Education in Emergencies, Mental Wellbeing and E-Learning

*M. Mahruf C. Shohel, Arif Mahmud, Munira Azhar Urmee, Muhammad Naveed Anwar, Mohammad Mojibur Rahman, Dev Raj Acharya and Md. Ashrafuzzaman*

### **Abstract**

The world has been going through an unprecedented situation due to the world-wide health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. It affected all sectors across the globe, including education. This chapter highlights the importance of education in emergencies and how a situation like the COVID-19 pandemic creates challenges alongside opportunities to learn for personal and professional development as well as to ensure mental wellbeing of individuals through e-learning. The chapter explores literature to draw on different perspectives regarding the issues related to effectiveness in handling education and learning in an emergency in addition to preparedness for post and future emergencies. However, it focuses mainly on the role of the education sector in supporting individuals, especially learners and educators during and after emergencies. It also reflects on educational professionals' work with students during this pandemic i.e. how educational professionals report on their adaptation journey and how the pandemic impacted the ability to serve and engage learners. From the professionals' best practices to assist students in being successful through online education or hybrid teaching and learning formats, many opportunities arose to shape and reform education for a better future and transform the process of lifelong learning. This chapter outlines strategies, in general, for the education sector, and in particular, institutions and individuals to be better prepared for future emergencies through the opportunities e-learning offers.

**Keywords:** Anxiety, Blended Learning, COVID-19, Digital Transformation, Education in Emergencies, E-Learning, Emergency Remote Education, Emerging Technologies, Fear, Home Learning, Mental Wellbeing, Online Education, Online Distance Teaching and Learning, Personal Development, Professional Development, Social Communication, Strategies and Psycho-social Interventional Steps, Technological Adaptation and Integration

### **1. Introduction**

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on every aspect of human life [1–4]. The pandemic showed that human society has been unprepared for this unprecedented circumstance. In reality, there are many things to learn from this situation for preparing to address similar emergencies in the future. The education sector was not spared as education systems all over the world were abruptly shut down, forcing students and teachers to switch into emergency remote education (ERE) using online and other

distance teaching and learning approaches [5]. Closures of educational institutions and interruption of education affected more than 1.6 billion enrolled students of all ages which equaled nearly 94% of the global student population [6, 7]. As a response to the COVID-19 crisis, emergency remote education was put into practice to ensure the continuity of education for students via home learning supported by the educational institutions. However, teachers and students alike witnessed that emergency remote education is not just a case of 'learning from home' but that a reinterpretation of pedagogical approaches to adjust to the 'new normal' situation [8]. Educators and practitioners, with short notice and little preparation time, were confronted with redesigning their curricula, changing their pedagogical and assessment practices from face-to-face to online virtual classrooms and embracing additional pastoral care of their students in order to maintain their wellbeing and the quality of the educational experience and performance.

The rapid shift of formal face-to-face teaching and learning to being online distance teaching and learning left teachers, parents and other stakeholders lacking in confidence that students were receive an appropriate education through the virtual or digital learning environments or workplaces as well as concerns about safety and security [8]. Sudden switching from face-to-face to online teaching and learning, and the speed of the change and transition have given limited space and time for many teachers and learners to develop the necessary knowledge, understanding and skills needed to teach and learn online. It has been challenging for many educators to learn and use various tools and techniques and create engaging learning opportunities in the unfamiliar virtual learning environments or digital workspaces [9]. The crisis further revealed the flaws in the global education systems and taught a lesson that in this twenty-first century with all technological advancement, most nations are not prepared for educational crises, which require new approaches to education and emerging innovative pedagogies.

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education sector has halted the traditional education system but has also fostered innovation due to the challenges of the crisis. This not only included switching from face-to-face to online distance teaching and learning, but also unparalleled parental involvement in children's education, and the development of families' coping mechanisms when forced to 'self-quarantine' or work from home. In the vein of challenges and learning opportunities, this chapter outlines strategies, methods, and tools to address the prevention of gaps in continuing education during these unprecedented times. This chapter focuses on three questions in order to better understand and suggest recommendations for policy and practice in the context of education in emergencies:


### **2. Education in emergencies (EiE): challenges and opportunities of teaching and learning online**

Education, in general, is 'life-saving, life-sustaining and life-transforming lifelong process' ([10], p. 2) and in emergencies, it creates the learning opportunities for individuals and can equip them to face on-going crises as well as crises to come [11].

### *Education in Emergencies, Mental Wellbeing and E-Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97425*

Education in emergencies (EiE) has been defined in such a way that educational needs are met along with humanitarian assistance provided, to protect individuals in a crisis [10]. Education in emergencies is based on the concept of "education as a humanitarian response" [12–14]. That is why, the UNHCR ([15], online), explains that "[e]ducation in emergencies provides immediate physical and psychosocial protection, as well as life-saving knowledge and skills (for example, with respect to disease prevention, self-protection, and awareness of rights). If children and youth receive a good quality education in a safe manner during and after an emergency, they will be exposed less frequently to activities that put them at risk. They will also acquire knowledge and mental resources that increase their resilience to help them to protect themselves".

Education in emergencies covers "education that protects the wellbeing, fosters learning opportunities and nurtures the overall development (social, emotional, cognitive, and physical) of children affected by conflicts and disasters" ([16], p. 23; [17], p. 4). Therefore, education in emergencies could be defined as "education that is provided during times of crisis created by conflicts or disasters" ([10], p. 2). However, any conflict or disaster destabilises, disorganises or destroys the existing education system, and requires an integrated process of crisis and postcrisis assistance to continue education [18]. During any natural or man-made crisis, education in emergencies "increasingly serves as shorthand for schooling and other organised studies, together with 'normalising' structured activities, arranged for and with children, young people and adults whose lives have been disrupted by conflict and major natural disasters" ([19], p. 4).

According to UNESCO ([18], p. 11), "the rationales of the educational responses in emergencies are to provide humanitarian assistance as follows:


In order to minimise the effect and maximise the impact of education in emergencies, emerging technologies have been used increasingly for teaching and learning for more than two decades. Technological advancement also enriches the teaching materials, makes the best use of time and allows having live, visual and authentic learning conditions which ignite learners to absorb knowledge [20, 21]. It is important for educators to understand and command the new technologies and be able to use them in the process of learning. However, this does not mean that technology takes over the instructor's tasks and human presence in the learning process. Technology is there only as learning support to strengthen material

explanations from an instructor and for students to understand concepts better and develop skills. Thus, the presence of an instructor is necessary for the detailed explanation of the contents and learning process, and they must respond to the new technology and its role in the learning [22].

Online distance learning (ODL) is the use of the internet and some other important technologies to develop materials for educational purposes, instructional delivery and management of the educational programmes [23, 24]. There are two types of online distance learning - asynchronous and synchronous online learning which are often compared, but for online learning to be effective and efficient, instructors, organisations and institutions must be aware of the benefits and limitations of both [25]. The consistent growth in technology and internet accessibility has increased the thrust for online teaching and learning [26], but Joshi et al. [27] concluded that the instructional achievement of online learning is debatable because of the absence of face-to-face relationship among learners and learning facilitators (i.e. teachers, instructors or trainers). However, there are clear distinctions between adequately planned online learning experiences and courses presented online as a response to the crisis [5, 28]. Online learning during this pandemic is referred to as 'emergency remote education', 'emergency remote learning' or 'emergency remote teaching and learning' because it is in contrast with the quality or effectiveness of providing education online [5, 29].

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online distance teaching and learning have become a necessity to maintain continuity of education. This pandemic has made the educational institutions and other organisations go online and become agents of change and digital transformation. Some educators and learners were reluctant to accept the emerging technologies for online teaching and learning or training for professional development at the beginning of the pandemic. They thought that their disciplinary teaching and learning approaches might not be suitable through online teaching and learning. For example, some modules in science and engineering programmes require physical demonstration or lab work so that student can have face-to-face interactions with their teacher to understand practical aspects and learn. As a result of lockdown, they had to change or alter their approaches to adjust with emergency remote teaching and learning so that they can continue their education programmes and complete their courses in time.

For online distance teaching and learning, virtual connections to the university's servers to access the software and tools had been helpful in supporting the learning for both students and faculty members. In most universities, there have been live lectures, seminars or labs which may have also been pre-recorded or recorded live sessions uploaded and e-resources to make them accessible at any time from anywhere. It is a great opportunity from the students' point of view that they can access the materials at anytime from anywhere and revisit or revise the available resources [30, 31]. One of the main advantages of the use of technology is that a large number of students can join online session at one time. For example, most of the UK universities have capacity to have 250+ students to join in their online session(s) at the same time.

Although there have been many challenges and difficulties to operate emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL), for example, as already mentioned above that there are many courses or modules which require practical sessions or lab demonstrations [29]. So, the importance of face-to-face pedagogical approaches cannot be denied, but considering the current emergency situation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, online delivery of education seems to be the best alternative for the continuity of education [5]. Some universities across the globe have adopted a blended or hybrid learning approach following government guidelines, where the situation permitted. Alongside online session, whenever health regulations supported, there were arrangements for face-to-face sessions which improve the learning process and student engagement and satisfaction.

*Education in Emergencies, Mental Wellbeing and E-Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97425*

There have been many other issues in terms of online distance learning for students and teaching for staff, such as the availability internet (with a reasonable speed), a modest device (i.e. mobile phone set, tablet, laptop or computer with headphone and microphone), and a space where they could sit comfortably, quietly, without distractions to participate in teaching and learning. Many universities of the developed nations (e.g. UK, USA, Japan) have done their best to support their students and staff. For instance, these universities allow their students and staff to borrow laptop or desktop computers, headphones with microphones, and ergonomic keyboards and chairs (especially for staff). However, there are only limited resources and obviously not all universities can provide such resources to all staff and students which is another challenge of emergency remote online learning.

Considering the above benefits and challenges of online distance teaching and learning, it is crucial to go on with emergency remote (online distance) teaching and learning especially at this point of time (during the lockdown in the pandemic). Despite many barriers and challenges, online teaching and learning have undoubtedly improved further with the passage of time. The current trend shows that the tendency for online distance teaching and learning has gone up as compared to previous years [32] as this pandemic has left no other satisfactory choice than learning mostly online. Providing education online gives the option for people to learn, increase their knowledge and skills, and make the best use of their time especially during lockdown, isolation and quarantine. Being stuck at home, people may find more time to keep them engaged in learning activities [5, 29].

### **3. Mental wellbeing and its importance while providing education in emergencies**

An individual's mental wellbeing is significantly important during a time of crisis to reduce the risk to mental health, especially psychological stability and morale [33–35]. As defined, mental health is a condition of a person that includes emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing [36]. It affects how people think, feel, and act so that they can manage their stress and anxiety. Around the world, people have been managing mental health and mental illness in different ways [37]. In the current situation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals including students and educators may have experienced mental stress and distress [38, 39] due to the changes in personal, social and economic circumstances such as being stuck at home, domestic violence, unemployment, loss of a job, loss of loved one or family breakdown [40–43]. Such mental stress can create various kinds of feelings or behaviours which directly or indirectly impact on their health and wellbeing, learning and educational attainments [44]. These could include sleeping too much or too little, getting away from usual activities, feeling low energy, feeling hopeless and down, developing habits of smoking or drinking, getting confused or upset, being worried about the current situation and the unseen and unpredictable future [40–43].

Mental wellbeing is ubiquitous in learning, and mental health affects cognition differently [45]. Likewise, O'Regan [46] described mental wellbeing as being vital during online learning and his research has put mental health at the centre of the teaching and learning process. Mental health has been seen to be significant in learning as it relates to and acts as a driving force for academic achievement, motivation, efficiency, identity formation, individual development, and overall wellbeing; yet it may negatively influence the achievement of learning outcomes, progress, and experience [47–51].

During the pandemic, the burning question in the context of education is: how can educators keep their learners engaged and motivated when many of them suffer from economic deprivations, losses of loved ones, health issues or lack of resources? COVID-19 and the consequences of social distancing have brought anxiety and selfdoubt for many individuals [41]. In this situation, many other questions arise: How can educators go through such challenging times, while improving their educational practices and the quality of learning of their learners? How can they keep their students motivated and encourage them about learning and education where the future seems blurred?

Due to the multifaceted impact of the situation, it is suggested that students should be connected with other people, be physically active, learn new skills, create positive feelings and be mindful [52]. However, what are the practicalities of such suggestions when a student seeks help for a mental health problem during his or her educational journey? Some students may need clinical treatment of their mental illness and it could be difficult for them to get the right guidance and treatments. Therefore, an integrated strategic support should be in place to help these kinds of learners including psychological, social and financial supports.

Considering the various impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning, students require help and support in different areas. The support initiatives should include, but not limited to curriculum, class duration, teaching methods and techniques, teacher-students relationship, exam preparation, online extra-curricular activities, managing finances, mindset about online class. They should also be supported in coping with isolation and homesickness while they are stuck at their accommodations, and maintaining relationships with families and friends from a distance [38, 39, 53–55] (**Figure 1**).

### *Education in Emergencies, Mental Wellbeing and E-Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97425*

Ensuring an emotionally healthy e-learning environment and recognising mental wellbeing in learning are important for both learners and teachers. These are fundamental components of quality dynamic in learning and cognitive success [56]. The whole body, including affective, emotional, physiological, motivational, and expressive elements, is implicated in mental wellbeing [51, 57]. The correlation between cognition and mental health is bidirectional, which means that cognition and mental health operate in two ways, so both must be better understood [58].

Baker et al. [59] highlighted that the elements that trigger learning challenges and disruptive behaviours may be caused by boredom and misunderstanding, whilst also asserting that concentration is a factor for better learning. These variables are determined by various interface qualities, pedagogical values and resources. O'Neil and Spielberger [60] contended that extreme stress and pressure degrade understanding and thus inadequate learning (all of which may have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic) may be elicited by limited memory, attention span or decision-making, regardless of having the engaged motivation. In addition, LePine et al. [61] found that *challenge*-related stress had a positive relationship to learning performance, and that *barrier*-related stress had a negative relationship to learning performance and mental health in an e-learning context. They also indicated that these stress-learning performance relationships had been partly mediated by fatigue and the desire to learn. As a consequence, changes in motivation, loss of focus and control, and significant tension that the student experiences are the problems that both the student and the teacher must resolve.

In an online teaching and learning setting, even with a synchronous teacher present, it is difficult for teachers to notice or discuss any mental health-related issues with individual students. Subsequently, it is even more difficult to recognise such unproductive emotional states such as boredom, and irritation. It is certainly not enough for the teacher to evaluate students' success by monitoring quantitative facts, like the frequency of tasks, the number of posts and the grades earned [62]. If a teacher neglects or is unaware of the mental health issues of any student and the reasons that cause the student to act as he or she does, then the teacher will not be able to promote the concentration of the student or to enhance his or her potential achievement.

Culture, age and gender are also elements that impact mental health problems in e-learning. This is evident in how some learners prepare for online tests or feels online test anxiety, how they communicate feelings virtually, how they respond to student-teacher relationships and communications, and how they react to online verbal and non-verbal stimuli [63]. Male students appear to show higher levels of negative emotions and greater emotional arousal [64] while female students appear to be more open to obtaining teacher support [65]. It is worth noting that mental wellbeing and emotions are experienced by all those participating in the e-learning process (i.e., learners, teachers, support staff) and are crucial to the relationship with and between these individuals [66]. Fiedler and Beier [58] indicated that an educational environment such as an e-learning context is "full of experience, anxiety, and fun, anger, and satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and pride" (p. 36). Negative experiences of mental health problems such as frustration can be compounded in an online distance teaching and learning setting as there is no physical connection with peers and teachers and, for many, there are only a few mental health support systems that are accessible or suitable.

These mental health problems can be alleviated by developing awareness and getting prompt, personalised support. Developing digital self-efficacy and technological proficiency can also minimise some fears and anxieties while individuals engage in a self-regulated learning process [67, 68]. Teachers, who aim to teach more online and welcome change, will relieve some of their students' worries and

anxieties about teaching online [69, 70]. For students, mental wellbeing may be improved by taking part in evidence-based online teaching and learning orientation [71], by getting access to course materials as early as possible, by warm welcoming addresses from the teacher, or by continuous teaching presence in an e-learning setting [72]. Further support strategies for test, technology and second-language anxieties can also be introduced [73, 74].

Teachers' roles in ensuring students' mental health and wellbeing in learning and online teaching are similarly complex, as positions vary widely across higher education and within e-learning. There are, nonetheless, several recommendations for higher education lecturers who are teaching online that can be obtained from research. To maintain a safe and creative virtual space for learning, the online distance higher education teachers can take a significant responsibility [75]. Concerning mental health and wellbeing throughout the learning process, teachers should "pay close attention to learners' epistemic wellbeing to foster their self-regulated knowledge generation*"* ([45], p. 15) through students' voices. Thus, "[t]eaching and learning practices which foster both cooperation and competition, independence and self-evaluation, can build the strength of students' voices in ways that do not deny learners' self-identity and values*"* ([76], pp. 333–334). Higher education lecturers, who develop their own modules, in their module design, they should take into consideration, recognise and acknowledge the importance of good mental health in learning and incorporate tailored interventions, feedback and advice, and support accordingly [48].

Chen et al. [77] make the clear yet important argument that student satisfaction is a key element in the successful implementation of the e-learning programme. Students' high satisfaction of learning, as they claim, is associated with lower dropout rates, increase engagement, learning success and dedication to the programmes they enrolled. There is evidence, however, that students with high levels of mental health problems prefer to keep their difficulties concealed rather than disclosing them [77]. Moreover, students with these forms of concealed wellbeing problems generally drop out of learning and tend to avoid continuing e-learning. As these students do not, in fact, highlight the problems to others, the issues are perpetuated and do not get discovered. Course designers and researchers should thus be mindful when determining the quality of the e-learning course on the basis of basic endof-course surveys. Researchers should consider how to capture the hidden mental wellbeing of students in addition to collecting students' impressions before they get disaffected and drop out of the course. Satisfaction and good mental wellbeing are therefore significant in e-learning and online education.

After a long period of emergency remote learning and lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, learners are struggling with academic engagement and as their institutional face-to-face teaching and learning has been disrupted. They are also deprived of their friends' and associates' physical presence in their everyday life. In such circumstances, learners are unable to share their emotions with their peers. Moreover, learners are being pressured by teachers and parents to complete the syllabus or course content in order to maintain academic performance. Here it must be mentioned that even in a pandemic situation, there is no change in parental expectation of getting higher marks in exams from their children. However, only a few changes could be considered by parents such as shortening a more extended curriculum and changing traditional paper-pencil assessment procedures to be able to produce a digital copy of the exam script [78, 79].

Due to sudden switching to emergency remote teaching and learning, learners are not prepared, and they are less confident to follow the virtual instructions of their teachers. Some primary and secondary level students become dependent on their parents or other family members to participate in their virtual class due to lack *Education in Emergencies, Mental Wellbeing and E-Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97425*

of technological skills for using online learning tools [80–82]. As a result, students become less self-esteemed and motivated to learn as well as possessing little enjoyment in a virtual classroom [83, 84]. These are the common scenarios of the poor mental state of students in underdeveloped and developing countries. Therefore, students should be provided with various kinds of help and support to cope with mental health issues. These supports could include helping in exam preparation, managing finances, personal tutoring, supporting for coping with homesickness, maintaining relationships with families or worrying about future employment or career prospects.

### **4. The future: technological adaptation and integration for blended or hybrid learning**

The effect of the sudden change and immediacy of emergency remote teaching and learning was challenging for many educators, including lecturers and support staff [85, 86]. The COVID-19 pandemic has required a long-term adjustment with clear consequences for teaching and learning settings, and conventional face-toface lessons are being transformed to incorporate a combination of synchronous and asynchronous pedagogical approaches and delivery methods. Although many teachers and academics have expertise and experience with designing, developing, delivering and assessing blended and e-learning, there remain many academics and educators that do not hold the expertise or knowledge to cope with such a shift. As a result, education work settings have become more collegial and collaborative with colleagues supporting one another. Educators are helping each other to make this continuous professional development process moving forward by offering not only course design and development support but also instructional tips. This process of collegiality support the transformation of traditional education, to enable it to be successful, through blended and online experiences, in developing better learning outcomes for their students [87]. While collegiality is good to see, it is placing an additional burden on all staff members with an already strained workload.

Nevertheless, the focus should be on the lived experiences of the teachers who support other colleagues and can offer lessons, experiences, and tips towards supporting their colleagues that will be lost if not documented in a timely fashion. Therefore, documentation of one's own experience and sharing such knowledge with others is essential. This would also provide an opportunity to develop an instructional guideline as well as policy and procedural recommendation tools to assist others. This strategy helps to recreate instructional reflective learning in a collegial environment in which the organisation moves from self-sustaining strategy towards recognising its own success. The willingness of academics to support each other shows the importance of collegiate unions, while showcasing strategies, innovative pedagogy, engagement styles and assessment alternatives, which are all new ideas for most organisations under current education in emergencies. This could offer a unique chance to document the knowledge and lessons learnt, as well as to take a long-term perspective of the systemic effect and e-learning opportunities.

For educational institutions to go ahead with e-learning, it is vital to ensure inclusiveness of provisions that all students be considered, as well as what policies and practices must be introduced to accommodate and address the needs of all stakeholders, now and in the future. One of the best approaches is to keep record of the experiences through the lens of educators and academics who are at the forefront of teaching and learning.

To maintain learners' effective virtual learning which will enhance their mental wellbeing and will fulfil the goal of education in emergencies (EiE) the following specific strategies and psycho-social interventional steps may be appropriate:

### *E-Learning and Digital Education in the Twenty-First Century*


*Education in Emergencies, Mental Wellbeing and E-Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97425*


*Education in Emergencies, Mental Wellbeing and E-Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97425*


### **5. Conclusion**

The current COVID-19 pandemic has forced public and private organisations, companies and institutions as well as individuals to change their behaviours during lockdown to maintain social distancing. As a result, 'working from home' and 'home learning' using digital technologies have become the new norm. However, technological advancement has already led to the digital transformation of everyday life, and technology-enhanced learning has already been widely adopted by many education institutions across the globe. In the sudden emergency remote teaching and learning, especially designing and delivering education at short notice, has made digital technologies a ubiquitous requirement for teachers and students to continue their teaching and learning, and especially for higher education institutions to provide education. Such new paradigms have led the education sector worldwide to change the ways of teaching and learning in a significantly short period of time, which creates both challenges and opportunities.

Teaching and learning are essential parts of the rounded development of individuals to unfold their potential. However, the perspectives of individuals involved in teaching and learning through the unprecedented time during the COVID-19 pandemic are crucial to understand the barriers and challenges of the situation. Teachers as practitioners have important insights to offer into how they overcome the difficulties through changes in practice and innovations in pedagogical methods and approaches using different digital or non-digital teaching and learning platforms and different tools and techniques. Therefore, research needs to be carried out to identify the good practices of teaching and learning and proper

### *E-Learning and Digital Education in the Twenty-First Century*

use of emerging technologies in order to understand the role of digital education in the context of the twenty-first century.

Even though numerous programmes have been delivered through e-learning in different educational institutions including schools, colleges and universities, this is the first time for most teachers and students to use virtual teaching and learning tools and technologies in their full-time education programmes. In this vein, the chapter has explored how experienced and new users of emerging technologies are dealing with the new circumstances. Interest in artificial intelligence and online technologies [110–112] has amplified significantly in universities, showing that there are useful platforms in aiding teaching and learning as well as increasing students' motivation and engagement. Thus e-learning has created new avenues for the education sector worldwide and shown its potential to support mental wellbeing.

## **Author details**

M. Mahruf C. Shohel1 \*, Arif Mahmud<sup>2</sup> , Munira Azhar Urmee3 , Muhammad Naveed Anwar4 , Mohammad Mojibur Rahman5 , Dev Raj Acharya6 and Md. Ashrafuzzaman7

1 Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

2 Department of Education, University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom

3 Department of Psychology, Jagannath University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

4 Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, United Kingdom

5 Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

6 Institute of Health, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

7 Department of Education, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Digital University, Bangladesh, Gazipur, Bangladesh

\*Address all correspondence to: mahruf.shohel@yahoo.co.uk; m.m.c.shohel@alumni.manchester.ac.uk

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Education in Emergencies, Mental Wellbeing and E-Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97425*

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### **Chapter 10**

## Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia

*Jowati Juhary*

### **Abstract**

This chapter responds to the needs of educators in preparing to teach online fully due to the pandemic, COVID-19. This scenario becomes the new normal in the teaching and learning process during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective of this chapter is to investigate the roles of educators in one public higher learning institution in Malaysia during emergency remote teaching due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Emergency remote teaching is argued to be the answer to the sudden change from face-to-face teaching to a fully online teaching environment. Data for this chapter were collected through an online survey distributed to potential respondents. Adopting a case study and quantitative approach to research, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis were conducted and presented. Preliminary findings suggest two key challenges. Firstly, educators were ready to embark on transformative emergency remote teaching. Nonetheless, they were not sure of the differences between emergency remote teaching and online teaching; these two have different pedagogical approaches. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, educators were able to use appropriate platforms and applications during the pandemic; however, they did not have ample time to study other platforms and applications. By this, the author argues that some educators have various options to choose from but may lack the knowledge and understanding on how these options work best. In accepting the new normal in teaching and learning, educators must be open to new and creative strategies to engage students during 100 percent online learning.

**Keywords:** COVID-19, emergency remote teaching, new normal, online presence, online teaching

### **1. Introduction**

First discovered in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has arguably affected sectors such as businesses, tourism and education of countries all over the world (see [1, 2]). Particularly relevant and significant for this chapter is how educators are coping with teaching fully online; for some educators, teaching fully online happens for the first time in their live. In Malaysia, the education landscape is about to be changed forever. With new normal of teaching and learning, primary and secondary schools, together with higher learning institutions are now faced with enormous tasks to ensure that students acquire the knowledge that have been arranged for their levels accordingly. Trained to teach physically or in face-to-face sessions, educators in Malaysia need to step up and provide a different level of commitment to teaching [3].

### **2. The context of the study**

Data for this chapter were collected at the National Defence University of Malaysia (NDUM). The NDUM is the only tertiary military institution in Malaysia, awarding undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. For the undergraduate student population, there are about 65 percent military cadets and 35 percent civilian students (about 24 percent of these students are also enlisted in Reserve Officers Training Unit or ROTU). It is a residential campus since 98 percent students live on campus. Currently, there are 17 academic undergraduate programmes offered to students, including Engineering programmes, Maritime programmes and Strategic Studies and Management programmes. Military cadets and ROTU students have to attend military training on campus during the weekends and holidays. Especially for the military cadets, they have to also participate in physical exercises, rollcalls and other military administrative duties on daily basis.

The second semester of the Academic Session 2019/2020 has started when the government of Malaysia introduced and enforced the Movement Control Order (MCO) to stop the spread of COVID-19. The MCO started during the fifth week of the semester; this was when the face-to-face sessions had started, and after that the teaching and learning processes resumed online, fully. During this MCO, which started on the 18th of March 2020, all students, including the military cadets were transported home to be with their families. The semester resumed online a week after the students had settled comfortably at home. The remaining online sessions included lectures, tutorials, assignments, tests as well as final examinations. It needs to be emphasised that some planned teaching and learning activities were not able to be conducted due to the MCO such as fieldtrips, laboratory works and industrial training.

There are two research questions for this research; first, on the educators' readiness to teach online fully from the aspect of their pedagogical readiness. By pedagogical readiness, it is argued that there are differences in the practical applications of emergency remote teaching and online teaching (see [4, 5]). Second, on the platforms, tools and applications used for online teaching. Given that the MCO came as a surprise, educators had no choice but to comply with the existing platforms, tools and applications in completing their teaching responsibilities. These two research questions answer the main objective of this chapter, which is to understand the roles of educators during emergency remote teaching.

There are four key terms used throughout this chapter that must be explained. Firstly, emergency remote teaching, which refers to a temporary and unplanned teaching solution due to a sudden change of the teaching environment. Secondly, the term new normal, which suggests that new practices and routines that must be followed in the current situation. Thirdly, online presence refers to the presence of educators online to assist students, and the amount of presence depends on the students' competency level. The last term is online teaching, that is the process of teaching conducted fully online, with planned and established curricula, including teaching and learning materials, learning activities and assessments.

#### **2.1 Online teaching and emergency remote teaching**

Previous research on online teaching and emergency remote teaching are included in order to provide critical background on what should be the roles of educators during this COVID-19 outbreak. It is argued that emergency remote teaching must not be equate to online teaching (fully), considering the differences in their educational approaches [6]. Further, the critical key to differentiate the two is the insufficient time to properly plan for curriculum transformation; emergency remote teaching does not have the luxury of planning [7].

*Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95071*

### *2.1.1 Online teaching*

The effectiveness and drawbacks of online teaching and learning, or simply online education, have been debated for decades. Scholars from all over the world have looked at various research studies, theories, models, standards and evaluation criteria, which focus on quality online learning, online teaching and online course design (see [5]). Before further discussions are held, it is appropriate to provide a conceptual definition of online education for this chapter. According to Bakia et al. [8], online education, which includes online teaching and learning can be used to refer to "a wide range of programmes that use the Internet to provide instructional materials and facilitate interactions between teachers and students, and in some cases amongst students as well." Accordingly, online education can be fully online, with all instructions taking place through the Internet, or online elements can be combined with face-to-face sessions known as blended learning (see also on blended learning [9]).

Online teaching cannot be explained properly without the discussions on online learning. This is because the two depend on each other; therefore, critical aspects of online learning will also be highlighted. For example, Hoi et al. [10] found in their study that based on the types of learning tasks and the forms of feedback information, online learning can be divided into three major categories: (a) online supervised learning where full feedback information is always available, (b) online learning with limited feedback, and (c) online unsupervised learning where no feedback is available. What Hoi et al. suggest is that the presence of educators online can be based on the amount of assistance needed by the students. In addition, Means et al. [11] explored the online learning design options by listing various moderating variables, including roles of students and educators, as well as ratio of students during the online lessons. These design options are summarised in **Table 1**.

What could be discerned from **Table 1** are twofold. First, online education for both teaching and learning would require careful planning in order to ensure that the curricula are delivered effectively, and that students and educators are able to work synchronously or asynchronously online. Manfuso [12] in her research also found that designing an effective online course could take weeks and months. Second, roles of students and educators are not definite; accordingly, and when appropriate, both students and educators can negotiate what they need to be doing.

In addition, according to Boon [13], educators' presence in an online learning and teaching environment is important in engaging students. Despite the options offered that educators may choose to have a smaller or zero presence online (refer to **Table 1**), Boon proposed several facilitation strategies that can make students more motivated and interested in their learning; these require active and *big* presence of the educators online. **Table 2** illustrates these strategies.

It is evident that, regardless of whether educators have small or big presence online, students need to know that they are not alone in the virtual classrooms. The author argues that in choosing to be present small or big online, several factors must be taken into consideration, including students' level of competency in the course and students' availability to be online (access and data consumption). Some students may be left to assume more independent learning online, and some may require the utmost assistance imaginable. As Hoi et al. [10] have put forth that online feedback to students depend on the students' capability to learn independently or dependently. The next section explores emergency remote teaching in detail, and highlights differences between online teaching and emergency remote teaching.


**Table 1.**

*Online design options [11].*

### *2.1.2 Emergency remote teaching*

Emergency remote teaching is arguably a new concept derived due to the pandemic [5]. It is also suggested to be one of the educational responses to the COVID-19 outbreak [6]. When the need for schooling arises, emergency remote teaching becomes a temporary solution in order to allow students to continue with *Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95071*


#### **Table 2.**

*Selected facilitation strategies [13].*

their lessons [14]. Despite being unsure of emergency remote teaching, educators have to continue to teach. According to Talidong [15] in her study of teachers involved in emergency remote teaching, the main findings of this study emphasise several aspects such as the positive outlook, concern for students, and instructional strategies of the Philippine teachers in implementing emergency remote teaching. Despite the difficulties to arrange lessons virtually from distance, the respondents were aware of the instructional strategies that could be employed.

In an attempt to ensure that teaching and learning online is effectively and successfully achieved, Whittle et al. [16] proposed a framework for emergency remote teaching. These scholars combined two frameworks – Sawyer's [17] framework for creating a learning environment and Garrison and Arbaugh's [18] community of inquiry framework for online learning – to develop the emergency remote teaching environment framework. Findings from this study suggest that educators need to reaffirm their online presence by guaranteeing that they are visible accordingly either within or outside of the online teaching sessions.

Some educators may find it difficult to conduct online assessments during the emergency remote teaching phase. Rahim [19] suggested nine aspects that must be



#### *Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95071*


**Table 3.**

*Selected characteristics of emergency remote teaching compared with online teaching [4].*

*Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95071*

**Figure 1.**

*The scenario between face-to-face sessions and emergency remote teaching [4].*

considered when conducting online assessments during this phase. These include evaluating prerequisites for implementing online assessment; ensuring alignment of assessment activities with stated learning objectives; addressing the diversity of students' situations; maintaining a good balance of formative and summative assessments; stimulating student learning with online assessment; considering format; scheduling and timing of tests; establishing clear communication to students regarding assessment matters; ensuring high-quality feedback; and addressing assessment validity threats. Although all these aspects can be familiar to some educators, others may find them new, yet helpful during this time of crisis.

A group of educators at Algonquin College [4] described the differences and evolutions from emergency remote teaching to eventually, online teaching (see **Table 3**). What is reiterated is the fact that emergency remote teaching is a non-planned teaching strategy, and it is just a temporary measure. To demonstrate further the meaning of emergency remote teaching, **Figure 1** confirms some characteristics of emergency remote teaching, including the evolving expectations of the educators as well as students, and synchronous with asynchronous options for teaching and learning.

Based on **Table 3**, it can be concluded that when an academic programme is planned properly to be offered virtually, it can be categorised as online education; teaching and learning will be conducted online. Emergency remote teaching can ultimately become online teaching once it has stabilised and matured; by this, the author argues that there must be proper and adequate time allocated to design and develop the curricula, including the learning materials, activities and assessments.

To sum up this section, both online teaching and emergency remote teaching should be used in different educational situations. What the teaching world is facing now may best be solved by emergency remote teaching because educators are put into the positions of teaching online fully without having the time to plan, design and select the best teaching tools for the students.

### **3. Methodology**

This research employed a case study approach in order to understand the challenges faced by educators teaching during the pandemic. Stake [20] noted that there are three kinds of case studies, namely intrinsic, instrumental and collective. An intrinsic case study focuses on understanding a specific case rather than focussing on a common understanding. Conversely, a collective case study is about understanding more than one case either at one site or multiple locations. Using Stake, this research is an instrumental case study, where it focuses on gaining a general understanding of an issue by studying a particular case, educators at the NDUM.

Case studies have many advantages, such as allowing for comparative study and the support for generalisations [21, 22]. They are also empirically strong because they are grounded in observable realities. However, there are also weaknesses, the main one being that they lack statistical reliability because they can be narrow in their focus. Gummesson [23] counter-argued on the weaknesses of the case study method by insisting that statistical or scientific methods are less insightful in instances where understanding human behaviour is more important. In addition, the case study approach does not rule out statistical analysis. The current research uses quantitative data for descriptive and inferential analysis. This quantitative approach is chosen because the author wants to gauge the general perspectives of educators at the Defence University on teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

### **3.1 Population and sampling**

There are 340 active academics at the NDUM during the period of data collection. The author chose convenience sampling because the potential respondents can be reached easily through WhatsApp and emails. There were 63 respondents out of 340 academics (18.5 percent), who answered the online survey, and these were the basis for analysis and discussion in this chapter. The author did not force academics to complete the survey since it was on voluntary basis. Despite this small number of respondents, the author opines that the data were sufficient for preliminary discussions on emergency remote teaching.

### **3.2 Research instrument and data collection**

An online survey was used to collect data. Using Google Forms, items were arranged according to sections explained later. The survey can be found at https:// bit.ly/2Zaozjc (see **Figure 2** for the screenshot of the survey), and it was available from the 5th of September until the 18th of September 2020 (about two weeks). Two methods were used to invite potential respondents; first, WhatsApp messages were sent to groups of faculties and academic centres at the NDUM, and second, emails were sent to all academics at the NDUM.

Items in the survey were divided into a demographic section, perceptions about online teaching and emergency remote teaching section, and commentary section. Two types of scales were used in the survey, a 4-point likert and 5-point likert scale, together

**Figure 2.** *The screenshot of the online survey.*

*Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95071*

with 'Yes,' 'No' and 'Not Sure' scale. As emergency remote teaching is barely known to most educators, the author has specifically prepared four items on emergency remote teaching. Further, the items in the survey mostly originated from the existing literature on online teaching and emergency remote teaching. The survey was bilingual in order to cater for local and international academics at the Defence University.

### **3.3 Data analysis**

The final data collected from 63 respondents were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 25, and they were presented in mostly descriptive statistics. Whilst descriptive data were used to answer the research questions posed earlier, inferential data provided different perspectives on the current teaching situations. Data analysis involved the use of frequency tables and graphs for percentages and figures. Since the objective of the paper is to investigate the roles of educators during the pandemic, descriptive data obtained were able to shed lights into the situations faced by the respondents. Meanwhile, inferential statistics were able to illustrate the relations or significance of variables in this study.

### **4. Findings**

#### **4.1 Demographic information**

There are seven faculties and academic centres at the Defence University; given this, the online survey was only open to academics under these faculties and centres. Although there are also academics appointed as fellow researchers in centres of excellence at the Defence University, they are also part of these seven faculties and academic centres. **Figures 3**–**6** illustrate the demographic information of the research respondents. To explain further the labels for the faculties and academic centres, below is the explanation for the acronyms used,

a.AKP – Defence Fitness Academy

b.PAP – Centre for Foundation Studies

c.PB – Language Centre

d.FKJ – Faculty of Engineering

e.FPPP – Faculty of Defence and Management Studies

f. FPKP – Faculty of Medicine and Defence Health

g.FSTP – Faculty of Science and Defence Technology

Based on **Figure 3**, it is evident that the respondents of this study mostly came from the Language Centre, 24 respondents, and the least number of respondents came from two faculties, the Defence Fitness Academy and Faculty of Medicine and Defence Health, with three respondents each. In terms of age range, most respondents were between 36 to 40 years old (24 respondents) and the least number of respondents was at the range of 25 to 30 years old (two respondents).

In addition, most respondents have more than 10 years of teaching experience (31 respondents); nonetheless, it should be emphasised that the older the academics were does not equate to more years in teaching. This could be explained by the fact

### *E-Learning and Digital Education in the Twenty-First Century*

**Figure 3.**

*The respondents and their respective faculties/academic centres (in number).*

**Figure 4.**

*The gender of the respondents (in number).*

#### **Figure 5.**

*The age of the respondents (in number).*

**Figure 6.** *Years of teaching experience of the respondents (in number).*

that some join teaching profession at a later age after gaining industrial experience. Further, the number of female respondents was slightly higher than the male counterparts; in actual fact, this is the real resemblance of the total academic population at the NDUM, with about 50.3 percent female academics.

### **4.2 Descriptive findings**

Data are explained in two main categories, including respondents' perceptions about online teaching and their knowledge about emergency remote teaching, and respondents' choice of platforms, strategies and applications during the pandemic. The first item asked was whether the respondents had experienced teaching fully online. 44 respondents (69.8 percent) confirmed that they have had the experience, and 19 respondents responded 'No' to this item. This item is key in understanding the responses for the subsequent items asked. The author opines that some respondents have not been involved completely in teaching online fully because they teach the Foundation and Diploma students, who were not in sessions from March until July 2020.

The next three items sought respondents' knowledge and awareness on the differences between emergency remote teaching and online teaching. The findings are summarised in **Figures 7–9** below. It can be discerned from these figures that respondents at the NDUM were not sure of what emergency remote teaching is and its differences to online teaching. The majority of the respondents chose 'Not Sure' for these three items. This is not surprising since emergency remote teaching is a new and temporary solution to teaching in times of crisis.

The respondents were also asked on the perceptions about teaching online fully. **Figure 10** illustrates the views of all respondents. A 4-point likert scale was used for this item, ranging from 'Strongly Not Effective' (1) to 'Strongly Effective' (4). As can be observed, 44.4 percent of the respondents (28 people) opted for 'Not

**Figure 7.** *Responses to the item "Understand the concept of Emergency Remote Teaching" (in number).*

#### **Figure 8.**

*Responses to the item "Able to distinguish between emergency remote teaching and online teaching" (in number).*

**Figure 9.**

*Responses to the item "Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Teaching are similar" (in number).*

**Figure 10.**

*Responses to the item "Perceptions about teaching online fully" (in number).*

Effective,' and 7.9 percent (5 people) opted for 'Strongly Not Effective.' Combining these two scales makes up for the slight majority of the respondents, who opined that teaching online fully lacks effectiveness (33 respondents or 52.3 percent).

In addition, **Tables 4** and **5** tabulate the views of the respondents on what platforms and strategies that they used the most during the pandemic and the most effective platforms and strategies in their opinions. From **Table 4**, it can be deduced that WhatsApp is often (19 respondents) and always (18 respondents) used by the respondents, together with MS Teams for Video Conferencing (51 respondents) and Quizzes (34 respondents). Further, **Table 5** shows similar platforms and applications that the respondents believed to be the most effective (combining 'Effective' and 'Strongly Effective'), WhatsApp and MS Teams for Video Conferencing and Quizzes with 44, 58 and 53 respondents, respectively. In additions, respondents also opined that Al-Fateh e-Learning Portal, Google Forms, Google Meet and Zoom to be effective platforms too.

### **4.3 Inferential findings**

This section explains the relations between selected items in the survey. Four sets of items will be tested on the strength of relations, and they are firstly correlation between years of teaching experience and the ability to distinguish between emergency remote teaching and online teaching (**Figure 11**); secondly, between opinions about teaching online fully and opinions about blended teaching (**Figure 12**); thirdly, between years of teaching experience and perceptions about blended teaching (**Figure 13**); and lastly between years of teaching experience and opinions about teaching online fully (**Figure 14**).

There are numerous ranges and interpretations on the correlation indicators (see **Table 6**); the author opts for the indicators by Sarwono [24] simply because the indicators are more representative of the author's data. The indicators are divided

**Online Teaching Platforms/Scales Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always WhatsApp** 9 6 11 19 18 **Al-Fateh e-Learning Portal** 9 8 12 20 14 **MS Teams (Video Conferencing)** 1 4 7 25 26 **Kahoot!** 33 4 15 8 3 **Google Forms** 13 7 19 12 12 **MS Teams (Quizzes)** 13 5 11 16 18 **Exam.Net** 50 3 3 5 2 **Google Meet** 24 9 10 16 4 **Twitter** 56 3 1 3 0 **Facebook** 52 6 0 5 0 **Telegram** 38 5 9 7 4 **Skype** 35 11 7 9 1 **Zoom** 16 9 13 19 6

*Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95071*

#### **Table 4.**

*Responses to the item "Online teaching platforms and strategies that respondents use the most" (in number).*


**Table 5.**

*Responses to the item "Online teaching platforms and strategies that are most effective" (in number).*

into six ranges; they begin with '0' to indicate no correlation of the variables, and end with '1' to depict a perfect correlation between two variables. Correlation data can also be positive and negative, indicating the directions of the relations.

Based on **Figures 11**–**14**, it can be concluded that there are negative and positive correlations between the items; positive correlation suggests that when one variable increases, the other also increases, and negative correlation indicates otherwise. For example, there is a very weak correlation (negative, −.071) between years of teaching experience and the ability of respondents to distinguish between emergency

### *E-Learning and Digital Education in the Twenty-First Century*


#### **Figure 11.**

*Correlations between teaching experience and ability to differentiate emergency remote teaching and online teaching.*


#### **Figure 12.**

*Correlations between opinions about teaching online fully and opinions about blended teaching.*


#### **Figure 13.**

*Correlations between teaching experience and opinions about blended teaching.*

remote teaching and online teaching (see **Figure 11**). What this suggests is that as the years of teaching experience increase, the respondents were perhaps not able to distinguish between emergency remote teaching and online teaching.

Meanwhile **Figure 12** illustrates a sufficient correlation (positive, .407) between opinions of respondents about teaching online fully and blended teaching. Thus, as more respondents chose to agree with teaching online fully is *Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95071*


#### **Figure 14.**

*Correlations between teaching experience and opinions about teaching online fully.*


#### **Table 6.**

*Correlation indicators (positive and negative) [24].*

less effective, the more they opined that blended teaching is suitable for them. Further, **Figure 13** demonstrates that there is a very weak correlation (negative, −.175) between years of teaching experience and opinions about whether blended teaching is suitable for the respondents; as the years of teaching increase, the respondents' view on whether blended teaching is suitable for them decreases. In addition, **Figure 14** illustrates that there is a very weak correlation (positive, .126) between years of teaching experience and opinions about teaching online fully. This illustrates that as years of teaching experience increase, the views that teaching online fully is not effective also increase, although the correlation is relatively small and weak.

### **5. Discussions**

From the data presented in the previous section, the author argues that, especially for the inferential statistics, too many respondents opted for 'Not Sure' when asked about emergency remote teaching and online teaching. In their defence, the author opines that since emergency remote teaching appears out of a sudden, these respondents may not be able to clearly define between emergency remote teaching and online teaching. Nonetheless, the data become a benchmark for the next step that must be taken by all educators in preparing for the unknown challenges.

Two research questions were posed earlier. The first is whether the educators at the NDUM were ready to embark on teaching during times of crisis, and the second is the platforms, tools and applications that were used by the educators during the pandemic. For the first research question, the author argues that the majority of

the respondents were ready to teach during the pandemic; nonetheless, they were not able to clearly distinguish between their teaching situation and environment at the time, which is emergency remote teaching and online teaching. This is based on **Table 4**, where the respondents were able to name the platforms and applications used for teaching, and **Table 5**, where they gave their perspectives on the effectiveness of the platforms and applications used.

Regardless of this, most respondents responded 'Not Sure' for survey items on differences between emergency remote teaching and online teaching, understanding of what emergency remote teaching is, and on whether both concepts are similar (refer to **Figures 7**–**9**). In addition, some respondents claimed in the commentary section of the survey that face-to-face teaching is never to be replaced by emergency remote teaching or online teaching. They believed that teaching conducted fully online is not effective. The inferential statistics also support this (see **Figure 12**); most respondents opined that teaching online fully is not effective, and that blended teaching suits them better (as the number of respondents choosing teaching online fully is ineffective increases, so does that number of respondents who agreed that blending teaching is suitable for them).

For the second research question, it is found that most respondents utilised WhatsApp and MS Teams (for video conferencing and quizzes). Although the other options were also selected by some of the respondents (see **Tables 4** and **5**), the author argues that these two platforms and applications are easily accessible to both educators and students. Almost all have WhatsApp application installed in their mobile phones, and MS Teams is subscribed by the NDUM.

The author also argues that where some of the platforms and applications have never been used by the respondents, the sudden change of teaching scenario and environment does not warrant time for the respondents to explore these other platforms and applications, such as Twitter, Facebook and Exam. Net (56, 52 and 50 respondents, respectively had never used these during the pandemic). Further, based on the commentary section of the survey, a few respondents opined that in order to utilise some of the platforms and applications, *educators and students* require a stable connection to the Internet and a huge data consumption; the question remains whether both educators and students have these Internet stability and ample Internet data.

Given all these discussions, the author opines that the most important finding of this study is the roles of educators in an emergency remote teaching environment. There are two main roles. Firstly, educators must be prepared to have an online presence; either a small or big online presence depends on the students' level of competency of the lessons. This online presence is crucial in motivating and encouraging the students to stay focus and active online. Secondly, choosing the best and most suitable platforms is also important. There are no fixed rules on choosing what is best for both the students and educators. Notwithstanding this, knowing what the students require and their capability to be online may dictate the choice of suitable strategies and platforms in an emergency remote teaching environment.

### **6. Recommendations**

Two recommendations can be offered based on the findings of this study. First, the academics must be made aware of the differences between emergency remote teaching and online teaching. Knowing and understanding of what emergency remote teaching is allow the academics to choose the most appropriate teaching platforms, strategies and applications post COVID-19. Where students are still required to learn online, so does the teaching practice continue online. **Table 3** may be of assistance to all educators, who want to ensure that their teaching benefits the students.

#### *Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95071*

Second, the administrators of the higher learning institutions (and secondary as well as primary schools) may need to invest on redesigning and revamping the existing curricula in order to match post COVID-19 teaching and learning environment. The educational institutions must be ready to offer systematic and effective online education, including online activities, learning and teaching interactions, materials and assessments. Redesigning and revamping the curricula become necessary as some learning and teaching activities cannot be executed online; thus, other platforms and strategies must be chosen and applied to give students the knowledge, exposure and experience that they need.

### **7. Conclusion**

The objective of this chapter is to identify the roles of educators, especially at the NDUM during the COVID-19 outbreak. Two research questions have been answered using the case study and quantitative approaches to research. This chapter has presented data that lead to three major findings. First, despite being ready to teach online fully, some respondents at the NDUM were not able to distinguish between emergency remote teaching and online teaching. Based on the data, the respondents are unsure of the differences between the two; both adopt different strategies of teaching.

Second, based on the data too, the respondents opined that WhatsApp and MS Teams are two platforms and applications that they used the most and were the most effective employed during this time of crisis. Although there are no specific guidelines on what strategies and platforms that must be adopted, the respondents chose what were the most convenient to them. These options *may* and *may not* be effective for all students, and these may be investigated in the near future.

Third, there are two major roles of educators teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, including educators' willingness to have an online presence and the ability to choose the best teaching and learning platforms and applications. Educators' online presence, either big or small, encourages and motivates students to actively participate during online learning sessions. Students know that they are not alone; there are peers as well on educators to support them. When educators have established this online presence, they become indirectly aware of the platforms and applications that could be beneficial and effective for the teaching and learning activities, online.

Future research may want to also focus on collecting opinions from a bigger population, across the nation, and may want to investigate the journey of educators at primary and secondary schools. Comparing what happened during the teaching processes at various institutions may help academics to improve their teaching strategies and allow academics to learn from one another. As the new normal in teaching and learning is here to stay, educators must brave the challenges that come in various forms and aspects; they must be prepared to adapt and adopt new concepts of teaching, whatever these might be!

### **Conflict of interest**

The author declares no conflict of interest.

### **Notes/thanks/other declarations**

The author thanks all survey respondents for their time and cooperation in completing the online survey, which is available at https://bit.ly/2Zaozjc.

*E-Learning and Digital Education in the Twenty-First Century*

### **Author details**

Jowati Juhary National Defence University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

\*Address all correspondence to: jowati@upnm.edu.my

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Educators in Malaysia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95071*

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## **Chapter 11**
