EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Online Education Amidst Covid-19 Pandemic in Thailand

The teachers and their online learning platforms

This section discusses teachers’ perceptions of themselves; their prior experience in using online learning platforms in their classes and their computer literacy, the online learning platforms they have been using during the sudden move, their financial situation and their institution support that includes their demands as well. This section aimed at providing a thorough context on teachers’ conditions. A number of the teacher participants did not have some or extended prior experience in integrating online learning platforms into their teaching. They admitted that the limited experience has several drawbacks. The drawbacks were feeling difficulty in the initial period of the sudden move and worried and nervous about what will happen during the online learning due to the inadequacy in expectations. asserted “No, never. That's why it's hard for me to teach [online].” Similarly,shared her perceptions “At first, everyone was very worried and nervous because they never used any online platform before.”

In contrast, the teachers with some or extended prior experiences were better prepared and adjusted during the sudden move to online learning.explained how his prior experience has helped him to adapt and adjust to the sudden shift,

To me, it was not a shock. It was not like a big adjustment. Because in the US, when I first taught my first college-level writing class for native students, it was a hybrid. And I also had an experience teaching online classes twice. In 2018, I taught a Technical Writing class for my university. It was a summer class, purely online. And then January to May 2018, I taught another Technical Writing class for another university. And then when I came to Thailand to teach at Trail University, I continued to teach another online writing class for another university. So, online to me is not new.

One factor that could explain this is that teachers feel comfortable with the technologies. Another factor is the geographical setting. The participants are coming from urban areas and hence have better access to technology and supporting infrastructure (Hani et al., 2021). With their computer literacy, teachers asserted that they could prevent issues in their online classes, adapting better to the sudden move, and broadening their professional development.

For the online platforms, the teacher participants use various video conferences software such as Zoom meetings, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco WebEx. In addition to them, they also integrate several internet tools such as Kahoot, E-Book, OBS Studio, university developed LMS, Padlet, and others. They mentioned several characteristics of the preferred online learning platforms: (1) user-friendly, (2) simple to use, (3) provide features they need, (4) reliable, and (5) secure.shared his consideration in choosing an online platform,

Google Classroom is so easy. I appreciate that Microsoft Teams has some abilities through its complexity that Google doesn't have. But they definitely do not outweigh the difficulty in having to find an old assignment or something past.

The teachers explained that they have to purchase several supporting gadgets and tools during the sudden move. They asserted that they could afford the needed supporting gadgets such as laptops, computer tablets, stylus, extra monitors, mouse, and aiding set up such as an ergonomic chair, standing desk, and higher speed and stable internet plan. Although those expenditures added their financial cost, however, they were willing to invest (Lall et al., 2021). The result of the comfortable financial situation is digital affordances, although they observed that many of their students are financially struggling. The struggle leads to a digital divide.

The teachers admitted that their institutions provided training for them, particularly in the first year of the sudden move. The trainings were led by experts within or outside of their institution. They asserted that most of the trainings were about how to use the features on online learning platforms and less on digital pedagogy. They agreed that the trainings were helpful and necessary (Sangeeta & Tandon, 2021). However, they demanded more training focusing on how to teach with online learning platforms. Some teachers opted to not attend the training because it only focused on how to click.

The reasons the teachers favor online education

Teachers have three factors influencing their positive perceptions toward online education. Interestingly, they are not only coming from the nature of online education, but also from within themselves and administrators. In short, their institutions’ strategies and policies in dealing with online education, personal comfort, and the outcomes of online education to their students helped them to continue online education even after the Covid-19 pandemic is contained. Their institutions required the teachers to use synchronous learning with video conference platforms to virtually meet their students. Their institutions also advised giving the students time to adapt to the new mode of teaching and giving a one-week break prior to the final exam weeks to their students. Two teachers mentioned that their institution advised them to limit their online meetings with their students.

The teachers mentioned two forms of positive school culture that have helped them to adapt and survive the transition to online education—collaboration and IT Support. The teachers asserted that collaboration in the form of co-teaching could enhance their teaching experience and practice. However, one teacher noted that to achieve efficiency, co-teaching should act not only as a cosmetic. Another form of collaboration explained by the teachers is information sharing. Through this collaboration, the teachers could exchange teaching resources, online teaching tools, and new ideas for their online teaching. The teacher mentioned the availability of IT support or technicians to help them with preparing the online learning platforms account, preparing the online or hybrid class, and providing assistance related to technical problems. However, some of the teachers opt to go to a specific person or a group of colleagues whenever they face problems. The balkanization was mainly grounded on their closeness to one another (Hongboontri & Keawkhong, 2014).explained her preference “We had faculty members and IT support staff in the Line group. But usually, I don't consult that group. I have a group of friends and then we just chat there.”

Furthermore, the first personal comfort revealed from the data analysis is both the teachers and their students do not need to commute to their universities. The absence of this activity brings two benefits: alleviated commuting expenses and saving time. Other benefits were mentioned: they do not need to wake up early in the morning. This could be beneficial for those who need more sleep and could make more time for their families at home. Additionally, they could make use of the time between classes or breaks to do chores, have a home-cooked meal, and do their hobbies.

Teachers mentioned online platform features as one of the important benefits. They asserted that the features bring innovative teaching into their practice. For instance, cloud storage provides a centralized place to store and edit teaching materials. In addition, cloud storage has the ability to share and invite students to edit documents. The teachers asserted that feedback-giving and interactions become more feasible through this feature. The teachers further mentioned video recording features that helped their students to rewatch their online classes. This made it possible for the students to review their classes and helped those who cannot attend the scheduled class to not miss any lectures. Correspondingly, students can build a better understanding of the courses. More than that, the teachers mentioned that features in online learning platforms allowed their students to be autonomous learners.

The difficulties caused by online teaching

This section houses most of the influencing factors. There are four groups as a result of the data analysis: (1) teacher-related problems, (2) student-related problems, (3) environmental-related problems, and (4) classroom management.

Teacher-related problems

Health become the major issues for teachers during their use of online platforms. The teachers’ increasing workload and obligation to sit in front of their computers for hours bring disadvantages to their physical and mental health. They asserted that they have to go to a hospital due to office syndrome, vertigo, backache, and bladder problems. Prolonged screen time also causes dryness in their eyes. One teacher also reported that she gained weight as a result of her sedentary habits during the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, the burnout caused them stress. Isolation from their colleagues and social life, and students’ decision to turn off their cameras during the online class worsened their condition. Belinda shared her health deterioration,

I went to the hospital. I don't remember how many times because of the office syndrome. I've got vertigo symptom. I cannot walk. I vomit all the time. And it's because I've been sitting on my desk teaching all day long. And sometimes I've got six hours of class, like six hours for the whole day.

Student-related problems

The interview analyses found students’ personal characteristics such as shyness, introversion, short attention span, lack of curiosity, and complaining to be among of the problems in online education. Those internal factors led to the students being uncooperative by not answering the teacher’s questions, hesitating to express their thoughts, being unwilling to do the extra mile in classroom activities, and demanding higher grades. The teachers opined that one of the factors influencing their inwardness was a lack of social, face-to-face interactions with their peers. Especially freshmen who have not had the chance to meet their peers were observed to have higher difficulties to do group work.

Thirteen of fourteen interviewed teachers reported that their students are losing their university milieu during the sudden move to online learning caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The loss of social life led to several problems. The teachers listed six of the problems: (1) failure to learn independency, (2) missing their friends and losing the chance to build meaningful friendships, (3) missing out on social university life, (4) lack of socialization with their peers, (5) loneliness, and (6) lack of building rapport ability. As a result, the teachers noticed many drawbacks: (1) leaving a void in their university memory, (2) declining mental and physical health, (3) difficulties in making groups and doing group work, (4) anxiousness, (5) decreasing motivation, (6) tend to not volunteer to answer the teachers’ questions, (7) classroom withdrawal, and (8) excluded from a group.

Environmental-related problems

The physical location in which the teachers and their students attend the online classroom affects their perceptions of online learning platforms. The teachers and their students have different places to attend the online class, whether it was based on their preferences or limitations. Two teacher participants reported one problem. Their toddlers were their main problem in online teaching. Their toddlers like to have their attention and most of the time, annoy them when they are teaching. On the other hand, the teachers observed a number of problems experienced by their students from their environments.

The problems come from two source of locations: (1) disturbing and (2) relaxing environments. The teachers asserted that most of their students turned off their cameras. This absence of visual cues makes them doubt the whereabouts of their students and whether they are paying attention to the class. Furthermore, the teachers also found that the disturbing environments made their students reluctant to answer their questions, online class withdrawal, and decreased motivation. Other digital distractions such as games, social media use, and multitasking could lessen students’ focus and cause broad deficiency (Liu, 2022). Furthermore, the teachers noticed that some of their students had to share one room with other people—parents, siblings, or roommates, which makes them distracted and cannot focus on the online class. Jessica shared one of her students’ stories,

I remember that there was one student, they told me that their environment at home wasn't really supportive of online learning. Because that student needs to help raising a very young kid. And she cannot go anywhere because she doesn't have her own room. And she needs to help take care of the baby.

The second environment, relaxing, was found to be a distraction for students as well. In students’ relaxing and convenient bedrooms—in which they attend the online class, the teachers assumed that some of their students are sleeping. One teacher found out that his student was attending the online class from a café that played loud music. The student’s decision costs their interaction.

Classroom management

The teachers asserted that they face several problems in their classroom management. The problems were caused by limitations on online learning platforms and students’ choice to turn off their cameras. Due to the limitations, the teachers have to repeat their feedback to their students. This particularly happened when they divide their students into several small groups in Breakout Room. As a consequence, teachers need to recalculate the time spent on each group as they have limited time with many groups they have to visit.

The teachers conveyed that they have limited verbal interaction between them and their students. Similarly, they observed poor interaction between their students and their peers. Isaac shared his experience,

Obviously, a lot less interaction, a lot less cues for how the students ought to act. And figuring out who this teacher is, and then when they can't figure these things out. I think there's a lot of resignation, there's a lot of just, I might as well not even try.

The teachers highlighted two main reasons their students have a low level of interaction; they are having low motivation and are shy. They further explained that interactions combined with other factors contribute to a more severe problem. For example, low motivation and low interaction contribute to students’ low focus and allow them to get distracted. Shyness led to students’ choice to turn off their cameras combined with low interaction contribute to students’ failure in building rapport with their teachers and peers. This further could lead to class resignation and lowering group retention and agency in the group project.

The next problem documented in the data analysis is online classroom size. It refers to the number of students in an online classroom. Of the 11 observed online classrooms, the smallest and the biggest classroom comprised of 10 and 56 students, respectively, with an average of 30.45 students per online classroom. The teachers surfaced their concern about the overcrowded online classrooms as it could decrease education quality (Azorín, 2020).

Changes because of the online platforms

The teachers’ perceptions of the limitation, features, and format (synchronous or asynchronous) of the online learning platforms evoke changes in their teaching efforts, instructional strategies, time allocation, and tools. Due to the limitation, one teacher admitted that she changed her strategy from game-based to focus more on lecturing. Furthermore, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the teachers’ use of online learning platforms increasing to a new point higher than ever in their careers. This has led to a change in their instructional strategy from whiteboard- and paper-based, to cloud-based teaching. The cloud-based refers to the use of cloud storage to keep learning files such as materials and assignments. The new instructional strategy allowed the teachers to modify and share the learning materials without printing them as well as share and collect assignments from their students. Jason admitted this as he said “I use Google Docs. I think [it] is quite good. [It] is real-time. And you can see that students help each other; paraphrase sentences. I think this is good. Google Docs changed the way I teach.”

Changes because of their students

Empathetic changes were found during the data analysis. The teachers were aware their students have been through struggles during the Covid-19 pandemic. They tried to make learning not a burden for students. Thus, they changed their instructional strategies to be more flexible. The teachers admitted that they reduce the number of assignments. Although this is not a direct effect of the teachers’ use of online platforms, however, by reducing the assignment they expect their students would have less screen time and more time for themselves. This strategy also aimed at giving time for students to rest from their exhaustion—which led to fatigue, from their online classes.shared his empathetic change,

I try to understand students more. I know that they are very stressed. They just sit there in front of the computer alone. They do not see their friends. They do not sit next to each other. No chit-chats. So, I would say, I become a very kind teacher. During this time, the pandemic time. More kind than before.