Faculty willingness for continuing online teaching-post COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan

Objective: To determine faculty willingness for continuing online education after coronavirus disease-2019 in Pakistan, and to correlate it with perceived gain in experience in online teaching during the pandemic. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted at Aziz Fatimah Medical and Dental College, Faisalabad, Pakistan, from January to July 2021, and comprised medical faculty with teaching experience of at least 2 years. Data was collected using an online questionnaire though Google Forms. Multiple regression analysis was done to determine faculty willingness with perceived experience levels in online education. Data was analysed using SPSS 25. Results: Of the 100 subjects approached, 68(68%) responded; 51(75%) females and 17(25%) males. Of the total, 30(44.1%) participants were aged 33-40 years, 25(37%) were from Basic Sciences, 27(39.7%) from Clinical Sciences, 16(23.5%) from Allied Health Sciences, and 39(57.4%) had teaching experience <5 years.. Overall, 39(57.4%) participants were willing to continue online education post-pandemic, 20(29.4%) agreed partially and 9(13.2%) did not agree. A positive linear relationship was found between willingness to continue online education and increase in perceived experience level in teaching online ( p =0.021). Conclusion: There was a significant diﬀerence between perceived experience level in online teaching before and after the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. Those with increase in perceived experience level were willing to continue online education.


Introduction
The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic compelled the faculty to change the traditional classroom into virtual learning camps.Most of the teachers worldwide had to start from scratch to build up and learn skills related to online education. 1This turned out to be positive in a way that now a new competency of having Information Technology (IT) skills was labelled as a compulsory skillset for teachers as well as students to acquire.Studies suggest that only in medical education, the number of studies on online education has been increased from 1218 to above 200,000 from June to December 2020 alone. 2This massive surge in online education studies depicts the way the faculty adapted for delivering and continuing education to the students.
Most institutions of higher education took steps to upgrade their teaching staff's digital skills and mitigate any negative repercussions of this unplanned change on faculty's performance in terms of student learning and assessments. 3Many institutions upgraded their already existing learning management systems to move towards advanced levels, while there were other medical schools that worked at the basic level. 4Hence there were varying levels of skills obtained by the faculty to make the system work for the time being, hoping for things to get back to normal again.
With viruses changing their morphology day by day, it was unknown as to how long the transition would last or how long the virtual classrooms would last. 5It is also a matter of discussion that even when the pandemic was over and the universities shifted to regular classes, would the teachers be willing to continue online education in some form or the other.Hence it becomes important to analyse the situation regarding faculty willingness to teach online even after the pandemic, and integrate online education into the curriculum.It has been accepted that COVID-19 opened doors for having a training of teachers and students for online education. 6However, with basic awareness created among the stakeholders, it remains undetermined whether the faculty will be willing to continue selected components of online education with regular on-floor classes. 7e current study was planned to determine faculty willingness for continuing online education after COVID-19 in Pakistan, and to correlate it with perceived gain in experience in online teaching during the pandemic.

Patients and Methods
The cross-sectional study was conducted at Aziz Fatimah Medical and Dental College, Faisalabad, Pakistan, from January to July 2021.After approval from the institutional ethics review board, the sample was raised using purposive sampling technique.inviting all faculty members.Those included were faculty members of either gender with at least 2 years of online teaching experience at the institution.Those with less than 2 years of experience were excluded.
After taking informed consent from the subjects, data was collected using an online survey questionnaire that was shared via Google Forms (https://forms.gle/QzkxgTk7UrXrWN969).The questionnaire was developed after an intensive review process and pilot testing on 10 participants.
Data was analysed using SPSS 25.Numerical data was expressed as mean and standard deviation, whereas categorical data was represented as frequencies and percentages.Mean values of perceived experience levels for teaching online before and after COVID-19 were comared using t-test.Multiple linear regression was applied, with level of significance taken to be p<0.05.
The change in preceived expertise level of online teaching before and during COVID-19 was significant (p<0.0001)(Table 3).
A positive linear relationship was found between willingness to continue online education and increase in perceived experience level in teaching online (p=0.021)(Figure ).

Discussion
Currently, there are 177 universities and other higher educational institutions in Pakistan.Out of them, 58% belong to the public sector, whereas the remaining 42% come under the private sector. 8All these institutions are bound to follow the rules of the Higher Education Commission (HEC),which on March 31, 2020, advised all universities to start online classes in the wake of the spread of COVID-19. 9 The current study indicated that majority of the participants were willing to continue online education post-COVID-19 which is in line with other studies. 10,11A study reported that the involvement and readiness of young teachers was more associated with a positive elearning readiness. 12However, others suggested that faculty had to adjust course assignments and requirements to accommodate students' potential inequitable access to online learning necessities, like internet access, device access, a safe place to learn, etc., and there were some technical issues as well, like online class access, audio and video speed, and class material downloading. 7,13A study in India identified various challeenges posed by online education on the current medical curriculum. 14Previous studies revealed that online learning platforms bring benefits for students only when they were used as complementary tools for the traditional educational process. 15According to another study, there was a significant need to improve online teaching, course designing and advanced computer skills. 16 the current study, a high mean score of 3.90 was recorded in favour of perceived levels of teaching.Another study reported an overall high mean score (3.1879) for the oppurtunities in online teaching during the pandemic in Afghanistan. 17The current findings supported the studies in which respondents recorded a positive response and believed that these oppurtunitites had helped them in creating an innovative approach towards problemsolving. 18naging different e-learning tools in the education process during the pandemic became a difficult task for medical students.Electronic tools are used with different teaching strategies for increasing students' collaboration in learning process so that the importance of education will never be low. 19e current study has limitations as it was done at a single private-sector centre with limited data.Large-scale, multicentre studies are recommended.

Conclusion
The difference in perceived experience level in online teaching was significant among the teachers compared to the perceived experience level before the pandemic.Majority of the participants were willing to continue online education post-COVID-19.

Table - 4
: Correlation between willingness to continue online education post-COVID-19 and an increase in perceived experience (n=68).

to continue Increase in perceived online education Post COVID-19 experience level in teaching online n (%) Mean ±SD
SD: Standard deviation; COVID-19: Coronavirus disease-2019.

Table - 3
: Perceived experience levels for online teaching before and during COVID-19 pandemic.