Impact Assessment of Ease and Usefulness of Online Teaching in Higher Education in Post COVID Era

During COVID-19 and its resulting lockdown, the sudden closure of traditional offline classes resulted in the loss of education. Consequently, teaching pedagogies were unexpectedly changed, and a sudden shift towards online teaching was necessitated. The extensive availability of devices and applications made this shift easy. Nevertheless, all teachers were not equally equipped with the equivalent knowledge and resources, which could have affected their behavioral intention to continue online teaching in the future. This paper investigates the perception of university teachers to continue online teaching in higher education post-COVID. To accomplish this target, a mixed research approach was adopted. For quantitative data, 243 questionnaires were successfully collected from teachers of the top five central universities in India, using an online survey through Google forms by integrating the technology acceptance model (TAM). For qualitative data, online-focused group discussions (FGDs) with around seven teachers from different nations’ universities were done. This study is cross-sectional, utilizing TAM factors for ascertaining teachers’ behavioral intentions in India. All hypotheses were found significant by applying PLS-based SEM using smart-PLS software. This indicates that perceived usefulness and ease of use significantly impact attitude towards online teaching; further, perceived usefulness and attitude towards online teaching also significantly affect the behavioral intention of teachers to continue online teaching post-COVID era. The study helps educational institutions and respective national policymakers to define the future course of action in the education sector.