**3. Adjustment after Covid pandemic**

When the coronavirus (COVID-19) began to spread in Thailand at the beginning of January 2020, most Thai universities were entering the second semester of the academic year. The MHESRI [14] announced that all universities had to carry out instruction online only. However, during that time, each university had not prepared any facilities for online teaching. It became the responsibility of lecturers to acquire tools, equipment, and technologies for their teaching, not to mention that they had to learn how to use the technology on their own. The most controversial issue was online examination administration. Since the time was approaching the end of the semester, many courses stopped class meetings and were at the stage of learning evaluation. Normally, all universities schedule the final exam week, which is based on on-site administration, where identification of students taking the examination is strict according to the university's regulations. Online examination, on the contrary, has certain constraints. The interesting phenomenon thus

emerged; that is, most lecturers had to change their student assessment and evaluation method, by relying on various authentic assessment approaches that measure the students' learning achievement. Tools have been developed for measuring the learning outcomes under the authentic assessment method according to the Thai Qualification Framework for Higher Education (TQF) [15].

Most of the learning assessment and evaluation tools are the evaluation platforms modified from the surveying technology, for example, Google Form [https:// docs.google.com/forms/u/0/?tgif=d] or Microsoft Form [https://www. office.com/ launch/forms?auth=1]. Some rely on the testing system, which is an integrating function in the learning management system (LMS) such as Moodle LMS. These tools can only assess the learning achievement in terms of knowledge content. They still have limitations in assessing learners' skills, which require observation or following up of students' practices. Moreover, there is no regulating or administering system for the examination that prevents copying or cheating in an examination. Universities, therefore, find it necessary to develop a technology or tool for the administration of examinations that does away with cheating and results in efficient examination and assessment.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, and together with threats from the disruptive technology, universities have to change and become prepared for organizing online instruction. Analyses of data from the Web sites and media of different universities showed that the implementation related to the transformation from an on-site to the online system involves many aspects: (1) Improvement of technological infrastructures that support online teaching and learning; (2) Procurement and development of platforms for online teaching and learning; (3) Teacher training so that they are able to use the technology and tools, and are able to organize online teaching and learning (including design of learning management, development of learning media, management of online classrooms, arranging learning activities, and assessment of learning outcomes). As far as the students are concerned, most universities had to prepare their students for the online system that they join from home. As a result, some universities such as Khon Kaen University offer a computer-lending system, with a sim card for the internet use that allows them to have access to different learning sources. The training was organized for all students to be able to use the learning technology and tools as well as research and production of learning outcomes in different forms. It can be said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the building of online learning platforms for the learners [16] are the stimulants for total education transformation in all universities from classroom instruction to online instruction.

Somabut [17] conducted a survey on the condition of and students' opinions towards online instruction at Khon Kaen University in 2020, during the spread of COVID-19. The sample group that answered the questionnaire administered online comprised 1,339 students and 253 lecturers. The following information was found: The equipment and technologies mostly used by the students were: Windows laptops (46.45%), smartphone operating system (iOS) (43.76%), and android operating system (40.33%). The most wanted media and learning activities included lecture videos (74.91%), live lectures via video conference (66.77), and discussion forums with teachers (49.51%). In terms of lecturers, it was found that most relied on lecturing by means of video conference (87.65%), followed by assigning students to study for additional content and draw the conclusion from it (76.34%), and video-recording the lecture, assigning students to pre-study the topic and present their work or discuss by means of video conference (45.32%). Most of the media used by lecturers were slides that conclude the content to accompany the lecture (93.25%), handouts produced by the lecturers (76.5%), and retrieved documents from various sources (67.43%). The technology for instruction included *Online Teaching and Learning Ecology in Thai Higher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100222*

video conference (85.34%), social media (71.55%), and LMS as the learning management systems (67.48%).

It can be said that most of the online instruction does not differ from the former approach, for most lecturers still lecture. The popular platforms are: Zoom, Meet, Microsoft Teams, and WebEx. The learning management systems (LMS) that are mostly relied on are Moodle LMS (which is installed in the server of many universities), Google classroom, Microsoft teams, which are used by most lecturers to make announcements for the course, assign learning projects, and for students to submit their learning missions. Most of the media were slides that accompany lectures and videos describing the content so that students can prepare before class or listen to it after class. Textbooks or sheets have been made as digital documents for ease of uploading to the LMS for the learners. The tools for learning assessment have just been developed. Many universities have procured platforms made in the market and subscribe to these per year or many years. The lecturers can thus use these platforms. Some universities (few) have developed their learning assessment method, including data management for examination and preventive systems against ruleviolating actions or cheating. Khon Kaen University has developed an examination administering system along with the learning management system, called: KKU Exam [https://exam.kku.ac.th/]. This has been installed in the university's Moodle LMS and has a capacity of at least 8000 people per test.
