University Teachers’ Perspectives on the Quality of Emergency Remote Teaching — the Case of Serbia During the COVID-19 Pan demic

Abstract

The study deals with the quality of emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic in higher education in Serbia. We aimed to explore how university teachers assess the quality of ERT and whether their assessments are related to their previous online teaching experiences and their beliefs on the potentials of online teaching. The survey included 443 teachers from the University of Belgrade. The findings show that the teachers were not satisfied with the quality of ERT in terms of the interaction with students, students’ motivation, and the quality of their engagement during classes. Teachers who had prior experience in online teaching and more positive beliefs regarding the potentials of online teaching/learning, used a greater variety of online tools, teaching methods, and activities during ERT and, in turn, were more satisfied with the quality of online teaching. Therefore, attention should be paid to expanding teachers’ knowledge and awareness of the potentials of online teaching/learning as the ERT did not allow for its full potential to be realized.

Ova studija se bavi kvalitetom nastave na daljinu u vanrednoj situaciji u sferi višeg i visokog obrazovanja u Srbiji tokom pandemije kovida 19. Namera nam je da ispitamo kako univerzitetski nastavnici procenjuju kvalitet nastave na daljinu u vanrednoj situaciji i da li je njihova procena povezana s njihovim prethodnim iskustvima u onlajn nastavi i uverenjima o potencijalima onlajn nastave. U ispitivanju su učestvovala 443 nastavnika sa Univerziteta u Beogradu. Utvrdili smo da nastavnici nisu bili zadovoljni kvalitetom nastave na daljinu u vanrednoj situaciji u pogledu interakcije sa studentima, motivacije studenata i kvaliteta njihovog angažovanja tokom nastave. Nastavnici koji su imali prethodno iskustvo u onlajn nastavi i pozitivnija uverenja o potencijalima onlajn nastave/učenja primenili su raznovrsnije onlajn alatke, metode podučavanja i aktivnosti prilikom nastave na daljinu u vanrednoj situaciji. Samim tim, oni su bili zadovoljniji kvalitetom onlajn nastave. Dakle, treba obratiti naročitu pažnju na unapređivanje znanja nastavnika i njihove svesti o potencijalima onlajn nastave/učenja, budući da nastava na daljinu u vanrednoj situaciji nije ostvarila svoj puni potencijal.