended to enhance the integration of technology into the pedagogical setting even further. The study's findings laid the groundwork for developing accessible online tools to support academic instructors in effectively utilizing widely adopted online pedagogical techniques.