Faculty Members’ Experiences About Virtual Education Opportunities and Challenges During The Covid-19: A Qualitative Study

The necessity of virtual learning during the COVID-19 epidemic has caused serious challenges due to the lack of preparedness of educational centers, regarding the provision of appropriate educational infrastructure and the unfamiliarity of teachers with virtual learning methods. Over time, some educators have turned threats into innovative opportunities in learning and have improved education in some cases. Without a doubt, studying these challenges and understanding teachers’ experiences in this field can help better arrangement for the growth and excellence of virtual learning.

In this qualitative research, 11 semi-structured interviews were made with the faculty members of Alborz University of Medical Sciences in 2020. The texts of interviews were analyzed by conventional content analysis method using MaxQDA software.

In this study, two main classes of “individual barriers to virtual learning efficiency” were extracted, which encompassed the sub-classes of personality traits and family factors, and “organizational management”, comprised of the sub-classes of infrastructure provision, management and leadership, training and supervision, ethics and law and evaluation.

Given the continuity of the Corona crisis, each university must specifically evaluate teachers’ challenges and experiences in the field of virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to find effective solutions to tackle them.