Readiness towards emergency shifting to remote learning during COVID-19 pandemic among university instructors

Abstract

This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted to explore readiness with regard to the sudden shift towards emergency remote teaching and its correlation with perceived effectiveness, satisfaction, anxiety and attitudes among instructors in Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Data were gathered using an online questionnaire on readiness and perceptions of effectiveness, attitudes and satisfaction relating to the emergency remote teaching, as well as the anxiety resulting from it. Pearson’s test was performed to assess the correlations between different parameters. The results of the study showed that readiness in terms of emergency remote teaching was high, at 44.9% among instructors, while 64.8% of them scored moderately regarding their perception of the emergency remote teaching’s effectiveness. A positive attitude towards emergency remote teaching was reported by 18.5% of the instructors, although a high level of satisfaction was observed in 79.6% of the cases, and 38.7% showed no anxiety. A positive and significant correlation was obtained between a readiness to shift to emergency remote teaching and perceived effectiveness, attitudes and satisfaction (r = 0.2 and p < 0.01); however, anxiety showed a significant moderate negative correlation with perceived effectiveness (r = −0.35) p < 0.01, attitudes (r = −0.33) p < 0.01 and satisfaction (r = −0.44), p < 0.01. In conclusion, instructors at PNU were ready to provide emergency remote teaching, which led to high perceived effectiveness and levels of satisfaction, while the high level of anxiety could be attributed to stressful circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic.