A qualitative study on successfully sustaining online teaching: Teachers needs in online education

Abstract

For a teacher to provide a good education, he/she is expected to develop himself/herself professionally, be open to innovations and follow these innovations. This also applies to the online teaching process, which has entered our lives rapidly with the pandemic period. Teachers are expected to carry out this process successfully. The purpose of this study is to examine teachers' professional development, field competencies, the support they receive from their institutions or organizations, and the motivation they have to successfully continue online teaching and to determine what teachers need in this process. This study is a qualitative research study, and the interview technique was used to collect data. The study’s sample group consisted of 10 experienced teachers who had previously taught through distance education. As a result of the research, it was concluded that to continue online teaching successfully, teachers' needs should be taken into account, the online teaching platform used should be appropriate and sufficient in terms of content and pedagogical content, institutions should provide sufficient financial and moral support to teachers, and not only teachers but also students should improve the opportunities they have in this process; when these factors can be provided, the negativities that may occur for online teaching will be minimized.