Faghir Ganji Monireh, Jafari Malvajerd Azam, Moradi Ahmad, Amanollahi Alireza, Ansari-Moghaddam Alireza, Basir Ghafouri Hamed
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Javan Student Research Centre, Embassy of Education, Tehran, Iran.
Heliyon. 2024 Jan 5;10(2):e24118. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24118. eCollection 2024 Jan 30.
The closure of universities and schools interrupted learning outcomes and deprived students from growth and development opportunities as well as hindering their academic progress. Indeed, the COVID-19 Pandemic changed educational mechanism from traditional method to staying at home and virtual education globally. On the other hand, the educators and student particularly in developing countries faced shortage of necessary software and hardware infrastructures. Accordingly, introduction of virtual education along with some organizational and regional obstacles as well as poor planning caused low-quality online courses. Therefore, the present study extrapolated teachers' virtual education experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study conducted on Iranian teachers using the conventional content analysis method in 2022. To do this, the targeted sampling method with maximum variation continued until data saturation. Hence, a total of 17 teachers (10 women and 7 men) included in the study. Data collected through five focus group discussions on the Sky room platform and two individual in-depth interviews. Male teachers had an average age of 44.42 years, while female ones had an average age of 47.80 years. The qualitative analysis categorized 22 themes as virtual education's pros and cons. Mental, physical, and social injuries; economic problems; insufficient virtual teaching skills; lack of virtual infrastructure; lack of motivation were identified as the main disadvantages of virtual education. Virtual education benefits included familiarity with modern science and education, time management, the durability of video and course topics, and not forcing students to attend class. Removing structural barriers (like creating a good platform for practical education and stopping new restrictive policies) and individual barriers (like economic and family problems, lack of motivation, psychological pressures, and occupational stress) could possibly improve virtual education. Virtual education should be different from face-to-face teaching because it can only meet some students' needs.
大学和学校的关闭中断了学习成果，剥夺了学生的成长和发展机会，也阻碍了他们的学业进步。事实上，新冠疫情使全球教育机制从传统方式转变为居家和虚拟教育。另一方面，教育工作者和学生，尤其是发展中国家的师生，面临着必要软硬件基础设施短缺的问题。因此，虚拟教育的引入，再加上一些组织和地区障碍以及规划不善，导致了在线课程质量低下。因此，本研究推断了新冠疫情期间教师的虚拟教育经历。这项定性研究于2022年对伊朗教师进行，采用传统内容分析法。为此，采用最大差异的目标抽样方法，持续进行直到数据饱和。因此，共有17名教师（10名女性和7名男性）纳入研究。数据通过在Sky room平台上进行的五次焦点小组讨论和两次个人深度访谈收集。男教师的平均年龄为44.42岁，女教师的平均年龄为47.80岁。定性分析将22个主题归类为虚拟教育的优缺点。心理、身体和社会伤害；经济问题；虚拟教学技能不足；缺乏虚拟基础设施；缺乏动力被确定为虚拟教育的主要缺点。虚拟教育的好处包括熟悉现代科学和教育、时间管理、视频和课程主题的持久性，以及不强迫学生上课。消除结构性障碍（如为实践教育创建良好平台和停止新的限制性政策）和个人障碍（如经济和家庭问题、缺乏动力、心理压力和职业压力）可能会改善虚拟教育。虚拟教育应该与面对面教学有所不同，因为它只能满足一些学生的需求。
