What It Takes to Teach in a Fully Online Learning Environment: Provisional Views from a Developing Country

Abstract

Teachers and teaching play a critical role in the success of the online learning space. However, information about the specific strategies they employ in navigating this alternative learning space and the challenges they face remains limited. Thus, the present study was undertaken to obtain a clearer picture of teachers’ online instructional delivery and dig deeper into their difficulties for possible intervention. This study involved 17 teachers from nine higher education institutions in the Philippines. Using a descriptive case approach, overall data indicated that they promoted flexibility and interaction, facilitated learning processes, and fostered an affective learning climate as much as they could. However, these teachers faced several challenges related to technological sufficiency, learner-related factors, teaching delivery and assessment, technological complexity, and self-regulation, among others. Their varying experience was linked to their unique context brought about by several factors, namely available tools, institutional policies, pedagogical goals, and learner-related factors. Implications for classroom practices, policy-making, teacher training, and future research are discussed.