The Readiness of Higher Education Academic Staff in Cyprus for Shifting the Instructional Delivery Mode From Face-to-Face to Emergency Remote Teaching

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak is considered one of the most serious crises. It affected the education industry causing huge complications and high levels of uncertainty. The pandemic crisis led governments worldwide to rapidly proceed into mandatory emergency measures to restrict physical interactions between people and prevent the virus from spreading extensively. One of the measures was the immediate closure of universities. This unpleasant action hit hard and interrupted education at every rank. To maintain its educational continuity, the Cyprus Government responded immediately to the emerging educational needs, driving higher education institutions to terminate all conventional courses and turn to online education. This chapter aims to evaluate the readiness of the academic staff in high education institutions in Cyprus for shifting the instructional mode from face-to-face to emergency remote teaching (ERT). Methodologically, the research adopted the quantitative approach, collecting data from academics (n=146) in the higher education institutions in Cyprus.