The Teaching Competencies of Instructors in a Virtual Setting in Pakistan: Quality Online Instructions

Teaching Competencies

Abstract

This research was designed to explore the teaching competencies of instructors who are teaching in an online mode of education. Teaching competencies are a set of personal characteristics, knowledge, skills, and attitudes which are required for effective teaching in different teaching contexts. The competencies are important for instructors to be successful in their professional and personal development. An exploratory study was conducted in two universities of Pakistan, which offer online courses to their students. Two hundred instructors were the sample of the research. Data was collected via a five-point Likert scale by (Bigatel, Ragan, Kennan, May, & Redmond, 2012). Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. The findings show that the majority of online instructors have low levels of teaching competencies to teach in an online setting. The findings suggest that the administration of universities must organize professional development workshops for their instructors to improve their teaching competencies.