Redesigning Teaching Practices in Higher Education Amidst Pandemic:

The Case of Technologically Challenged Instructors

 Chapter 1

Introduction

Background of the Study

Millions of pupils have been affected by the closure of educational facilities as a

result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, a shift from face-to-face to online education

has been required, and a variety of emergency instructional approaches, such as online

evaluation, have been employed. For a large number of countries, continuing education for

students was a high priority. With nearly 1.6 billion youngsters out of school due to

government shutdowns, many countries rushed to move curricula and assessments online in

order to let pupils finish their education (UNESCO, 2020). This became known as emergency

distance learning in the aftermath of the epidemic, and it was more of a treatment than a

strategy.

As the world fights to stop the virus's lethal spread, schools and other learning

institutions have been forced to switch to entirely online learning. Online learning is a form

of learning environment in which synchronous and asynchronous instructional content and

academic programs are delivered and managed using the Internet and other technology

devices and applications (Usher & Barak, 2020; Huang, 2019). For diverse pupils,

asynchronous online learning occurs without a set schedule, whereas synchronous online

learning includes real-time interactions between the teacher and the students (Singh &

Thurman, 2019). Following the outbreak of COVID-19, online learning has taken on the role

of emergency remote instruction. However, during the shift to a new learning environment,

legislation, pedagogy, logistics, socioeconomic considerations, technology, and psychosocial

factors have all been identified as major issues (Donitsa-Schmidt & Ramot, 2020; Khalil et

al., 2020; Varea & González-Calvo, 2020). In terms of policies, government education

agencies and schools rushed to create foolproof policies on governance structure, teacher
management, and student management. Teachers who were acclimated to traditional teaching

methods were also obliged to accept technology, despite their lack of technological

proficiency. To address this problem, online learning webinars and peer help networks have

been built. Financial, psychological, and intellectual concerns all contribute to high dropout

rates among students. While students can study nearly anything online, learning may not be

ideal, especially in classes that demand direct engagement and face-to-face contact (Franchi,

2020). These considerations have cleared the way for a new wave of education that

emphasizes the use of technology.

In higher education, the current situation has ushered in a digital revolution, ushering

in multiple substantial changes in a short period of time (Strielkowski and Wang, 2020).

Digital technologies appeared to be an all-encompassing educational solution that could

accommodate big groups of students and teachers. As a result, it'll be fascinating to examine

how institutions respond to this constant change in recipients' circumstances.

The growth of remote education has been driven by new technologies, both in terms

of the number of students enrolled and the number of universities that have included distance

education to their curricula (Garrison, 1990). While the use of modem technology may

improve remote education, research in the field shows that the sector has a conceptually

fragmented framework that lacks both theoretical foundation and programmatic study. Due to

a lack of a robust research and theory base, distance education has struggled to garner

recognition from the traditional academic community. Distance education has been described

as "nothing more than a mishmash of notions and practices drawn from traditional classroom

settings and imposed on learners who are geographically separated from an instructor" by

others (Garrison, 1990; Hayes, 1990). As distance education struggles to build acceptable

theoretical frameworks, implementation difficulties become increasingly pressing. These

challenges involve the learner, the instructor, and the technology.

 Because of the nature of distance education as student-centered instruction, remote

educators must analyze how the learner, the instructor, and the technology collaborate to

build knowledge.

The problem with technology is that not everyone understands how to use it,

especially those in older age groups who are unfamiliar with technology-mediated

instructions. As a result, our investigation sparked a need to address the serious problem of

ICT-integrated learning in higher education, which has hitherto ignored the lived experiences

and concerns of the elderly teachers who are the most impacted by the educational

transformation. As a result, the purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview

of technologically-challenged instructors' perceived teaching practices in higher education

institutions, with a focus on the assessment and monitoring aspect, which is the most

challenging and affected in providing quality assessment to their students during the

epidemic.

Statement of the Problem

Despite the fact that numerous studies have evaluated and suggested a variety of

academic integrity verification techniques, such as cross-checking students' work against

other material on the Internet (Ellery, 2008), the authors of this study attempted to investigate

a variety of ways to maintain academic integrity. Approaches aimed at detecting plagiarism

and cheating may be too late in the student's evaluation cycle to have an educational

influence on developing ethical behaviors that encourage learning rather than being grade-

driven. A small number of instructors are concerned about the abrupt move from a traditional

to a technological approach to teaching. Furthermore, there are few research on the issues

faced by non-tech aware educators in the Philippines, particularly at the higher education

level, therefore this study will be useful in putting light on the subject.
This issue has produced a never-ending conundrum for higher education educators, who must

prioritize learning quality while also taking into account the current scenario. As a result,

investigating this issue makes this research relevant in various respects. This research intends

to address the following objectives in addition to offering a qualitative look into the

instructors' assessment practices:

1. To assess beliefs and attitudes of “non-tech savvy” instructors towards online

teaching assessment and monitoring;

2. To identify challenges and problems perceived by technologically-inefficient

instructors in the conduct of online learning particularly in assessment practices; and

3. To determine strategies and adoptive methods used by the instructors in response to

the perceived challenges.

Theoretical Framework

The general theoretical structure of this research is based on Brusilovsky's Adaptive

Teaching/Learning Theory (2001). Education adaptation refers to changes in how the same

curriculum is delivered in different ways to meet the requirements of different students. Due

to time constraints, individualization of instruction is nearly difficult in a full-time classroom

context. Even for an experienced instructor who can tailor education to the needs of each

student, this technique is unaffordable. The best plan is to use e-learning methods, i.e., ICT

tools, as long as we don't merely use the Internet to provide study materials and multimedia,

but rather "train" it to automatically alter instruction based on the sort of student being taught.

The idea investigates how learning and teaching might be handled through adaptive methods

developed in response to perceived problems in a particular form of education.

Scope and Limitation

The scope of the paper is limited to the perceived problems and experiences of non-

tech savvy teachers in the conduct of online learning, particularly in higher education

institutions. In view of the paper's problem, which is the integration of ICT-based instruction

in the conduct of online learning, higher education was judged necessary. The focus of this

study will be on insights from WMSU Siay Campus's targeted respondents (instructors). The

article will simply look at three components of the instructors' views, difficulties, and

strategies, which are what a qualitative research is intended to be. In terms of teaching

practices, the assessment will be based on two platforms: Google Classroom and a Learning

Management System (LMS). Two learning systems will be evaluated as learning alternatives

and replacements for standard classroom setups. Furthermore, the study will focus solely on

the experiences of the instructor, with no mention of the pupils.

Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature

This chapter provides an overview of materials gathered from diverse sources that are

relevant to the current research. This chapter also covers several previously published and

unpublished research works, literature, and concepts that are directly or indirectly relevant to

the current investigation. There has been a recent surge of research into the new normal in

education. While several concentrated on national regulations, professional development, and

curriculum, others focused on instructors' teaching experiences with ICT integration in higher

education online learning. As a result, the following ideas were included:

Distance Education

Distance learning is not a new notion. In the late 1800s, the University of Chicago

launched the first large correspondence program in the United States, with the teacher and

pupil in separate locations. Prior to that time, education was mostly reserved for upper-class

males, particularly in preindustrial Europe. The most effective style of training back then was

bringing students together in one place and at one time to study from one of the experts.

Today, that outdated educational model is still in use. Educators like William Rainey Harper,

who tried to offer alternatives in 1890, were scorned. Correspondence study, which was

intended to provide educational opportunities to those who were not among the elite and

could not afford full-time residency at an educational institution, was viewed as a low-quality

education. Many professors regarded correspondence courses as just business

activity.Correspondence schooling upended the elitist and extremely undemocratic

educational system that characterized this country's early years (Pittman, 1991). In fact, many

correspondence courses were seen as poor substitutes for the real thing. Correspondence

study, on the other hand, took on a new dimension because equal access to educational

opportunities has long been a part of our democratic principles.

Distance education has traditionally been defined as instruction delivered via print or

electronic communications media to persons engaged in purposeful learning in a location or

time other than that of the instructor or instructors. The conventional definition of distance

education is steadily crumbling as new technological discoveries drive educators to

reconsider the idea of schooling and lifetime learning. Simultaneously, as new

communication technologies progress, so does interest in the endless possibilities of tailored

remote learning. Although educational technologists agree that systematic instruction design

should drive the growth of remote learning, the public's interest in computer-related

technology has sparked and is responsible for most of the attention that distance educators are
currently receiving. Although the use of technology for online education has exploded in the

United States, most of the groundwork has been done in other countries.

Blended Online Learning

Blended and online courses challenge traditional educational roles while providing a diverse

range of learning opportunities. According to Smith and Brame, there are some fundamental

components of effective online education (2013). To begin, it's important to understand both

what students bring to the online classroom (background, needs, and interests) and what they

take away as relevant and meaningful outcomes. Second, providing disadvantaged students

with collaborative talks and small group projects creates a "even playing field." Finally, it's

vital for children to realize which actions help them learn and to employ those strategies on a

regular basis. Increased awareness and knowledge of one's own unique learning process

necessitates enhanced metacognition, a vital strategy for students' self-regulated

learning.Fourth, by self-monitoring their time and pacing, students can take control of their

learning and dedicate more time to unfamiliar or difficult subject. Fifth, in online situations,

the capacity to obtain immediate feedback in a variety of forms is a very valuable feature.

Email, learning platforms, and chat are more convenient for students to communicate with

instructors or peers. Furthermore, automatic grading can be implemented into online

examinations and quizzes, providing quick feedback (Smith and Brame, 2013). Finally,

multimodal materials can be used to increase self-control, autonomy, and engagement.

Emergency Learning and Adoptive Teaching

However, emergency remote learning presented some unexpected (or unanticipated)

challenges. The first difficulty was the students' "digital literacy." The bulk of these online-

based initiatives were new or recently implemented, and they used materials that the students
had never seen or used before. In an internet-based context, it was challenging to teach "how

to" use these tools. Many students were not proficient in using these technologies, despite

academic ideas that all HE students are experts in using online tools. This could be due to

several factors, including (a) students' unfamiliarity with online educational tools (because

they are more likely to use games/game-related IT tools), (b) mature students (who rarely use

online), (c) students' inability to comprehend the algorithms of these packages (especially

those complicated online packages that have replaced laboratory-based learning), and (d)

accessibility of these packages (i.e., the inability to run these highly sophisticated packages in

their home countries). This was recently addressed in an article in the Times Higher

Education, which emphasized the significance of properly adopting "educational technology"

to meet learning objectives (Losh, 2021). Losh went on to suggest that academics need to be

aware of a number of digital literacy requirements, including (a) technological aptitude, (b)

social confidence, (c) privacy awareness, and (d) financial capability (2021). However, due to

the pandemic's quick speed, there was no time to adopt these technologies that emphasized

pupils' capacity to accomplish the above-mentioned components of digital

literacy.Academics, in our perspective, have had to do extra work since they must first

introduce and teach students how to utilize each of the online resources (through instructional

films, as described in earlier sections) before engaging them in subject-specific learning.

Some of us received assistance from our various IT departments in the shape of workshops

for students and academics.

Features and Adaptability of ICT-based HEI Online Learning

Schools employ a number of ICT tools to communicate, generate, transfer, save, and

manage information. ICT has become an integral part of the teaching-learning interaction in

some cases, as evidenced by strategies such as replacing chalkboards with interactive digital
whiteboards, using students' own smartphones or other devices for learning during class time,

and the "flipped classroom" model, in which students watch lectures on the computer at home

and use class time for more interactive exercises. When teachers are digitally literate and

trained to use ICT, these approaches can lead to higher order thinking skills, provide creative

and individualized options for students to express their understandings, and better prepare

students to deal with ongoing technological change in society and the workplace. ICT

considerations that planners must examine include the entire cost-benefit equation, delivering

and maintaining the necessary infrastructure, and ensuring that investments are linked with

teacher help and other policies aimed at efficient ICT use.

Teachers need specialized professional development to improve their ability to use

ICT for formative learning assessments, personalized instruction, online resource access, and

student interaction and collaboration. This type of ICT training should not only improve

instructors' attitudes about ICT in the classroom in general, but it should also provide specific

instruction on ICT teaching and learning in each discipline. Without this support, teachers are

more inclined to use ICT for skill-based applications, which inhibits student academic

thinking. In order to support teachers as they modify their teaching techniques, education

managers, supervisors, teacher educators, and decision makers must be trained in ICT use.

Getting the most out of ICT investments: In order for ICT investments to benefit

students, additional conditions must be met. School rules must ensure that schools have the

absolute minimum of ICT infrastructure, such as reliable and inexpensive internet

connectivity, as well as security elements like filters and site bans. Teacher policies should

cover basic ICT literacy skills, ICT use in pedagogical settings, and discipline-specific uses.

For ICT implementation to be successful, it must be integrated into the curriculum. Finally,

digital content must be produced in local languages and reflect the region's culture. Ongoing
technical, human, and organizational support is necessary on all of these challenges to enable

access and efficient use of ICT.

Role of Technology in Distance Learning and Teaching

Distance learning or correspondence courses have never been more popular since the

arrival of the Internet and online learning. Technology has been utilized in classrooms for

teaching and assessment for decades, not only to help teachers blend their delivery but also to

provide ways to assess them and even complete virtual experiences.

Learning management systems, proctoring and text-matching software, activity tools,

and gamification platforms have all been used to support education for decades. Higher

education has embraced instructional technology because of its numerous advantages, which

align with modern learning theories such as social constructivism (Jonassen & Rohrer-

Murphy, 1999). According to Roberts (2008), competition (among suppliers) and student

demand have encouraged the adoption (or use) of technology in higher education over the last

decade. Covid-19 has built a three-dimensional environment: the necessity. Unfortunately,

technology is often associated with academic dishonesty due to its pervasive features and

interconnection (Khan and Subramanian, 2012).

Challenges of ICT-based Instruction in Distance Learning

The digital divide refers to disparities in digital media and internet access within and

across countries, as well as the gap between people who have and don't have digital literacy

and internet abilities. The digital gap exacerbates and generates socioeconomic disparities

among the world's poorest people. Policies must be created to deliberately bridge this
difference in order to deliver media, the internet, and digital literacy to all children, not just

those who are easiest to reach.

Students whose mother tongue is not the official language of instruction are less likely

to have computers and internet access at home than the general population. Furthermore,

there is less content available online in their native language, putting them at a disadvantage

as compared to their majority peers who use ICT to learn, prepare lectures and papers, and

communicate. Automatic voice recognition, the availability of genuine audio-visual

materials, and chat options, on the other hand, can all help minority language students

improve their skills, particularly in learning the official language of instruction. ICT can offer

a wide range of options for absorbing and processing data, expressing learning, and

comprehending concepts. Because over 87 percent of pupils learn better through visual and

tactile modalities, ICT can help these children 'feel' the knowledge rather than just reading

and hearing it. Mobile devices can also help students with special needs by providing

programs ("apps") with features such as simplified screens and instructions, consistent

placement of menus and control features, graphics combined with text, audio feedback, the

ability to set pace and level of difficulty, appropriate and unambiguous feedback, and easy

error correction.

Chapter 3

Methodology

This chapter explains the methods that will be used to perform the research. It describes and

illustrates the research design, instruments to be utilized in data analysis, instrument

validation, and research technique, which includes data gathering, in order to come up with a

reliable and valid analysis of the data acquired.

Research Design

The entire methodological design depends on a qualitative approach to complement

the nature of the paper's subject under consideration. Qualitative research, like positivist

research, is founded on the interpretivist and constructivist views and tries to get a deeper

understanding of a research issue rather than predict outcomes (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011).

The goal of interpretivism is to improve knowledge by better understanding people's

individual viewpoints and the meaning they place on those perspectives (Creswell & Poth,

2018). Knowledge, according to constructivism, is the result of people's efforts to make

meaning of their existence (Creswell & Poth, 2018). In general, qualitative research

emphasizes people's lived experiences and is basically subjective, making it susceptible to

both researchers' and participants' biases. Although positivists see subjectivity as a flaw, it

lies at the heart of qualitative research and the interpretivist/constructivist paradigms.

Qualitative research, when done correctly, is internally consistent, thorough, and assists us in

answering important questions about people and their lives (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). These

key epistemological underpinnings are crucial for obtaining the suitable research attitude

before designing and conducting qualitative research.

Participants

The "non-tech savvy" instructors of the WMSU Siay campus will be the expected

participants of this paper. The researchers will largely consider that these instructors are self-

proclaimed technologically challenged in terms of ICT-integrated instruction toward the

conduct of blended online learning, hence no criteria were applied in the purposeful selection

of the responders. As a result, the sampling is based on a purposeful method, in which a

subset of the total instructor population is included—those who meet the criterion.
Research Environment

This study will take place at the WMSU Siay Campus in Zamboanga Sibugay's Siay

province. Because the responses are from the designated university, the location was picked.

In practice, the professors are also residents of the same municipality as the institution.

Figure 1. Geographical Map of the Research Locale

Data Collection Tools

A narrative inquiry will be employed in this study through a semi-structured

interview. The narrative method (Esin et al., 2014) focuses on the meaning that individuals

attach to an event through the storytelling process, and exposes a relationship between the

words within one or more texts, as well as a relationship between text and social reality

(Herman & Vervaeck, 2019). A essential feature of narrative is that the story has some kind

of action or experience that causes the character or setting to change (Herman & Vervaeck,

2019). Whether with one person or a group, semi-structured, in-depth interviews are a

common interviewing approach. These are one-time interviews that take 30 minutes to an

hour and are conducted with an individual or a group. A semi-structured interview guide,

which is a diagram of questions or issues that the interviewer must examine, is used to guide

semi-structured interviews. Interview guidelines can help you make the most of your

interview time by thoroughly investigating a wide number of respondents while keeping the
conversation focused on the planned course of action. The questions in the interview guide

are made up of a core question and a series of related questions that improve as the interview

guide is used.For the purpose of documenting crucial aspects of the interview, audio

recording will be employed in the data collection. Because the focus of the study is on the

instructors' lived experiences in employing ICT-mediated instruction in the conduct of

Blended online learning among students at WMSU Siay Campus, the interview will take a

narrative style.

Data Analysis

According to Thorne (2000), data analysis is the most challenging step in qualitative

research, and it receives the least attention in the literature. Data analysis that is done in a

methodical manner can be transparently shared with others. Many argue that qualitative

researchers should be open about what they're doing and why they're doing it, and that

published research papers should include a clear description of analysis procedures (Attride-

Stirling, 2001; Tuckett, 2005). If readers don't grasp how the researchers processed their data

or what assumptions led their analysis, it's impossible to judge the study method' reliability.

The study will only focus on extracting themes related to the given objectives, hence

thematic-narrative analysis will be used. Thematic analysis is a flexible qualitative analytic

method that enables researchers to generate new ideas and concepts from data. One of the

many benefits of thematic analysis is that it simplifies qualitative data processing for

unskilled researchers. Due to its theoretical flexibility, thematic analysis provides a relatively

adaptable technique that may be altered to meet the needs of a variety of investigations,

producing a rich and detailed, yet complex description of data (Braun & Clarke, 2006; King,

2004). Theme analysis is a more accessible method of analysis, especially for those who are

just beginning out in their research careers, because it does not require the same level of
theoretical and technological competence as other qualitative approaches (Braun & Clarke,

2006).

Data Collection Procedure

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