Abstract

COVID mutants are still challenging the education field, forcing stakeholders to change their conducts and attitudes. In fact, COVID-19 enforced students and teachers to stay sticked at home. With the national lockdown and closing campuses, teachers had no other choice than fronting unfamiliar domestic work atmosphere, moving from classrooms into online and virtual learning spaces, obliged to customize with new methods, materials and digital technologies. Subsequent back to classroom framework also imposes new sanitary and social distancing conditions leading to new teaching and learning habits. The paper tries to highlight all advantageous and disadvantageous factors that might affect the teaching performance under online and offline teaching modes, as an attempt to help stakeholders adopt the best choices in case of new challenging pandemic threats.

1. Introduction

COVID-19 pandemic and variants still disrupt all aspects of human life. Education system is one of the most affected sectors. Closures of schools and high education institutions have impacted the world's student population and brought drastic changes in individual behavior. Social distancing and restrictive movement policies have significantly disturbed traditional educational practices. In the same time, COVID-19 pandemic has provided the opportunity to pave the way for introducing digital learning.

Reopening of the educational institutions after relaxation of restrictions posed new challenges, mainly related to new educational strategies and correspondent operating procedures implementation. The choice of convenient mode of teaching is imposed. No longer list of alternatives exists, universities had and still have to choose among only three possibilities, online courses, classroom teaching, or a combination. Each choice of educational system has its procedures, constraints and opportunities.

As response to the worldwide consequent evidences of the COVID-19 pandemic, studies were oriented to describe behavioral change in all areas and to assess its socioeconomic effects. Education, a most closely populated area, harshly affected by social distancing and closures measures, acquired the largest interest of researchers and specialized institutions. The most written around COVID-19 took the form of reports, factual studies, or surveys’ findings presentations, aiming to discuss the direct effect of COVID-19 on education population, relieve the prevailing challenges and acclimation capability of stakeholders, assess the resilience of the education sector, display the consequent technological opportunities. The tiniest part of researches undertook modeling approach trying to evaluate the impact of the affected period on the future of the human capital productivity and economic growth rate. Reporting institutions, national and international, governmental and nongovernmental, aimed for assessment and recommendations. Published figures are distinguished by the scope, period and length of the study. Main reported variables cover age, gender, socio-professional status and socioeconomic situation, and target the deployed efforts at individual and institutional levels. Some authors or editors stressed to avoid the multiple online education problems, other highlighted the acquired potentials from IT and social media tools usage in online courses for the future of the education system.

2. Review of Literature

Among international organizations, the UN ¹ stated that COVID-19 has created the largest disruption of the education systems in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and all continents. Closures of schools and other learning spaces have impacted 94 per cent of the world’s student population, up to 99 per cent in low and lower-middle income countries. According to UNESCO ², the number of students affected by school and university closures in 138 countries has nearly quadrupled to 1.37 billion, representing more than three out of four children and youth worldwide, and nearly 60.2 million teachers were no longer in the classroom. Recognizing that the situation varies across different geographical, sociocultural, economic or other contexts, it purposes strategies to consider in three overarching areas, to assess and ensure: system readiness, continuity of learning, and system resilience.

In this regard, the International Commission on the Futures of Education, established by UNESCO in 2019, advanced nine ideas for debate, engagement and action by governments, international organizations, civil society, educational professionals, as well as learners and stakeholders at all levels, based on the necessity for commitments to strengthen education as a common good, a bulwark against inequalities, to expand the definition of the right to education to address the importance of connectivity and access to knowledge and information, to value the teaching profession and teacher collaboration, to promote student, youth and children’s participation and rights, to protect the social spaces provided by schools as we transform education, to make free and open source technologies available to teachers and students, to ensure scientific literacy within the curriculum, to protect domestic and international financing of public education, to advance global solidarity to end current levels of inequality. Similarly, in a common report established in 2021, the UNESCO, UNICEF and World Bank ³ summarizing the information on school closures and the educational response to COVID-19 in MENA countries, and estimating the potential learning loss, advanced a series of recommendations for policy and programming to ensure that children have safe return to school, equitable access to remote learning, and opportunities for remedial learning and catch-up: necessity to address inequalities in access and engagement during the pandemic and early recovery, as school closures can disproportionately impact marginalized and vulnerable groups, potentially deepening inequality, by making remote instruction more effective through stronger support and guidance for teachers, engagement of parents and caregivers, and through more learner-centered pedagogical practices. WHO, UNESCO and UNICEF from their part have stressed, as mentioned in the report of the Technical Advisory Group of the Europe regional office of the World Health Organization ⁴ on schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic, that to support children’s overall well-being, health and safety, the continuity of education should be at the forefront of all relevant considerations and decisions. Longer school closures are likely to contribute to widening inequities in relation to education outcomes across the European region. Gonzalez S.P. et al. ⁵, administrating a survey to the order of the International Labor Organization (ILO), find the impact of the pandemic on young people to be systemic, deep and disproportionate, mainly hard on young women, younger youth and youth in lower-income countries. Three-quarters of young studying people experienced school closure under pandemic, one in eight of them was deprived of access to courses, mainly in low-income countries. Schleicher A. et al. ⁶ reporting for OCDE countries noted that COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped at national borders. While it has affected people regardless of nationality, level of education, income or gender, its economic consequences, notably in education, has hit hardest the most vulnerable. Students from privileged backgrounds found alternative learning opportunities, those from disadvantaged backgrounds often remained shut out when their schools shut down. This crisis has exposed the many inadequacies and inequities in education systems, from access to the broadband and computers needed for online education, and the supportive environments needed to focus on learning, up to the misalignment between resources and needs.

In addition, Marinoni G. et al. ⁷, on behalf the International Association of Universities, managed a global survey in 109 countries of Africa, Americas, Asia and Pacific and Europe to assess the impact of COVID-19 on higher education around the world. They found that the shift from face-to-face to distance teaching did not come without challenges, the main ones being access to technical infrastructure, competences and pedagogies for distance learning and the requirements of specific fields of study. At the same time, the forced move to distance teaching and learning offers important opportunities allowing more flexible learning possibilities, explores blended or hybrid learning and mixes synchronous with asynchronous learning.

Among national foundations, the office for civil right in USA ⁸ mentioned that even if COVID-19 upended classrooms and campuses across the country at the same time as the pandemic’s devastating effects were being felt in nation’s economy and loss of life, and while educators, staff, and school leaders at all educational levels and in all parts of the country have made from their side extraordinary commitments and dedicated their talents, energy, and resources to address the needs of students, and from other side parents, family members, and caregivers families in their communities have assured the same support to their students in responding to profound challenges in their own lives, still COVID-19’s impacts have fallen unevenly and shown deepening disparities in educational opportunity and achievement.

Among regional organizations, CULT Committee at European Parliament charged Heriard P. et al. ⁹ to administer semi-structured interviews with related stakeholders of the EU education system to better understand the effectiveness and adequacy of policy responses. They argued that the COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented and multidimensional challenges to the education systems and youth sector, revealing the lack of preparedness in terms of crisis management and digital education responses, as well as reinforcing structural weaknesses of education delivery, and necessitating to fix common goal to build more resilient education systems, which are responsive and adaptive to future crises. From his part, the Commonwealth Secretariat charged Osman A. and Keevy J. ¹⁰ to provide, based on reviewing 11 papers, baseline information on how COVID-19 has impacted education systems in Commonwealth member countries, how prepared they were for the COVID-19 pandemic, how they have responded, and how information and communication technology (ICT) and innovative digital low-cost solutions addressed the perceptions of parents, teachers and students on the effectiveness of emergency remote teaching during the pandemic. They tried to understand how teachers have coped under the abnormal conditions of the global pandemic, to highlight opportunities and challenges as the higher education sector tries to react effectively in its own operation and to contribute constructively to broader societal responses, to consider the potential of innovative financing mechanisms to address education challenges before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the educational opportunities afforded to the most disadvantaged and marginalized groups, on gender equity and equality in education, and on youth workers, given their position as non-school-based education providers.

Among nongovernmental organizations, The Edge Foundation ¹¹ marked that the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic is likely to have an impact on students’ decisions relating to employment and higher education and has the potential to widen the inequalities that exist when young people leave compulsory education. Greater integration of digital techniques and delivery is needed to enrich the existing education system and increase access, but it goes deeper. The cancellation of exams has proved that they are not as essential as might have been thought. The time to think during lockdown and the way in which the experience has changed people’s priorities is causing parents, teachers and businesses alike to call for a greater focus on skills and values, not a return to old fashioned rote learning. Moreover, EdTech Hub and eLearning Africa ¹² surveying 52 African countries, highlighted three main obstacles for learners in the midst of school shutdown: a lack of access to technology, an unsuitable home learning environment, and a lack of access to learning materials. For teachers, the main impediment was the lack of appropriate training to design and manage distance learning programs, compounded by a lack of infrastructure (electricity, connectivity, devices) and appropriate learning materials (books, television and internet-enabled devices). Parents were also ill-equipped to support their children’s education at home. Meanwhile, Covid-19 would provide new opportunities for education systems, particularly in the integration of technology into learning. Recio S. G. and Colella C. reporting to YERUN ¹³ note that the first mission of universities, education has inevitably been greatly affected by the lockdown, urging institutions to rapidly develop to online formats and methods. For them, many challenges face online teaching due to equity concerns (not all students have their own computers or internet connection allowing them to follow the classes and complete their assignments properly), accessibility issues (making sure students with disabilities, like hearing or visual impairments, have the same level of access to content), work and balance worries (difficult to combine family duties with professional ones), mental health matters (isolation and/or the difficulty to follow classes online) exam evaluation complications (difficult for teachers to determine if students are following a course properly), communication and mentoring problems (online teaching requires more individual follow-up and a strengthened engagement of students), and physical attendance problems for disciplines requiring physical meetings (e.g. medical students cannot always follow classes online). They urge a systemic approach and coordination among all academics and a staff coherent online teaching strategy including a reflection about intended learning outcomes (are these the same as for offline tools and can they be achieved in the same way?), and usage of new platforms assuring adequate follow-up of students’ engagement, wellbeing activities, trainings for staff in new methodologies, in communication tools, video tools, interdepartmental collaborations (upskilling staff, sharing competences among colleagues).

At the research level, major contributions are based on quantitative and qualitative studies in a trial to apprehend the prevailing change in the education environment generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts also are deployed on empirical and factual studies, or on literature review proceedings as a tentative to develop a benchmark of international experience useful to fix best practices and policies to respond to Covid-19 pandemic newly imposed circumstances. A slightest number of papers tried to use modeling approaches to assess the current and expected impact of COVID-19 on education components and consequently on socioeconomic aggregates. Latest publications, not urged by the sharpness of the pandemic flow of the earliest period, recall for traditional tools of academic assessment, like Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), trying to fit them to the newly established post-COVID environment.

In these regards, Zancajo A. ¹⁴ reviews the available literature in Scopus on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on education, noting that a substantial part is dedicated to analyze how the pandemic has impacted students’ learning outcomes in the short-term, how this impact can increase educational inequalities or the attainment gap between social groups, how students, teachers, families, schools and universities have dealt with the unexpected situation, as well as how socioeconomic inequalities have mediated their responses. Harry A., Patrinos E. and Vegas R. ¹⁵ based on the available evidence and empirical findings during the first two years of the pandemic, confirm that learning loss (decline in student knowledge and skills) is real and significant, even compared to the first year of the pandemic. Even short disruptions in a child’s schooling have significant negative effects on their learning and can be long lasting. Ribeh and Paulina ¹⁶ noted that most of the research tends to focus on improving effectiveness of distance learning implementation and on students’ perspectives. For this regard, they used mixed methods, quantitative and qualitative studies, to investigate lecturers’ resistance factors to implementing distance learning in Indonesia, based on their levels of communication technology mastery, pedagogy understanding and perceptions of distance learning. Tarkar P. ¹⁷ notes that social distancing and lockdown disrupt the whole education system. Since teaching took place from offline to online, policymakers, students, teachers and parents face many problems. McKinzey and company ¹⁸ created statistical models, based on the effectiveness of remote learning relative to traditional classroom instruction, to estimate the potential impact of school closures on learning. They found that students learning loss during school closures varies significantly by access to remote learning, the quality of remote instruction, home support, and the degree of engagement. By using semi-structured interviews, Duraku Z. H. and Hoxha L. ¹⁹ presents findings of a qualitative research on the impact of COVID-19 on education and the well-being of teachers, parents, and students. It appears that while circumstances created by COVID-19 have caused a great deal of concern among students, parents and teachers about assessment, distance learning inadequacy, and student overload, they also offered opportunities to advance the quality of education. Doyle O. ²⁰, using a survey’s findings, shows that during COVID-19 period, families spend a relatively small proportion of their day engaged in home schooling. Families with lower level of parental education receive less resources, both in terms of physical resources such as textbooks, as well as virtual resources such as the use of educational apps. While all families are somewhat worried about home schooling, higher educated parents are also experiencing a greater loss in productivity. For Rawal M. ²¹ COVID-19 has changed the traditional education system to the educational technologies model in which teaching and assessments are conducted online. Alodan H. ²² undertakes a survey to shed light on the difficulties of switching to e-learning, related to technical and organizational matters, faculty members, female students and the methods for overcoming the difficulties, in a descriptive and analytical approach. Reimers F. and al. ²³ developed empirical and factual studies presented in a comparative approach to exhibit the experience primary and secondary schools in many countries all around the world made in response to covid-19 pandemic. Using an education production function, Werner K. and Woessmann L. ²⁴ review how the school closures during Covid-19 pandemic affected the education and skill development of school children, by affecting a range of inputs relevant for the process of skill formation of children such as school inputs, family inputs, and student inputs, and how the reduced development of skills may ultimately affect students’ economic outcomes in the long run.

Bashir A. et Al. ²⁵ explored Aston University’s Bioscience students’ experiences of studying from home, and the impact of the lockdown on mental wellbeing and quality of life. They revealed that a majority of students reported positive experiences of online open-book assessments and most would welcome this format in the future. For them, education strategies going forward will need to address the mental health needs of students who have suffered during the pandemic. Hybrid course delivery could offer a solution to ensuring Bioscience students receive hands-on laboratory experience and face-to-face contact to remain motivated and benefit from the on-campus facilities and support, whilst allowing students some of the flexibility afforded by remote study. Yaseen S. and Joshi S. ²⁶ also highlighted some positive impact of pandemic on education, students, teachers, researchers and nonteaching staffs of school, colleges and universities, and listed number of positive impacts of covid-19 on online education development, environment, human life, business etc. Similarly, Chan R. Y. et al. ²⁷ provide issues making the online and distance education a leveraged to facilitate student mobility. They discuss the nature and effectiveness of innovative forms of online teaching, learning, and assessment adopted during and after the pandemic, and address the impact of distance education on students, social inclusion, and access during COVID-19, with special attention to student well-being and social inequalities. Kumar et al. ²⁸ aims to evaluate the impact of online education in health science and health professions education in Australia. While they tried to evaluate longitudinal outcome of student learning attributes and impact on graduate outcomes achieved through online education, they collect evidence on feasibility, benefits, shortcomings and modifiable drivers of economic impact of the different types of initiatives that are introduced in online education (whether they work or not). Spunei, E. et al. ²⁹ administered a survey on 249 students from 11 engineering faculties to identify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ educational experiences when switching from face-to-face to online education during COVID-19-related state of alert. They found that, disregarding the adverse consequences on the health and life quality of many people, the challenges facing human have led to personal and professional development and have opened up new perspectives for carrying out the everyday activities. Various digital skills acquired during online teaching activities will be useful to students in their professional work, being in line with the trend of increasing technology and adaptation to the careers of the future.

From their part, Gallagher-Mackay K., Srivastava P., Underwood K., et al. ³⁰ studied the impacts of COVID-19 - related school disruption on students and schooling in Ontario. They noted that international and local evidences suggest school closures impact children’s academic achievement and lead to significant and unequally distributed learning losses, mainly due to the duration of closures. There is widespread consensus from families, educators, and children themselves that students learn better in person than online, and that access to online learning is a challenge for many due to technical, economic, or other barriers. Malaka Parker Pablo Alfaro ³¹ mentioned that school closures, interruption to classes and the cancelation or postponement of assessments and examinations have all had detrimental consequences for children’s academic development. The closures also undermine the role that schools play in supporting children’s social development, their physical and mental health and well-being, and as safe spaces protecting them against risks such as abuse, violence, teenage pregnancy and crime. They note that children from low income or unstable households are more likely to be affected by this separation from their peers and the supportive environment that school provides, further exacerbating educational disparities.

In other side, some authors, like Sukendro, A. et al. ³² applied the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the context of COVID-19, using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). They adopted an extended version that considers facilitating condition like adequate access to resources of technology, especially internet access, with the original TAM variables, assuming that attitude towards adopting a system is predicted by its perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, reflecting students’ believe that the use of e-learning during the Covid-19 would be easy and would enhance work performance. Shishakly, R. ³³ using other based factors of the TAM, shows that the less dominant factors that determine the instructors/students’ e-learning resources usage in universities are students’ capability and peer influence, which do not influence their perceived usefulness of e-learning resources usage. Factors such as instructor contributions, course content and design influence students’ e-learning resources usage behavior the most in UAE universities. It seems that instructor contribution affects positively perceived usefulness. Instructors’ encouragement to use e-learning resources is essential for the students’ motivation to use e-learning. Even though technology is used to an effective degree within higher-education institutions in the UAE, more attention must be directed towards factors that hold a relevant role in aiding student usability of e-learning systems in order to further improve the performance and efficiency between students and instructors. For them, factors and challenges that impact instructors-students’ acceptance usage of e-learning, such as students’ capability to use technology, management challenges, and implementation challenges, cultural, self-efficacy, peer influence, courses’ design, instructors’ contribution and financial constraints should be allowed greater interest. Also, the systems’ accessibility, functionality, interactivity, audio and video facilities to ensure students’ engagement and usage intention more effectively and efficiently should be also considered.

Almaiah, A. M. et al. ³⁴ aim to explore the critical challenges that face the current e-learning systems and the main factors that support the usage of e-learning system during COVID-19 pandemic. They presume that the successful usage of e-learning system relies on understanding the adoption factors as well as the main challenges it faces, which are not only limited to the infrastructure issues, but are related to e-learning system technical issues, change management issues, course design issues, computer self-efficacy and financial support issues. They show that critical factors which affect the usage of e-learning system, and universities should take them into the future plans are technological, cultural, e-learning system quality, self-efficacy and trust, in addition to change management, e-learning technical system and financial support issues. In accordance, university administration needs to offer the necessary technical resources needed to conduct a constant technical maintenance for e-learning system, to provide the necessary hardware, software and internet connection, to help instructors and students be able to implement the e-learning effectively. Universities have also to increase the awareness and knowledge of instructors through conducting training programs on how to use the e-learning system, allowing them to motivate the students to use e-learning system, which in turn affects the teaching performance and students’ efficiency. The policy makers in Jordanian universities need to adopt new policies and regulations to promote the adoption of e-learning system among students and instructors, and make some changes in the educational polices in order to ensure flexible moving from traditional learning to e-learning. They have to focus on instilling the culture of e-learning systems among students through training courses about the usefulness of e-learning systems and develop their IT skills. Because if students have sufficient computer skills and positive attitude towards interact with the e-learning system, this would promote the adoption of e-learning system successfully. In addition, the e-learning system designers and developers need to develop the e-learning system to be user-friendly, ease of use and simple.

Ejdys, J., ³⁵ based also on a TAM, built three regression models which explain relationships between six input variables, the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, facilitating conditions, computer self-efficacy, preparedness level, and previous experience, and three output variables, the satisfaction and personal development, attitude toward e-learning, and intention to use. It appears that satisfaction and personal development and attitude toward e-learning had a significant positive impact on intention to use e-learning methods in the future. If e-learning makes students satisfied, increases their creativity, and makes them more competent and confident, it is more likely that they would use e-learning to a greater extent in the future. Students indicated the importance of e-learning classes in saving their time and e-learning tools enabling them to have greater control over their learning process. Consequently, higher school institutions should build long term strategies for the improvement of the quality of e-learning, mainly focused on promoting practical e-learning functionalities related to timesaving, the flexibility of the learning process, and the possibility to develop student IT competences.

Mailizar, M. et al. ³⁶ aimed also to investigate factors that impact behavioral intention of university students on e-learning use during the COVID-19 pandemic, by using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), in which system quality and e-learning experience are included as external constructs. It shows that university students’ behavioral intention to use e-learning during the pandemic is most predicted by the attitude toward e-learning use. Moreover, students’ prior e-learning experiences in high schools did not significantly affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of e-learning at university. E-learning quality played a significant impact on students’ perceived usefulness and attitude toward using but insignificantly affected behavioral intention to utilize e-learning. System quality, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness significantly affect attitude toward using e-learning. Likewise, university has to maintain a good quality of the e-learning system to allow students have a positive attitude toward e-learning.

Erarslan, A., and Şeker, M. ³⁷ aimed to identify the types of and the frequency of exposure to online distractors during e-learning by higher education learners. For them, it’s important to equip learners with motivational e-learning strategies encompassing goal commitment and volition strategies. Educators and educational program developers are required to not only plan and prepare efficient online learning tools but also to monitor the efficiency of learners’ e-learning experiences and to be able to optimize learning outcomes.

While Younas, M. et al ³⁸ show that Pakistani students using e-learning during the outbreak had higher learning satisfaction and academic achievement, Yang, J., et al. ³⁹ applying the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model on Chinese college students, show that perceived closeness, perceived control, and peer referents in e-learning have a positive effect on the self-efficacy and well-being of students, thus enhance students’ enthusiasm for learning. In the e-learning context, students’ highly closeness with teachers, and mutual recognition and behavioral referents with peers will make them feel satisfied and have learning-related well-being. The close relationship of students with teachers is one of the main factors affecting their psychological status. Furthermore, students perceive higher self-efficacy since they think that the teacher has given them more freedom to make choices in class. Self-efficacy and subjective well-being are positively correlated with learning engagement. Such results are consistent with the view of self-learning, indicating that learners with learning characteristics of self-regulation have more positive and active learning styles, can set practical and feasible learning targets according to their own learning, recognize available resources, choose proper learning strategies, and can evaluate their own learning achievements.

In such context, Crawford, J. and Cifuentes-Faura, J. ⁴⁰ presenting a systematic literature review of published manuscripts on sustainability in higher education during 2020-2021, note that COVID-19 pandemic has had significant implications for higher education, due to pivoting educational outcomes toward online and digital curricula to enable education during lockdowns and emergency remote teaching. For them, such rapid system changes have led to declines in student and staff wellbeing. The pandemic has created a need for critical divergence from the pre-pandemic social missions of universities and higher education institutions, letting organizational resources divert away from non-core strategies such as sustainability.

From their part, Fülöp, T.M. et al. ⁴¹ remarking that digital transformation involves intense adjustment and readjustment like all other revolutionary changes, aim to analyze teachers’ acceptance of new technologies, in special the e-learning opportunities, and the impact on their wellbeing and university sustainability in an emergent country like Romania. They observe several discontents and personal discomfort on the part of teachers in adapting to new technologies, and conclude that wellbeing influences significantly job satisfaction and teachers’ involvement in sustainable development. Fülöp, T.M. et al. ⁴² use also the basic variables of the TAM model to analyze the factors that stimulate acceptance of technology by university students and note that the future of e-learning depends on future generations, which increasingly accept new technologies. They succeeded to link e-learning satisfaction to academic success of Romanian students who used e-learning during the pandemic. In fact, they found that external factors do not influence perceived usefulness. Accordingly, students consider that the perceived ease of use does not influence the behavior intention to use new technologies.

3. Problematic

Understanding what happens and how to deal with the prompt consequences of an urgent problem shocking all areas of human life like COVID-19 pandemic were the first questions to which institutions and researchers counselled to answer. View the short time passed over the crisis, the majority of existing reports and scientific papers has the shape of descriptive analysis and based on recommendations. In the education area, efforts were deployed to describe the change in behavior and the respond measures to assure the sustainability of teaching and learning in such prevailing context, needing considerable exertions of acceptance and adaptation.

This paper is one of the published outcomes of a study, performed during the pic period of the COVID-19 epidemy, aiming to describe the change in teachers’ behavior allowing to assure the sustainability of the Lebanese teaching and learning system, declared one of the most successful in absorbing the shock in the world. It targets to disclose the challenges facing the educators during the pandemic and the powerful factors allowing to deal with flexibility to surpass the bottleneck and assure the continuity of the teaching mission without great damage. It describes the impact of each of online or offline mode on teaching performance, taking into consideration the Lebanese educative, socioeconomic and technical background and the psychosocial environment in which teachers achieve their mission in COVID context.

Teaching performance is intended here to define the state by which teachers deliver courses in the best academic, technical and psychosocial conditions allowing them to dispense full program and assure full students assimilation of delivered information. By this way, the research here targets to fix how each of the teaching modes was suitable in and over the pandemic circumstances^{1}.

Based on the teachers’ perceptions on what they experienced at the academic, technical and psychosocial level with their students during the pandemic period, the present work tries to identify determinant factors of teaching performance with both teaching modes in such challenging situations like COVID-19. Describing teachers’ responsive behavior during COVID-19 allows to benefit from the fresh experience to face other critical prevailing context that could complicate access to classroom, like what Lebanese students and teachers still confront with the predominant financial crisis, limiting their capability to make daily move to universities. By screening opinions regarding teaching behavior and conditions during COVID-19 period, it’s possible to assess challenges and potentials suiting online and classroom modes and impacting teaching performance during such critical circumstances.

4. Methodology

The present paper consists of a descriptive study analyzing the results of a survey performed through a questionnaire launched on “Google Form” application and anonymously filled by a comprehensive sample of teachers, from all Lebanese private and public universities. In such way, data collection is assured through random sampling method, and survey’s responses were automatically integrated in a digital data base, then easily extracted in Excel file form. All of the questionnaire items were measured using a ten-point Likert scale, ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree".

The questionnaire is decomposed in three main parts. The first part highlights on factors related to teachers’ identity, like gender, age, marital status, household’s size (members’ number), teaching area, teaching experience (teaching years), type of delivered courses (lectures, tutorials, laboratory, on field), educational institution, teaching language, teaching mode during COVID-19, and the teachers’ familiarity with digital, IT, communication and social media tools, which constituted the main pathway to online education.

The second part of the questionnaire focuses on the teachers’ perception regarding advantageous and challenging factors of online and classroom teaching during COVID-19. Online advantages are resumed in terms of teaching effectiveness, for it offers convenient and practical conditions allowed by technical facilities due to the parallel development and use of IT applications supporting social and communication media platforms. Online challenges concern academic, technical and psychosocial issues related to the capability for the teachers to lead class, control students’ engagement and interactions, deal with new teaching technical tools, overlap boring and exhausting conditions and face distractive climate surrounding online teaching, as the difficulty to assure academic obligations to meet educational standards and qualification. Favored factors of offline education the questionnaire recorded, are due to the benefic context that comeback to classroom allows in terms of control of students’ engagement, assiduity, and accountability, as in terms of supporting context that direct contact establishes for good relationship and interaction with students and for better coordination with colleagues, free and direct access to libraries, assure extra curricula activities that enhance student personality and communication skills. Comeback to classroom allows also to reestablish teachers’ rights and education norms that online mode has in some way permitted to neglect during COVID-19 period, by tolerating aberrant universities practices, regrouping higher number of students in classes and consequently making pressure on teachers through lower remuneration and collective firing.

The third and last part of the questionnaire disclosures issues regarding teachers’ perception on teaching performance with online and classroom modes. The benefic impact of online courses seems exhibited through the increase of teachers' awareness, and the use of innovative teaching methods. Online courses would enhance consciousness about teachers' skills and weaknesses, allow larger productivity in teaching period, save distraction time of normal classes, and require continuous “formation to formator” sessions, quitting oldest teaching methods, and continuous courses content refreshment. In reverse, with online course it could be difficult to deliver same length of teaching session, reach great grades achievements, and register academic performance, while face-to-face interaction in classrooms contributes to boost students’ academic achievement.

The respondents have also expressed their direct opinion if online courses have improved or decreased teaching performance during covid19 period? Which of teaching modes, online or classroom, has better impact on teaching performance? Who is mainly responsible of the improvement of online teaching performance (ministry of education, universities, teachers, students, high-tech companies)? In favor of which of online or classroom teaching teachers were during covid19 period? What should be undertaken to improve online classrooms teaching performance (redesign curriculum's content, introduce new teaching methodology, formation sessions to familiarize with High-Tech, high and for free Wifi connection, add more teaching options to communication tools, render communication tools more friendly, innovative options in communication tools to assure control on students' engagement and conduct). At the end, the teachers are asked to express their clear preference to teaching modes (online, classroom, combination) during and after COVID-19 period.

5. Results and Interpretation

Defining the profile of the individuals composing the sample of teachers enlightens the framework in which the survey is performed, the context in which respondents act and live, and the manner they perceive the events during the COVID-19 period.

The teachers’ sample is composed of 64% of females, and 36% of males. Married teachers represent the main share (60% of the total, 36% females, 24% males) followed by singles (34% of the total, 23% females and 11% males). Females’ teachers are younger (26% of females and 9% of males belong to the age class [20-34] ²⁰, 24% of females and 14% of males belong to [35-49] ³⁵, 15% of females and 14% of males belong to [50-64]).

Teachers’ household size ^{3, 4, 5} persons is the most frequent (71% of the total, 42% for females, 29% for males), followed by the bracket ^{1, 2} (16% for females, 6% for males) and the bracket ^{6, 7, 8} (5% for females, less than 1% for males).

More than 50% of teachers have less than 10 years’ experience (26% between ^{1, 2, 3, 4} years, 26% between [5-9] ⁵ years, and around 25% have between 10 and 20 years of teaching experience, the rest have between 20 and 45 years of experience.

24% of respondents are only teachers in Lebanese university, 49% teach only in one private university, and 21% teach in more than one private university. 50% of interviewees teach in English, around 20% in French, around 15% in both languages and around 10% in three languages (with Arabic).

65% of teachers adopted only online teaching mode during COVID-19 period, 35% used a combination of online and offline modes. The business, economics and law fields form the major part of disciplines (47%) in which teachers are exercising their job, followed by scientific disciplines (19%) and education and letter (13%). Other disciplines ranged between 1% and 4% of teachers. Moreover, the most frequent teaching form used is “magistral with TD” (64%) followed by the mode “magistral with laboratory” (22%) and “magistral with field work” (14%).

The major part of teachers is familiar with Laptop/PC (85%, 53% females, 32% males) and mobile phone (84%, 52% females, 32% males) and less with I-Pad/Tablet (69%, 39% females, 30% males). Females seems more accustomed than males with electronics, digital and IT tools. Aged teachers are less familiar than younger ones, the most majority are acquainted with before COVID-19 (90%). Additionally, the majority of teachers seems highly familiarized with social media (94%) and tools, search engines (Google, AltaVista, …, 83%) and with communication tools (WhatsApp / Viber / Emo / messenger, 83%), but lesser with online educational related tools like Teams (60%) and Zoom (75%), where a notable share still unfamiliar with (Teams 26% and Zoom 13%). 60% of teachers declared having pursued formation on teaching apps use, with a majority of females (64%). It appears that 32% of teachers have learned teaching apps by their own search effort and practice, 17% from colleagues and close, 16% have pursued formation organized by the university, and 4% pursued formation anonymously, the rest had access to a combination of these ways.

Teachers express positive opinion regarding the convenience of the online teaching mode. A majority highly appreciated that with online classes, teachers are not bound by geography, have safe contact and reduced contagious risk, benefit from flexibility to work whenever and wherever, with costless transportation. Nonetheless, a lower share of teachers accepts that it requires lesser time investment, and allows them have more control over schedule.

Moreover, a clear majority of teachers are grateful to the convenient technical platform the online classes assure. In fact, the technology use allows teachers to benefit from innovative teaching methods and downloaded documents, to discover newest communication apps, to enhance their IT knowledge, to focus on their core tasks and to save time and resources.

However, teachers’ opinion is more mitigated regarding the effectiveness of the online teaching mode. There is no clear belief that with online teaching students learn more and faster, retention rates are lesser, feedback from students is faster and frequent, assessments could be more frequent. A half of teachers clearly believes that online mode increases search of methods and activities to engage students and enhance administrative control of punctuality and courses content, the other half is divided between moderately and totally disagree.

Teachers seem also mitigated regarding the fact that online is more practical than offline mode. While a majority valued the saving displacement time to university and the continuous adaptation and readiness that online teaching allows, a lower share of teachers favored the opinion that it allows parallel discussion group by class to share information and documents with students and saving courses' preparation time.

It seems also that teachers don’t share entirely the opinion that in online mode they don’t lead the class, because of the impossibility to control students' attention, interaction and assiduity, and the absence of interaction with students and inside group lessons. Nevertheless, a majority of them admit that online classes lack the warmth of face-to-face interaction.

However, they are mitigated regarding the reasons of the increased responsibility during online lessons. While a little share accepts that online courses are not safe and secure, and that sharing publicly teachers and students’ names is passing on privacy, a majority agree that teachers should be careful of what to share of information with students, and be aware about the fact of recording courses arises teachers' responsibility.

Globally, teachers are aware about the technical challenges of online teaching mode. Even if only a little share of them reveals the absence of faculty structure and support, higher shares have no problem to declare the difficulty they face to draw graphics on the spot, and the big deal to choose right technology and apps. A larger part also disclosed that online teaching is unsuitable for hands-on-fields, means more screen-time, and is interrupted by electricity shortage and internet disconnection.

More than two quarter of teachers don’t hide their feelings toward online courses to be exhausting because of lack of interaction time space with students, difficulty to keep classes for longer duration, continuously speaking all along the class period with no way to observe face to face students’ feedback, notably that students show lack of interest and involvement during online classes. Additionally, online teaching requires a bigger load of information to fill the class time, then larger time to prepare comprehensive courses, and an extra time of self-investment. Only a half of them viewed clearly that no way to have rest time in online class.

That is, teachers don’t complaint as much from online classes to be boring. Notable lower shares of teachers plaint that courses are narrative and lack of on-board presentation, then feel lack of enthusiasm and motivation to make online classes. Nonetheless, half of the teachers express clearly stressful feelings because bounded in houseroom, with no space for distraction topics and issues, and addressing fictive students behind screens.

Teachers also don’t complaint a lot of being easily distracted during online courses. Around 40% of them declared being seriously distracted by social media, texting, family, visitors, and phone calls. However, around two quarter of them avowed that technical issues have disrupted greatly the flow and pace of online classes.

Teachers show more enthusiasm to “back to classroom” teaching in COVID-19 period, because students are more engaged and accountable, and they have the capability to better assess their assiduity and attention. Moreover, classroom enhances teaching responsibility, direct support to students, allows good relationship with students, face to face increasing interaction with them, and permitting to address easily non awakened students. It allows also to promote collaborative teaching and knowledge transfer, extra-curricular activities, and easy access to libraries and research materials. They equally view in classroom mode freedom and liberty of expression due to stop recording courses. A majority also observed that not all majors can be taught online. In the same time, the lowest part of teachers gives notable sights to the fact that the classroom teaching hours are paid better than online hours.

Nonetheless, back to classrooms didn’t pass without challenges and complications, mainly due to safety issues associated to COVID-19, like the difficulty to teach with mask on face, to support mask on face all classroom time, namely in universities buildings where no sufficient space to respect social distancing norms. A noticed lower share of teachers viewed in the difficulty to follow COVID-19 safety protocols, and in the increased administration control and pressure, great matters of the classroom teaching.

However, teachers didn’t express big fears to lose some tools and habits they acquired with online teaching, like technology and class organization tools, familiarity with social media and easiness of contact with students. They showed greater worries to lose more technically related tools, previously adopted in the online courses, like automatic attendance registering, saving courses through recording app, flexibility in scheduling classes, time saving technology, and online chat, meetings and discussion forums tools.

A notable share of teachers agreed with the determinant factors of teaching performance in COVID-19 period. Among supportive factors, they viewed that recording courses arise teachers' awareness. Moreover, online classes allow larger productivity in teaching period, save distraction time of normal classes, and require continuous “formation to formator” sessions. A greater share of teachers register that online classes enhance consciousness about teachers' skills and weaknesses, require continuous courses content refreshment and quitting oldest teaching methods, and help teachers to use innovative teaching methods.

Nevertheless, they relieve some weaknesses. Around a half of them reattribute low grades achievements and low academic performance respectively to COVID19 online learning and digital learning tools. A greater share considers that it’s difficult to deliver same length of teaching session in online course, and face-to-face interaction in classroom contributes to boost students’ academic achievement.

The majority of teachers put on themselves first the responsibility of improving online teaching performance, then on the academic institutions, followed by high-tech companies, students, and at last stage on the ministry of education.

The major part of teachers highly agreed that to improve online teaching performance one should assure high and free Wi-fi connection, render communication tools more friendly, introduce new teaching methodology and innovative options in communication tools to assure control on students' engagement and conduct, add more teaching options to communication tools, do formation sessions to familiarize with high-Tech, and redesign curriculum's content.

It seems that 53% of teachers, whatever is their age and gender, highly rated the fact that online courses improved teaching performance during COVID-19 period. Teachers with lower experience and those who taught only online during COVID-19 valued it higher. Still 33% of teachers are indecisive, and 14% esteemed that online classes decreased teaching performance.

Comparing online and classroom’s impact on teaching performance, 66% of teachers clearly advance classroom to online in enhancing teaching performance, mainly younger teachers, females, those teaching with magistral/TD form, with lower experience, and using only online mode. 27% of teachers seems at midway to the two teaching modes. Only 7% of teachers prefer online to classroom mode.

In fine, after all their prompt experience with online teaching during COVID-19, Lebanese teachers seem largely in favor of classroom, where more than 60% of them express clear preference to the classroom system, mainly younger teachers, females, those teaching with magistral/TD form, with lower experience, and using only online mode. Undecided teachers and those favoring online courses count each around 20%.

Lebanese teachers don’t exhibit great penchant in favor of a specific teaching mode during COVID-19 period, even if their choice is a little more oriented to the online courses, followed by a combined online/classroom system, the classroom mode registering the lowest, even if still weighting, score of teachers’ preferences. Their preferences are relatively similar for each of the available teaching systems.

Nonetheless, the order of preference they expressed towards the favored teaching mode during the pandemic is clearly different than that selected for the after COVID-19 period. While the online mode comes at the top of their high predilections during the COVID-19 crisis, the order of preference is reversed, making it at the bottom of the teachers’ choices after COVID-19 period, giving to the combined system the highest score, followed by the sole classroom teaching mode. The after COVID-19 clear choice in favor the combined system show the teachers’ will to preserve the benefits of technology use forced to deeply experience last period. They choose to continue proceeding with it in the future to put its advantages in the profit of their students. Their choice may be also explained by the difficulty they face actually to join their work place during the financial and monetary crisis. The combined system of education may offer a way to overlap displacement problems due to power purchase drastic decline, depriving both teachers and students to daily reach universities’ campuses.

6. Conclusion

The present paper offers a detailed descriptive analysis on teaching performance of the online and classroom modes and their social, technical and practical considerations. It highlights on the teachers’ perception during COVID-19 period screened by an online administered survey through “Google form” platform.

Teachers high pointed the convenience of the online teaching mode for the flexibility it allows by working at distance, assured by the innovative communication and academic apps. However, teachers are not decisive regarding the effectiveness of the online mode in improving teaching task and outcome. Their opinions are also mitigated around its practicality for the teaching profession, its ability to assure control of students’ interaction and engagement, and its capacity to respect personal security of the teachers.

Teachers seem also aware about the technical challenges of online teaching mode due to the difficulty to deal with online teaching applications, mainly for hands-on-fields, and to avoid interruptions due to electricity shortage and internet disconnection. They are also mindful that online courses are exhausting in terms of classes management for long hours on screen, and in terms of self-investment in courses preparation. However, they don’t make great issue about online classes being boring for lack of enthusiasm and motivation, and distracting because of social media, texting, family, visitors, and phone calls. However, a half of them expresses stressful feelings because bounded in houseroom, with no space for distraction topics and issues, and addressing fictive students behind screens. Moreover, around two quarter of them avowed that technical issues have disrupted greatly the flow and pace of online classes.

Teachers show more enthusiasm for offline teaching during COVID-19 period, to benefit from classroom advantages in terms of students’ engagement and accountability, and from the warmth of the direct contact, despite the challenges and complications related to COVID-19 safety issues and social distancing rules. They are encouraged to come back to classroom teaching mode also because of the confidence they have to maintain tools and habits they acquired with online teaching, like technology and class organization tools, familiarity with social media and easiness of contact with students.

Preserving online tools and habits with classroom mode allows to associate the benefits of online in classroom context to improve teaching performance and avoid online teaching challenges. In these regards, teachers count first on themselves as main responsible to achieve the improvement, then on the academic institutions, and high-tech companies. For this purpose, high and for free Wiffi connection and more friendly and innovative communication tools should be assured, new teaching methodology and new design of curriculum's content should be introduced to assure students' involvement and good conduct.

On the other hand, around a half of teachers viewed that teaching performance is enhanced by the online courses during COVID-19 period, but more than two third of them clearly advance classroom to online for it allows better improvement. This posture let the choice of the optimal system not so simple for teachers. In fact, while their choice during COVID-19 period is a little more oriented to the online courses due to the fears of safety issues, the order of preference is reversed after COVID-19 context, where the combined system registers the highest score, followed by the sole classroom teaching mode. The new order of preference reflects the determination of teachers to preserve the benefits they registered for the online mode due to technology tools they forced to experience during COVID-19, to introduce more flexibility to the classroom mode they favored for its capability to assure better teaching performance. The combined system permits to associate technology use benefits of online mode in terms of freedom, with the advantages of classroom mode in terms of teaching performance and students’ engagement, notably that nowadays the COVID-19 fears and safety rules declined, allowing to introduce more flexibility in the high education system. The combined choice may be also useful to allow both teachers and students overlap displacement problems during the prevailing financial and monetary crisis in Lebanon, where power purchase drastic decline prevents them to afford paying daily routs expenses to and from universities’ campuses.

The description of the teachers’ choices as shown in this paper is based on their perception about what they experienced when achieving their task during the COVID-19 context. It traduces their believes about the level of success the adopted systems allowed to achieve in terms of teaching performance, taking into account all interfering technical, practical and socioeconomic issues that considerably guided their living and teaching behavior all along the pandemic. Accordingly, it constitutes the basics of a first reading of the education framework during COVID-19 period, that could be complemented by a modeling approach stylizing the determinant factors of teaching performance. The development of a model from the collected data allows to deduce with accuracy the best teaching mode that could be implemented to absorb better the shock of a similar potential stormy context, or to enhance the teaching performance of a regular education system by implementing new IT tools and innovative teaching methods and modes.

Notes

{1}. Teaching performance reflects the observable outcomes in a classroom. It’s a set of actions, attitudes and behaviors in the teaching-learning environment that results in achieving educational goals for students. The most widely used measures in united states are structured classroom observations, teacher contributions to students’ achievement growth, and student perceptions of teacher effectiveness and classroom instructional climate.

References