The unexpected transition to distance learning at Moroccan universities amid COVID-19: A qualitative study on faculty experience

Abstract

This study aimed to examine how faculty view the experience of the unexpected transition to distance learning as the only option to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The phenomenological research design was adopted to account for faculty experience when delivering online language courses. Data were collected through email interviewing with Moroccan university teachers. 20 male faculty members, drawn from a purposeful sample, participated in this study after the completion of a seven-week period of delivering English classes at a distance. Thematic coding analysis was used to approach the participants' answers. Results illustrated how the teachers’ experience of delivering language classes involved lack of ICT infrastructure and lack of student engagement, while creating opportunities for flexibility in the time and pace of teaching and learning and increased learner-content interaction. Based on these results, implications for implementation and research were provided.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Distance language learning
• Experience
• Faculty
• University
• Morocco