Faculty perceived barriers of online teaching in the era of covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the education sector globally. Classes have been suspended to enforce social distancing and educational institutions, universities have shifted to online methods of teaching and evaluation. Online class challenges linked to lack of teacher preparedness. While children face issues in accessing education digitally, teachers face issues in delivering education through digital mediums. Aim: A descriptive study was conducted to assess the barriers perceived by faculties regarding online teaching in the era of Covid-19. Methodology: Purposive Sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 109 faculties of different colleges of Delhi-NCR teaching through online mode. Multiple choice questions and Likert scale were used for data collection through electronic survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Results: The findings depict that majority of faculties (72%) perceived most prevalent barriers in conducting online mode of teaching while some (27%) felt neutral and few (1%) perceived no barriers of online teaching. Barriers were classified as personal, institutional and technical. The most prevalent barriers perceived by the faculty in these areas were difficulty in demonstration of practical skills (88%), increased workload (69%) and frequent change in software/application creates a fuss (73%). Chi square test showed the significant association of perception score with gender, faculty status and designation of the faculty. Conclusion: In order to improve the online education outcome, the universities/colleges are advised to promote the facilitating factors and cope with the barriers, by providing administrative support, adequate training, technology support, help in dealing with the anxiety.