Emergency Remote Teaching Scenarios, Struggles and Soundboxes: A Case Study on Malaysian Teachers

Abstract

The shift to emergency remote teaching has created a ripple effect in education across the globe. Although efforts to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic can be lauded, much remains unknown in terms of the challenges that teachers have gone through in fulfilling their roles during emergency remote teaching. The study is a necessary step to identify and determine how teachers articulate their perspectives as an educator during emergency remote teaching. A case study on a group of trained graduate teachers in Malaysia was conducted to investigate strategies and struggles they faced in the emergency remote teaching period through a survey and a thematic analysis of narratives they provided. Findings show that though respondents were equipped with pedagogical knowledge in integrating technology, they were unable to fully utilise what they have learned in their teacher training programme during emergency remote teaching due to lack of administrative support from school and poor infrastructure accessibility. Their narratives also suggested a pertinent need for future study to investigate the synergy between parents, schools and teachers in working cohesively to ensure learning is supported effectively at home and in school especially during emergency remote teaching.

Full text

Emergency Remote Teaching Scenarios, Struggles and
Soundboxes: A Case Study on Malaysian Teachers
Kee-Man Chuah1, Fitri Suraya Mohamad2
1Faculty of Language and Communication, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,
94300 Kota Samarahan Sarawak
2Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,
94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak
{kmchuah, mfitri}@unimas.my
Abstract. The shift to emergency remote teaching has created a ripple effect in
education across the globe. Although efforts to mitigate the impacts of COVID-
19 pandemic can be lauded, much remains unknown in terms of the challenges
that teachers have gone through in fulfilling their roles during emergency remote
teaching. The study is a necessary step to identify and determine how teachers
articulate their perspectives as an educator during emergency remote teaching. A
case study on a group of trained graduate teachers in Malaysia was conducted to
investigate strategies and struggles they faced in the emergency remote teaching
period through a survey and a thematic analysis of narratives they provided.
Findings show that though respondents were equipped with pedagogical
knowledge in integrating technology, they were unable to fully utilise what they
have learned in their teacher training programme during emergency remote
teaching due to lack of administrative support from school and poor infrastructure
accessibility. Their narratives also suggested a pertinent need for future study to
investigate the synergy between parents, schools and teachers in working
cohesively to ensure learning is supported effectively at home and in school
especially during emergency remote teaching.
Keywords: emergency remote teaching, teacher voices, teaching strategies,
COVID-19 pandemic
1 Introduction
The sudden onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic has not only disrupted the education
ecosystem but ironically, it has also created countless opportunities for administrators,
teachers, and students to explore unconventional strategies and methods to overcome
issues which came about with the emergence of the outbreak globally. As reported by
UNESCO [1], 1.5 billion learners are affected globally, due to school and university
closures or partial closures. While agencies and governments have put effort to mitigate
the pandemic’s impact on education, the widening gap in access to proper education is
alarming and many schools are hoping learning could happen by chance [2]. Such a
situation is due to the fact that teachers are expected to instantly respond to the call for
emergency remote teaching and the transition is shadowed by the perception that
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technological tools could solve all problems. Hodges et al. [3] who introduced the term
“Emergency Remote Teaching” postulated that emergency remote teaching should not
be regarded as of the same value as online learning, distance learning or e-learning. To
them, it is a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due
to crisis circumstances.
Numerous studies on emergency remote teaching focused on teachers’ readiness to
cope with demands and challenges of the seemingly new mode of learning [4, 5, 6]
particularly in the regions where online learning is vastly available only in
predominantly urban areas. Trust and Whalen [4] in their survey on 325 K-12 teachers
in the United States showed that many of the teachers (more than 60%) felt that they
should have been trained to properly plan and implement necessary actions during
emergency remote teaching. It was reported that teachers were unfamiliar with the
instructional tools and methods being introduced during the pandemic period. Nae [7]
in her review of school and university preparedness in Japan showed a similar pattern.
Teachers were reported to have a low competency in conducting classes online as
Japanese teachers were known to prefer face-to-face and hands-on teaching. She also
pointed out that students in some parts of the country faced challenges to learn online
due to limited access to the Internet and sufficient devices. It is worthy to note that these
studies were focusing on teachers’ readiness in coping with emergency remote teaching
and limited information was revealed about the instructional issues faced during the
implementation of emergency remote teaching.
A more recent study by Giovannella, Passarelli and Donatella Persico [19],
however, revealed insightful findings on how teachers in Italy coped with the closure
of schools during lockdown. Their survey on 336 teachers showed that 92% of them
were able to adapt to online education in less than two weeks. This transition time can
be considered as fast as compared to the current scenarios in Southeast Asia.
Giovannella et al.’s investigation also showed the importance of teacher education in
digital pedagogy, which is one of the challenges faced by Malaysian teachers as they
were predominantly trained to teach face-to-face due to the connectivity issue in many
parts of Malaysia. Aliyyah et al. [20] who conducted a qualitative study on 67 primary
school teachers in Indonesia revealed that teachers needed more time to adapt to the
online learning adoption due to the lack of support and insufficient pedagogical
knowledge on how to conduct classes remotely. They reported a heavy reliance on
third-party resources such as videos on YouTube and photos of printed materials and
sending them via WhatsApp chat app. They used these materials mainly for question
and answer (Q&A) instead of teaching the students systematically. The prevalent
problem of Internet accessibility is a key factor in stopping many teachers from being
more enthusiastic about online or remote teaching.
Several studies have looked at technological intervention and how several types of
tools would complement teaching and learning activities affected by the learning
disruption [8, 9]. The concept of “just putting everything online” seems prevalent, to
the extent that teachers reportedly became overwhelmed with the series of webinars,
online demonstrations and product placements which feature multiple educational
tools. This situation is expected since the need to shift the learning environment online
may not be as straightforward as converting all resources to digital format.
Nevertheless, as mentioned by Huang [10], online learning experiences are isolating
and require high-level of intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy. Such a situation has
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called for a more humanistic approach in identifying the hidden problems faced by the
teachers when dealing with emergency remote teaching.
From an empathetic perspective, as reiterated by Bizkurt and Sharma [9], it would
be crucial to listen to teachers’ voices (or “soundboxes” of opinions) not mainly in
terms of how they deliver educational contents successfully. A comparative study done
by Reich et al. [11] compiled voices from 40 teachers who were interviewed on their
coping strategies during the pandemic period. Their in-depth interviews identified three
emerging themes. Firstly, the teachers struggled to motivate their students remotely.
Secondly, the teachers mentioned professional loss and burnout as they no longer had
the sense of their own efficacy and professional identity. Thirdly, the teachers observed
a dramatic increase of societal inequities of students’ lives, particularly the
marginalised groups. These themes contribute to a scenario of how challenges faced by
the teachers are not solely about their readiness to use technology for the purpose of
emergency remote teaching. Teacher voices are a necessary tool to identify on-the-
ground challenges and coping strategies which transpired because of the lockdown due
to the pandemic. By understanding their struggles, it would provide significant insights
on the necessary assistance, support and solutions that could be given to teachers.
Research on emergency remote teaching has been mostly restricted to the heavy shift
of reliance on technology during the remote teaching period. It is still unclear how
teachers coped with limitations they faced in coping with the changes of instructional
delivery, quality of instructional input, and the nature of interactivity with students
when teaching remotely.
For context, the current study was designed to investigate in greater detail the causes
of why teachers in the Sarawak state of Malaysia were not utilising technology during
emergency remote teaching. Findings from an earlier unpublished research by the State
Education Department in April 2020 gave indications about issues with poor
administrative support, poor teacher-parental support and lack of computing and
internet access being the key factors why teachers did not embrace technology-based
instruction during emergency remote teaching. Both authors have access to the
respondents in the current study, as they were once students in a Masters of Learning
Sciences programme at a local university where both authors are currently teaching.
Knowing the scope of training that all the respondents have gone through in the Masters
programme, it was decided that investigating the issues and struggles of teachers who
have had training to use technology-based instruction would provide a useful insight
into reasons behind the poor use of technology among Sarawak teachers. It would also
provide a snapshot of how teachers are coping since Sarawak is the largest state in
Malaysia with more than forty ethnic groups and a dispersed population.
2 Method
At the point of writing, Malaysia, as a country, has undergone three waves of the Covid-
19 outbreak. As schools were closed, reopened, and closed again, teachers throughout
the country have had to cope with the resources they have at hand to provide school
tasks for their home-bound students. The first lockdown (known as Movement Control
Order) in Malaysia began from March 18, 2020 until March 31, 2020 but was
subsequently extended until June 9, 2020 due to the increase of COVID-19 cases in the
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country. The lockdown was partially lifted in certain economic areas after that and
schools were allowed to resume operation gradually starting from June 24, 2020.
During the lockdown period of about three months, all classes were conducted online
but there was a lack of standardised procedures among the schools (particularly
government schools) in implementing online learning. We are aware that there was also
a disparity in terms of instructions given to schools at the district level. Thus, the
method of this study was designed to gauge what the group of teachers, whom we knew,
have experienced during this uncertain period.
An online survey was designed to capture experiences of fifty graduate trained
teachers, all who have completed a master’s degree in Learning Sciences in the past 10
years, and are currently teaching in urban, rural, and remote schools in Malaysia. The
survey contained two parts: background information, and strategies and struggles. The
second part included ten 4-point Likert scale items (1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree,
3-Agree, 4-Strong Agree), three multiple-choice items and six open-ended questions
for teachers to share their narratives about their experience in emergency remote
teaching. In designing the constructs of the survey, we used:
a. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework [12]
b. Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework [13]
Both frameworks provided guidance to construct items to understand actual
experiences that respondents went through, as they utilised technology as the primary
means to teach remotely. TPACK serves as the reference point for items related to
teacher’s technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge while the CoI framework
offers input for the items related to the teachers’ efforts to create meaningful learning
experience through social, cognitive, and teaching presence. Table 1 shows the
mapping between the survey items and TPACK and CoI constructs.
Table 1. Mapping of survey items and constructs from TPACK and CoI frameworks
Section
Items
Constructs
Background
Information
● Name
● Cohort they enrolled into in the Masters
in Learning Sciences programme
● Current place of teaching
● Years of academic qualification
● Highest academic qualification
Strategies and
Struggles
4-point Likert scale items:
During this period, I am able to
● design online activities for my
students
● reach out to my students
● use online tools to reach out to my
students
● apply what I have learned during
studies/training
● redesign face-to-face teaching
materials to fit the needs of the
Pedagogical
Knowledge
TPACK and Co1
(Teaching Presence)
TPK
TPACK
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situation.
● find solutions to technical problems
that I faced during online teaching.
● offer assistance to my peers when
they face problems in online
teaching
● provide advice to my school
administrators in dealing with
remote teaching
● practise suitable strategies to
increase student engagement
● participate in webinars that
enhances my knowledge and skills
on remote teaching
Multiple-Choice Items
● Which collaboration tools do you
use the most? (You may choose
more than 1)
● Which communication tools do you
use the most? (You may choose
more than 1)
● How long does it take to plan for a
remote lesson?
Open-Ended Questions
1. Please share the main strategies that
you have used to teach during this
period.
2. How do you plan interaction with your
students? (E.g., doing regular meet-up,
setting interesting discussion topics,
conducting real-time activities like
quizzes, games, etc)
3. How do you assess learning success?
(As in students participation,
engagement, task completion,
attendance, etc, which one do you
assess as "learning success").
4. What are the challenges that you face
during this period of emergency remote
teaching?
5. Do you collaborate with subject
specialists? In the same school, other
schools in same district, or other
schools outside of district?
6. Are there any interesting stories that
you would like to share with us during
your experience in emergency remote
teaching so far?
TPK
PK and CoI (Social
Presence)
TPK and CoI
(Cognitive
Presence)
TPACK
PK and CoI (Social
Presence)
TK
PCK
TPACK
TPACK and CoI
(Teaching Presence)
PCK
PCK and CoI
(Teaching Presence)
TPACK and CoI
(Social presence)
CoI (Cognitive and
Social Presence)
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The selection of respondents in the study was driven by a need to understand if these
trained Learning Science graduate teachers were able to cope and adapt with
Emergency Remote Teaching. In the Master’s programme that they attended, they
learned pedagogical knowledge and skills (TPACK) which directly relate to technology
advancements. Both authors taught all the respondents in the programme and are
responsible for most curriculum design and development decisions for the programme.
Choosing to investigate the coping and adaptation strategies used by these former
students was a deliberate attempt to understand how the graduate teachers utilised their
training into action, in a time where technology becomes a necessary instructional
delivery platform.
The survey was disseminated from 25 May 2020 until 12 June 2020 (three weeks),
about two months after lockdown was imposed in the country. Out of 140 graduates
from the Master’s programme, who are currently teaching in public and private schools
in the country, a total of 52 responses (37%) were collected but two were excluded from
further analysis as more than half of the items were not completed. The final number
of respondents stood at 50 (36%). 80% of the respondents (n=40) teach in public
schools while twenty percent (n=10) teach in private/independent schools and colleges.
Table 2 illustrates the respondents’ years of teaching experience.
Table 2. Teaching experience
Years of Teaching
Number
Percentage
1 to 3 years
6
12%
4 to 6 years
10
20%
7 to 9 years
17
34%
10 to 12 years
8
16%
12 to 15 years
5
10%
More than 15 years
4
8%
The data from the close-ended items were analysed using descriptive statistics while
the open-ended items were qualitatively analysed through thematic analysis [14]. The
interpretation of the data was done through member checking [15] to ensure reliability
and validity of the themes identified through the analysis. Coding was done by both
authors of this paper. Member checking was done by sending back the first draft of
thematic analysis back to the respondents. As the respondents knew both authors,
feedback was sought immediately through emails, phone calls and text messages. The
feedback was incorporated to refine the analysis of data. The methodological approach
employed for content analysis was grounded theory, as themes were first derived from
the data, and based on personal interactions with the respondents of the study, who were
students of both authors.
In terms of limitations, we acknowledge the small sample size as well as the
convenient sampling technique used in the study. Although the numbers may not be
representative of the whole population (N=140), yet the findings of the study serve as
a useful indicator of actual instructional issues faced by trained teachers who have
learned about using technology for teaching.
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3 Results and Discussion
All respondents were deliberately involved in emergency remote teaching from the
beginning of April 2020. As countries around the world faced lockdowns, schools in
Malaysia were also closed. Teachers in public schools were asked to use Google
Classroom, a platform which was prescribed by the Education Ministry, a year before
the pandemic happened. The uptake to use Google Classroom was pedantic before the
pandemic, and it slowly picked up speed as school administrators began to impose its
use. Those who were teaching in private schools, in contrast, were quickly shifting
their instructional delivery online. Most respondents reported the push from their school
administrators and parents which made them embrace online teaching almost
immediately as when the announcement of school closures was made. Fig. 1 shows the
tools that the respondents used the most during emergency remote teaching. These
tools were introduced to them when they were in the Master’s programme; hence it was
expected that the respondents would be familiar with their features and functions.
Fig. 1. Most used teaching tools during emergency remote teaching
Many of the respondents used Google Classroom (92%, n=46) and Google Meet
(80%, n=40%) to conduct their emergency remote teaching. The trend was somehow
expected as these two tools were endorsed by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia as
the primary platform for Malaysian schools. The respondents have been exposed to
Google Classroom and Google Meet beginning late 2019 as a nationwide strategy to
adopt flipped learning approach as part of the 21st century learning blueprint but not it
was not compulsory to use it. Other popular tools used were Zoom (55%, n=28) and
YouTube (40%, n=20). The reported usage also shows the respondents’ tendency to opt
for synchronous teaching such as live class via Google Meet or Zoom. The respondents
also listed other tools, where they included the use of Kahoot, Quizziz, Flipgrid and
Microsoft Teams. These tools, however, were not as widely used among the
respondents.
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In terms of time spent to prepare a lesson of about 35 to 45 minutes (including
materials), 42% of them (n=22) indicated less than 24 hours, 38% (n=20) indicated 1
to 3 days, 14% (n=7) indicated a week while the remaining 6% (n=3) indicated more
than a week. The finding is an eye-opener as despite the widely accepted notion that
teachers were not ready for remote teaching, they were mostly spending between one
to three days to prepare for a 35-40 minute lesson. From another perspective, the
teachers could be rushing to convert their materials online, to comply with what was
required by their school administrators, akin to the famous saying “building the plane
while flying it”.
The survey had also asked about the teaching activities during the lockdown phase
in the country, in which teachers were instructed to conduct emergency remote
teaching. Table 3 shows their level of agreement to the given list of teaching activities.
Mean scores that are higher than 3.00 signify a high level of agreement.
Table 3. Level of agreement on listed teaching activities
During this period, I am able to:
Mean
Score
Standard
Deviation
design online activities for my students
3.42
1.15
reach out to my students
2.76
0.76
use online tools to reach out to my students
3.44
0.58
apply what I have learned during studies/training
3.20
0.87
redesign face-to-face teaching materials to fit the needs
of the situation.
3.06
0.62
find solutions to technical problems that I faced during
online teaching.
2.86
1.32
offer assistance to my peers when they face problems in
online teaching
3.16
1.12
provide advice to my school administrators in dealing
with remote teaching
2.20
0.92
practise suitable strategies to increase student
engagements
3.28
0.80
participate in webinars that enhances my knowledge
and skills on remote teaching
3.60
1.56
The strongest points which were reported were their ability to design online activities
(mean = 3.42) and ability to use online tools to reach out to their students (mean = 3.44).
These aspects represent their competence and confidence to initiate instructional
strategies which require the integration of technology. It represents “technological
pedagogical knowledge” in the TPACK model, which classifies the ability to use
technology tools to deliver purposeful instructions. These aspects of teaching
competence also correlated with narratives collected in the open-ended items in the
same survey. As one of the respondents described:
“[I was able to] look at my f2f activity and use appropriate apps/tools/approaches
to convert these activities to the online platform.”- Participant X
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The respondents also scored high in items which focused on ability to use relevant
strategies to increase learning engagement (mean = 3.28). The score also represented
their TPACK ability, which denote competency in matching content, pedagogical
strategies, and technology tools to achieve an instructional goal. Feedback from the
respondents also illustrated the same sentiment:
“[I am able to] provide guideline[s] (questions) to scaffold students’
[comprehension] in the reading.” – Participant Y
“ [I teach at an] elementary school, [so I] prepared a project based learning that
integrated more than one subject. [for example, I] combined English + Maths [in
one project assignment].” – Participant P
All respondents of the study are graduates from a Master’s programme in Learning
Sciences. In the full-time two-year coursework Master’s programme, they have had
exposure and training in integrating technology for classroom use. It indirectly reflects
the impact of the programme on their competency in using relevant pedagogical and
technological intervention in coping with the demands of emergency remote teaching.
Flipped Learning, for example, was frequently mentioned in their narratives. It is an
approach that was also taught in the Master’s programme they attended. The
respondents described how it was timely for them to put their knowledge of Flipped
Learning into practice what they have learned (mean=3.20) as mentioned by Participant
A:
“Flipped learning for sure, since we can't meet face-to-face, I did several videos
as well as curate some.” – Participant A
The respondents also reported how they were able to redesign face-to-face teaching
materials to fit the needs of emergency remote teaching (mean=3.06) particularly by
considering the situation of the learners as pointed by Participant L and Participant O.
Having such consideration shows teachers are integrating their pedagogical and
technological knowledge to address a learning needs as reflected in the TPACK model.
“I try to understand the student’s level of Internet connectivity first then I decide
what is the best way to reach out to them in terms of content.” – Participant L
“I produced self-recorded videos [for teaching] and some [video materials] I get
them from online resources. My videos are short so that students can load them
faster”. – Participant S
In terms of the creating cognitive, social, and teaching presence (constructs of
Community of Inquiry framework), the respondents’ articulation of their willingness to
offer assistance to their peers when they face problems in online teaching (mean=3.16)
is a positive indicator of collaboration between peers. Besides, the respondents also
reported that they were actively participating in webinars to enhance their knowledge
and skills on remote teaching (mean=3.60) while engaging in virtual mentoring and
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knowledge sharing. One participant even specifically mentioned the initiative done at
the school to create the community of practice among them:
“Yes, I collaborate with subject specialists at my school. We have a community of
practice page on Canvas (learning management system) where we share and
discuss about any challenges we have, share course syllabus among each other,
and biweekly check-in meeting on Zoom.”. – Participant M
The awareness to form a healthy sharing of knowledge and expertise among the
teachers seem encouraging. However, most of them did not provide advice to school
administrators in dealing with remote teaching (mean=2.20). They might think that the
administrators have received directives from the Ministry of Education, and they were
not in the appropriate position to offer any further advice. One participant mentioned
how the teachers would normally follow instructions given from the administrators and
try to adapt although sometimes the instructions may be unclear.
“[What is challenging during this period is] the issue of support from various
parties especially from top (the administrators), even the directive was unclear to
a certain extent”. – Participant E
On the other hand, the narrative analysis illustrated how technology access played
a dominantly discouraging role in enabling emergency remote teaching. The
respondents described how instructional problems were caused by network
accessibility issues faced by both teachers and students, especially those teaching in
rural or remote areas where Internet availability is limited. It has disabled effort to reach
out to their students effectively (mean=2.76). Some of the feedback from the
respondents described:
“Initially, I tried devising discussions and collaborative activities using Google
Classroom but many students had limited data or intermittent internet connection”
– Participant C
“[The students have] poor Internet connection and accessibility to the
communication tools as learning medium” – Participant B
In relation to the issue of Internet connectivity, the respondents were also asked to list
the communication tools that they used the most when reaching out to the students as
shown in Fig. 2. 90% (n=45) of them indicated WhatsApp while 55% (n=28) mentioned
they used Telegram as the means to communicate with their students. Both applications
are simple, secure, and reliable; they run on a minimal data requirement, making them
a forerunner choice among Malaysian teachers. 40% (n=20) respondents said they also
used Short Message Service (SMS) texts to communicate with their students. 20%
(n=10) had also used direct voice calls while WeChat and Facebook Messenger were
used by 10% (n=5%) of the respondents respectively. The respondents were clearly
relying on WhatsApp and Telegram as the main medium of communication, largely
due the low bandwidth requirement to run both applications.
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Fig 2. Most used communication tool during emergency remote teaching
Responses from Participant D and Participant G echoed this situation.
“Most of the students are reachable on WhatsApp since it is accessible even in areas
with only 2G” – Participant D
“Setting discussion in WhatsApp group three times per week because it is easier for
the students to respond to me without high-speed Internet” – Participant G
The main teaching and communication tools mentioned by the teachers were similar
to those reported by Aliyyah et al. [20], signalling the same obstacle faced by teachers
in Indonesia due to geographical constraints. As opposed to the findings reported by
Nae [7] and Giovannella [19], most of teachers in study struggled to make the transition
to online teaching and took them longer than expected to adjust to the “new way” of
delivering of lessons. On the bright side, peer support seems to be strong in which
teachers are co-organising webinars to assist each other in coping with the sudden
change. The findings of this study also indicated a high level of agreement on the
teachers’ willingness to assist their peers. This seems to encourage those who were
reluctant at first to begin learning new tools for teaching. The benefit of such mentoring
system is that teachers are more willing to open up their lack of skills and seek help. As
reported by Flores and Gago [23] about the situation in Portugal, even novice teachers
find it hard to cope with remote teaching and any form of support from peers or mentors
would help ease the pressure.
In summary, the remote teaching experience has affected the nature of instructional
delivery for teachers. From the survey, we conclude that there are phases within a
typical instructional process that have had to be compromised, either by choice, chance,
or competence. The narrative analysis sharply suggested the lack of internet access
being the “numero uno” culprit in the provision of learning throughout the emergency
remote teaching experience.
To understand how the respondents’ instructional planning and delivery were
affected throughout the lockdown period, we illustrate the instructional gaps in Fig. 3,
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to denote the phases which were implemented to their best ability during emergency
remote teaching. The constituents within the reference framework (Fig. 3) represent
commonly used instructional phases which would take place in a lesson. In the planning
stage, a teacher would typically identify the topic and syllabus to use, and to create
learning activities which would provide comprehensible input. The findings from the
study revealed how the respondents, despite struggling with emergency remote
teaching, were still able to implement several solutions based on their pedagogical and
technological knowledge that they have. In the emergency remote teaching situation,
the teachers were able to articulate evidence of their efforts in assessing resources and
access (particularly network access) as well as selection of instructional goals. These
two steps correspond to the planning phase in face-to-face teaching but were more
challenging in terms of determining access levels as in most cases it could be affected
by extraneous factors.
In emergency remote teaching, the planning stage is largely focused on searching
for resources which would be plausible to be shared through technology-based
platforms available for both students and teachers. While the teachers are familiar with
the textbook materials, during emergency remote teaching, they spent time looking for
resources on platforms like YouTube and Vimeo that would provide comprehensive
input for their students. While planning for a lesson, the teachers would determine the
learning goals, to match the resources they could find and disseminate. Unlike when
teaching in a physical class, teachers would typically present readily available hardcopy
materials, and provide lesson input and guidance. During emergency remote teaching,
lesson input is not a priority. Rather, the focus was on providing tasks for students to
undertake, so they would be able to physically work on a lesson on their own time. Due
to the lack of internet access, a typical lesson material is reduced to the minimum, so
students would only have to work on a fraction of a typical lesson. The decision to
reduce the amount of content input was led by the lack of computing and network
access, as most families were reported to have limited hardware and data access from
their homes.
Subsequently, the delivery of input and delivery of tasks during emergency remote
teaching go beyond just a difference in mode of delivery. The shift to online platforms
also includes the need to consider learners’ prior knowledge on technological use,
which in turn influences the teachers’ ways of delivering the input and tasks. What is
visibly missing in the data gathered is the teachers’ efforts to seek clarification as well
as setting the provision of feedback. The lack of these two steps has resulted in many
scenarios where teachers were merely “dumping” contents through various platforms
(e.g., Google Classroom, WhatsApp Group, or Telegram Group).
In every learning session, the measurement of learning is designed into the lesson
to provide an indication of growth. Fig 3 illustrates how the measurement of learning
was done through the use of online quizzes. In a typical physical lesson in a classroom,
teachers could use a variety of assessments which would be selected based on students’
responses and interaction. With the lack of live interaction in remote classrooms,
respondents of the study reported that they have used quizzes they found online, to
establish assessment into the learning experience.
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Fig 3. Parallel comparison of instructional phases implemented by respondents
Another notable gap is the absence of reinforcement and reflection which are
common in face-to-face teaching. Many respondents reported that they were not able
to provide reinforcement and reflection after the quizzes. Such phenomenon is largely
caused by the minimal interaction between teachers and their students. Quality of
comprehension may have been compromised; however, teachers who opted to use
online quizzes relied on the prompts provided through the quizzes as a way to provide
immediate feedback.
The final section in the survey required the respondents to share personal stories
related to their own experiences during emergency remote teaching. Most of the stories
shared were positive, indicating satisfaction they sought in putting their knowledge
about online learning to practice.
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“I get to put my knowledge on online learning into practice as my school is still
used to face to face teaching.” – Participant D
“It makes me feel proud of my past experience as Learning Sciences student.” –
Participant F
“Happy to see every teacher/academician/instructor use online learning in their
teaching & learning process. So no more ‘alasan’ (excuses) the gov didn’t
provide sufficient facilities at school. Now everyone berusaha sendiri (has to work
hard).” – Participant H
“I was happy that during MCO (lockdown) I get to join so many trainings. I could
not have joined during other time. Learned so much.” – Participant J
“During this MCO, I joined A LOT OF webinar organized by (Digital Classroom,
ARUS Academy, SGM and CGC) that helped me to find ideas to make my class
interesting and how to engage my students. I satisfied my 7-days’
course/workshop required by KPM.” – Participant M
One participant also shared about the changes in students’ disposition when
transitioning to online learning.
“Students who are known to be talkative in f2f classes are surprisingly quiet in
online classes. And people prefer to type their questions (rather) than simply
asking using mic and/or video.” – Participant B
In sum, the respondents were notably excited to test all possible means to meet the
demands of emergency remote teaching despite struggling to cope in the initial stage of
emergency remote teaching. The solutions devised by the respondents are reflective of
their ability to transform what they have learned into plausible means to solve problems
that they faced during this period although there was limited support from the
administrators. As expected from the contents of their training in the Masters of
Learning Sciences programme, traces of their application of TPACK and CoI constructs
in their emergency remote teaching experience are noticeable from their responses,
especially in the narratives they had shared.
4 Conclusion and Future Work
Although this study was conducted at a small scale, the findings have unveiled
individual efforts and struggles they had faced, to cope with emergency remote
teaching. One of the main struggles is how the respondents are going the extra mile to
design lessons that are reachable by learners who are now in various learning
environments at home, which may not be conducive for learning. In the context of
Malaysia (similar to its neighbouring country, Indonesia [20]), most families still
depend on schools in providing an appropriate space for learning and with diverse
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backgrounds, it is a challenge for teachers to cope. Another notable struggle gathered
from this study is getting the support from the parents. There is widespread concern
that teachers are not able to function at their best due to the lack of support from the
parents. Conversely, there are also parents who are frustrated by the inability of some
teachers to deliver online lessons effectively. Therefore, it is worthy to investigate the
juxtaposition of values, as parents’ readiness to support learning from home could be a
contributing factor to teachers’ motivation to continue teaching remotely [21, 22].
The responses given by the respondents of this study could initiate a deeper and
larger investigation on strategizing relevant interventions to assist the teachers during
crises, not only exclusive to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the key issue quoted
by almost all teachers was the limited computing and internet access, other fundamental
issues such as teacher readiness, teacher knowledge (TPACK) and competencies to be
resilient educators amidst any crises, should be addressed in a more systematic manner.
Findings from this study resonates with other studies [16, 17, 18] that have reported on
Internet coverage as a hindrance to teachers’ ability to fully engage the students. A
nationwide survey on the disparity between urban and rural schools in terms of the
implementation of remote teaching should be conducted in the near future to assess
aspects in which support could be provided for teachers. Future investigations could
also include scope of parental support and educational level as key variables in
understanding the relationship between home learning environment and overall
educational experience in remote learning.
As the world shifts focus on making sure “no child is left behind”, it is necessary
for relevant authorities to invest time and effort to understand on-the-ground issues
faced by teachers, parents, and students. Equity in education would only happen when
access is provided. As the global education movements chant the call for nurturing
“future-ready students”, teachers too, have to be “future-ready” by equipping
themselves with necessary skills and knowledge to thrive during emergency remote
teaching.
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