Open AccessDistance education in higher education in Saudi Arabia in the post-COVID-19 era
Author(s) -
Amani K. Hamdan Alghamdi,
Wai Si El-Hassan,
Arif Ahmed Mohammed Hassan Al-Ahdal,
Asmaa Hassan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
world journal on educational technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1309-0348
pISSN - 1309-1506
DOI - 10.18844/wjet.v13i3.5956
Subject(s) - covid-19 , distance education , pandemic , higher education , online teaching , quality (philosophy) , medical education , mathematics education , psychology , pedagogy , sociology , political science , medicine , philosophy , disease , epistemology , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
COVID-19 has changed the field of education. This paper aimed to re-envision the post-pandemic higher education landscape in Saudi Arabia. This study employed descriptive-qualitative research design. Twenty postgraduates completed a journal task at a public university in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The responses revealed their first-hand experience of multi-sectorial communities caused by the COVID-19 lockdown, including students, parents and teachers. Results showed that there are seven positive and eight negative impacts of emergency distance education caused by the pandemic lockdown and various themes have emerged, including Social and Educational. To succeed in the post-pandemic era, teachers need to acquire online pedagogical content knowledge and teaching strategies, conduct effective student evaluation and engage students in both virtual and in-person labs and classrooms. This study contributes to quality access of students toward online learning in countries, where distance education is still in its infant stage, such as Saudi Arabia.
Keywords: Distance education, post-secondary education, teacher training, teaching strategies, networked learning