Background
Online teaching in many countries, is a new and emerging phenomenon and has not yet been tested in a practical and comprehensive manner. The aim of the present study was to investigate the opinions of university professors about online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was performed in Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran in 2021. Census sampling was used to select faculty members. Data collection was carried out using baseline characteristics and a valid 20-item questionnaire. Faculty members were asked to rate the items based on a five-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16.0.
Results
A total of 60 faculty members participated in the study. Findings showed that 80% of professors were satisfied with online teaching. On the other hand, 40% of the professors rated the access to the services of the online support and technical team as inappropriate, and 28.3% of them also stated that the training provided by the university officials for working with online systems is inappropriate. Moreover, a total of 45% of the professors were dissatisfied with the low speed of the Internet and its frequent unavailability. The results also showed a statistically significant relationship between the field of study, academic rank, and teaching experience and satisfaction with online teaching (P<0.05).
Conclusion
More than two-thirds of professors were satisfied with online teaching. However, they expressed concern regarding the lack of timely access to the support team, the low speed of the Internet and frequent outages, the poor capabilities of online systems in interacting with students, and concerns about the security of the online network.