Challenges faced By Teachers and Learners During Covid-19: use of Online Learning in Higher Education

The spread of COVID-19 pandemic has compelled millions of students and teachers to shift from physical educational environment to online teaching and learning within the shortest time. Consequentially, it is inescapable to depend on technology. Although technology made the education process expedient, feasible and convenient for the students during the COVID-19 pandemic but there were many pitfalls which frustrated both teachers and students in this new digitalized system of education. The present research explored the most common online teaching and learning challenges faced by the teachers and learners during COVID-19. The present study is based on a qualitative and quantitative sample survey approach. The population of this study were teachers and students of Social Science departments (History, Economics, Education and Psychology) of BZU Multan who were selected through simple random sampling. The study was conducted in the month of June and July, 2021. Descriptive and financial statistics was used to analyze data. The findings of the study revealed that students and teachers in online classes faced a variety of problems such as low motivation of students due to open book exam, in competencies in technological skills, less interaction between teachers and students, low frequency of internet and health barriers etc. So, it is recommended to overcome the problems of online education, the government, policymakers and educational institutions must adopt certain remedial measures to better handle online classes by adopting the most up-to-date methodologies and regularly training teachers and students so that the teaching–learning process goes through more smoothly and effectively