Abstract
After more than two years of teaching remotely in an emergency mode due to the Covid-19 pandemic (between March 2020 and October 2022), the interaction between university students and instructors in Bahrain has shifted tremendously due to the lack of social, visual, and physical presence associated with the more traditional face-to-face teaching practice. This paper offers therefore a case study of two local universities in Bahrain. Its aim is to explore the new situation of teaching and learning online in order to assess its impact on instructors. The researchers involved have conducted an anonymous online survey among 28 instructors through the use of Microsoft Forms. In addition, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were adopted, the objective being to provide an understanding of the many challenges that instructors have encountered while teaching learners whom they could not see. More specifically, a number of issues have been addressed by the study, among them the following: a) Instructors’ views and perspectives on webcam use in the conduct of synchronous virtual classes; b) Learners’ lack of visual presence, its impact on the teaching experience itself and the broader teaching practice; c) An assessment of the hurdles to effective communication during synchronous virtual classes as already identified by the case study and ways of resolving them; and d) recommendations for future action.
Author Information
Lama Al-Mahadin, University of Bahrain, Bahrain
Lilian Issa Hallak, American University of Bahrain, Bahrain
Paper Information
Conference: SEACE2023
Stream: Teaching Experiences
This paper is part of the SEACE2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Al-Mahadin L., & Hallak L. (2023) The Faceless Learners, the Perplexed Instructors, and the Dilemma of Webcams: A Survey of Instructors at Two Bahraini Universities ISSN: 2435-5240 The Southeast Asian Conference on Education 2023: Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-5240.2023.40
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-5240.2023.40
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