Teachers' Perspectives towards Online Professional Development Programs during the Period of COVID-19 Pandemic in the Saudi EFL Context

Abstract

This study aimed to explore a group of teachers' perspectives on the effectiveness of online professional development programs in the Saudi English context. To achieve this main research objective, a five-point Likert scale with 21 items belonging to four essential dimensions was carried out on 537 English teachers using the snowball sampling method. The data was collected online through a Google Form-generated link. The study's findings revealed that English teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of online professional development programs presented to them during the pandemic of Covid-19 were relatively high. No statistically significant differences were found due to gender, age, experience, or qualifications regarding teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of online professional development programs. However, there were statistically significant differences in the efficiency of these programs between teachers who have attended these programs and those who have not in favour of the former. On the basis of these findings, limitations and recommendations were put forward.