Towards effective virtual teaching and learning: polytechnic lecturers’ perceived barriers.

Abstract

In the wake of the emergency COVID-19 outbreak, the dependency on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is now widely acclaimed for its ability to support educational reform and development. Without exception, in Malaysia's polytechnic institutions, the transformation of virtual teaching and learning through the integration of ICT for the topic of engineering science is growing day by day. Despite the fact that this subject requires critical theoretical, calculation, and laboratory activities, very little is understood about the polytechnic lecturers’ barriers to conducting an effective virtual class for this subject. It is believed, by well understanding the lecturer’s perceived barriers, the quality of engineering science education could improve, in such a way increasing the active learning activities, e.g. ice breaking and group discussion to enhance the students' engagement and active participation. Thus, to address these perceived barriers, the present paper is set out to explore the perceptions of three purposefully selected senior lecturers who had more than 10 years of teaching experience and practices engineering science-related topics from Politeknik Tuanku Sultanah Bahiyah, Kulim Kedah. The in-depth interviews were transcribed and analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. The findings present the lecturers' insights into the troubling barriers for effective virtual teaching and learning in the polytechnic institution. Their perspective had generated four main themes, which were as follows: (1) the readiness and satisfaction of the lecturer; (2) the level of focus and attitude of the student; (3) the facility and environment; and (4) the lecturer–student devaluation relationship. The lecturers expressed few possible suggestions to overcome these barriers that might be useful. Nevertheless, additional research is needed to decide the effectiveness of virtual teaching and learning practices in engineering science topic.