Online and distance learning first experience : mandatory changes in teacher's adaptability and professional identity

Abstract EN

The unprecedented outbreak of the COVID-19, which has caught off guard worldwide teachers, in general, and the Algerian ones, in particular, has wreaked havoc and caused the largest disruption of education in history.

Consequently, it has imposed new typologies of instruction and assessment, whereby the teaching/learning process is carried out remotely and via digital platforms, especially Moodle.

This prompt and dramatic shift from face-to-face to distance one has influenced significantly the whole formerly used educational system.

The current study purports itself to investigate the way the new instructional typology has been dealt with on the part of the two partners, viz.

, teachers and learners.

To carry out this survey, two instruments were used, a questionnaire directed to twenty Master 2 students and a semi-structured interview conducted with five full-time teachers.

The gleaned data showed that the majority of the teachers- and students- reported that the first experience was tinged with many crucial technical and know-how problems, for a high-quality online course could not be constructed overnight and access to the online environment affordances was also a daunting task for those unaccustomed to or unequipped with both technological software and hardware.

The samples also claimed that though being kept under drastic sanitary conditions and remote teaching/learning, the proactive mastery of training in how to teach and learn online was more important than ever.

Teachers and students are in need of the perception of the empirically-based pedagogy to scaffold and direct them whenever they are compelled to teach and learn online.