**2. Methodology**

#### **2.1 Research question**

Teaching and learning using a synchronous and asynchronous online environment has become increasingly widespread across the education sector, even if teachers did not properly feel capable to do so. Our study seeks to explore the challenges of teaching and learning online encountered by high education institutions in Montenegro

*Exploring Teachers and Students Perceptions of Online Teaching in Montenegro: What Have We… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109452*

in the context of the Covid-19 lockdown. The research refers to the period from the complete lockdown on March 16, 2020 to July 15, 2020 when the academic year was officially over.

Based on the collected data, we focused on two main research questions.

Research question 1—what are the challenges and opportunities of online teaching in Montenegro and its possible impact on traditional teaching as a step towards its modernization.

Research question 2—Challenges and opportunities of online examination and potential changes that need to be made.

First, we analyzed the extent to which teachers used online teaching, both synchronous and asynchronous. Second, we analyzed how, in their opinion, they were digitally competent for providing knowledge online, as well as how technologically equipped they were. In addition to online classes, one part of the questions from the questionnaire also referred to online testing, i.e. use of online tests during the examination. Then, we analyzed the attitudes of students related to online teaching and learning, their comments and their objections.

#### **2.2 Participants**

The Montenegrin higher education system consists of one large, public university, the University of Montenegro, and a group of three private universities.

The main target group was the teaching staff of all universities in Montenegro. All professors, teaching professors and teaching assistants from the existing four universities were contacted online and asked to fill out the online questionnaire "Challenges and opportunities of online teaching in Montenegro" developed in Google Forms. The questionnaire was filled out by 120 teachers (*n* = 120), which is a representative sample. The respondents were employed at the University of Montenegro (44.2%), the Mediterranean University (35.8%), the University of Donja Gorica (15%) and the University of the Adriatic (5%). The respondents consisted of full professors (12.5%), associate professors (18.5%), assistant professors (22%), teaching assistants (21.1%) and other staff (2.4%). Of the total respondents, 77 (64.1%) were female and 43 (35.9%) were male. Respondents had 5–10 years of experience (17.9%), 10–15 years of experience (34.2%) and more than 20 years of experience (17.1%).

Semi-structured individual interviews were also conducted with 16 interested professors of various academic titles who volunteered to participate in the research.

Additionally, six interviews were conducted with Student Representatives of their generation as the most affected category in online classes, from different faculties and years of study.

In addition, student statements were used from the students' forum on the faculty's internet platforms where they left their comments related to online teaching. A total of 356 different comments were left on the platform of the two universities of Montenegro.

Consent was sought from all participants and they voluntarily responded to the invitation to participate in this study. During the presentation of the findings, numbers were used for the professors and student participants.

#### **2.3 Research design and data collection methods**

Three different methods of data collection were used: an online questionnaire, input on university platforms, and semi-structured interviews.

The online quantitative and qualitative questionnaire was developed in Google Forms and distributed to teaching personnel via email or phone. The questionnaire contained 24 multiple-choice and rated questions (using a Likert scale). The aim of the first four questions was to collect general data related to this study's set variables (gender, university name, teaching experience and professional role).

The second part of the questionnaire consisted of 20 questions, where the respondents, using a Likert rating scale with a range from 1 (do not agree at all) to 5 (completely agree) and with the help of multiple answer choices, expressed their views related to: the biggest challenges that they had faced during online teaching and testing, their level of digital competence, technical equipment, student engagement during online teaching and exams. The questionnaire was anonymous, since some questions directly assessed the work of the university where they were employed, thus avoiding subjectivity in the answers. All study participants provided informed consent before participation, and the study design was approved by the appropriate ethics review board.

As a means of examining students' insights into their online experience, students were asked to leave their comments on questions posted on online platforms at two of the four universities. This method proved to be a useful tool for students to share their thoughts about the online teaching process, as a total of 356 students shared their experiences about online learning on their universities' platforms. Students were asked to reflect on their experience in terms of the challenges they encountered, the benefits they felt, their motivation for learning in this way, and to compare online teaching with face-to-face teaching.

The final method used was the semi-structured interview, which is considered an essential source for gathering direct insight into the participants' experiences. Teachers who expressed their willingness to participate through interviews were asked to reflect on the role of digitization in education, their experience in terms of digital and technical readiness for teaching and testing online during Covid-19, any support they received from their faculty as well as to express their opinion regarding the comparison of online teaching and the traditional face-to-face approach.

Sixteen academic teachers of various titles participated in a semi-structured interview conducted via Zoom with three members of the research team. Each member of the research team asked questions designed to probe the challenges and opportunities of online teaching and learning. The interviews lasted up to 30 minutes. All interviews were audio- and video-recorded and re-watched to ensure the accuracy of the quotes used to represent the theme.

#### **2.4 Data analysis**

The study used mixed methods, as both quantitative and qualitative data were collected with the aim of understanding the phenomenon through the perspectives of the participants. On the one hand, quantitative data allowed researchers to obtain more objective, numerical data, while qualitative data provided more detailed information about the context, thus creating a real picture of the study and a more thorough understanding of the situation in its natural environment.

Quantitative data processing was performed using SPSS statistical software. The chi-square, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for the purpose of hypothesis testing. The quality of the data was checked using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for normality as well as by cross-tabulation and correlation.

*Exploring Teachers and Students Perceptions of Online Teaching in Montenegro: What Have We… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109452*

#### **2.5 Findings**

The key findings indicate that all the teachers experienced challenging moments while delivering lectures online, but they were also able to identify advantages in such a stressful context.

The analysis of the quantitative data particularly shows three factors that hindered the teaching experience of the participants.

The most common disadvantage of this experience was the lack of direct interaction with students [4]. In most cases, the teachers acted as the only link between the students. This lack of connection can have the effect of causing great anxiety and causing students' motivation levels to drop [5].

Another challenge faced by the teachers during this unforeseen teaching scenario included the digital literacy of the teachers and aversion to technology and this way of teaching. For this reason, this new teaching setting is, according to the participants, more difficult and tiring than the classroom environment.

In addition, the participants reported that working from home is also problematic considering all the possible distractions in the household, i.e. they did not have the necessary resources to conduct online classes, such as a suitable internet connection or a laptop with a working camera and microphone. The lack of appropriate technological devices limited their participation in the online lecture. Adapting to this scenario for some of them meant spending money on new technological devices that were not completely affordable but were absolutely necessary. Some received help from their university, but this type of help appears to have been rare.

The results of the study show the need for a modernized approach to pedagogies on educational technologies and media that is driven by research-informed analysis. As well as greater involvement of competent institutions towards better technical equipment for teaching staff and students.

### **3. Discussion**

#### **3.1 Digital competence of teachers in Montenegro**

An analysis of quantitative and qualitative data summarizing the experiences of university teachers and students regarding online teaching and its comparison with traditional teaching shows that an important factor of difference that the respondents recognized during this process was the fact that they had to learn how to work with applications for synchronized online teaching, which they were not previously familiar with. Asynchronous teaching was more or less known and practiced at the universities of Montenegro because all universities already had their universities' online platforms and trained the teaching staff to upload materials on them. On the other hand, synchronous online teaching implied familiarity with applications such as e.g. Zoom or Microsoft Teams, which were new to many teachers. At Montenegrin universities, due to the sudden transition to a live teaching environment, there was no organized training for teachers to use these applications, but they found support for their use on YouTube guides (32.5%) as well as from the IT service of their faculties (27.8%). Those methods of self-teacher training were apparently sufficient in the given circumstances because 73.3% of teachers stated that they used Zoom to hold synchronous online classes.

In support of the successful transition of Montenegrin teachers to online teaching is the fact that all respondents with 15 years of service (whose participation in

this study is 43.6%) rated their digital competence with an average score of 3.9 and a modal score of 4. If we compare the results of the respondents with years of service of 15 years and more (with participation in the survey of 25.6%), we see that they also rated themselves with high marks. The average grade for answering this question is 3.73 with a modal score of 4, which indicates that teachers, nationally, are quite confident in their digital competence. However, the linear regression shows that there is a significant number at the level of significance 1 (p = 0.054, B = − 0.273). The regression equation shows that by changing the level of the independent variable (length of service) for one unit (year), teaching staff attitudes about their digital competence reduced by 0.273%. The same result was recorded in the answers of the respondents since the average grade for teaching staff with a shorter work experience is higher by 0.17% than for the respondents with a longer work experience. The obtained results show that the confidence in the skills needed to perform synchronous online teaching decreases with years of service.

Therefore, it seems that senior teachers with longer tenure needed additional digital training. This is a field that needs to be worked on in the future, in a way that, for example, universities become more involved and periodically organize teachers' training programs for online teaching and the use of all distance learning tools [6]. In support of this need is the fact that almost a third of the total teaching staff (30%) believed that they did not have the necessary technological and pedagogical skills to support synchronous online teaching, and 26.7% of the total sample of teaching staff this was a decisive factor for giving up synchronous online classes and staying at the level of using simpler forms of asynchronous online communication with students (communication via Viber, e-mail, via DLS platforms of the university). Of those, 15.5% of teachers used only e-mail as a means of communication.
