The Professionalism of Online Teaching in Arab Universities: Validation of Faculty Readiness

Abstract

The study aimed to examine the readiness of faculty members in Arab universities for blended learning environments through an investigation of the attributes, skills, and knowledge in three roles of professional online teachers. Online teaching professionalism has been described as a set of required competencies, and behaviours for the effectiveness of educational online sessions. The authors have argued some requirements of teachers’ roles as an instructional planner, an assessor, and as a mentor. A purposive sample of 24 experts from diverse disciplines contributed to the reference panel in a Delphi study through three rounds. Qualitative content analysis and some descriptive statistics e.g., the median and frequency distribution, have been used to reach a consensus among the panel of experts. A matrix of 30 requirements was shortlisted by experts in different roles. The panelists provided insight into the top 10 requirements for each role to measure the professionalism of faculty before, during, and after the online sessions. The readiness for online teaching was concluded by six main domains namely evaluating students’ achievements and limitations, problem-solving skills, information technology and computer skills, monitoring and motivating techniques, communication, and class management skills. The study results can be used to plan faculty development programs based on performance gaps of faculty members at three levels: individual, departmental, and program or college. Moreover, the listed faculty attributes help higher education institutions to evaluate the perceptible skills and personal characteristics of faculty in enhancing the efficacy of online teaching in different academic disciplines.

Keywords

• teaching professionalism
• online learning
• faculty readiness
• faculty competences