The Impact Of Online Distance Learning Competencies Towards Lecturers’ Psychological Well-Being During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study From Universiti Teknologi Mara

Abstract

This research addressed issues pertaining to the impact of Online Distance Learning (ODL) towards the psychological well-being of lecturers and how universities should be better equipped and prepared to embrace the new norm. The research objectives were to investigate the level of lecturers’ ODL competencies and to examine the relationships between the antecedents of lecturers’ ODL competencies (technical readiness, pedagogical readiness and learning management systems) towards lecturers’ psychological wellbeing (autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life and self-acceptance), and finally to investigate the predictors of lecturers’ ODL competencies towards their psychological well-being. A convenience sampling technique was adopted where lecturers from UiTM were invited to take part in this research.

Eighty-one lecturers responded to the questionnaire. The findings revealed that the majority of the respondents were female (86.4%), single (69.1%) and fairly young about 30 years old (64.2%). It was also found that the level of lecturers’ online distance learning competencies to be high with learning management system (M=4.84, SD=0.74), technical readiness (M=4.77, SD=0.53) and pedagogical readiness (M=4.63, SD=0.61). In relation to the relationship between online distance learning competencies towards lecturers’ psychological well-being, it was found that there was a positive, significant and large association between those two. It was also discovered that only lecturers’ pedagogical readiness predicted their psychological well-being. It is recommended that lecturers be given pedagogical training to enhance their readiness to teach especially among the young academic staff so that they would be prepared to embrace unexpected adversaries in teaching and learning such as the closure of schools and the like. For future research, it is recommended that a larger sample size should be adopted and stratified sampling technique to be used so that the findings can be generalized to other similar population.