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| Themes | Subthemes | Description | Instances |
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| 1 | ICT readiness | Resource/
tools/platform availability | “Our college had no clear strategy or subscription to platforms for online delivery of classes. We wasted a lot of the initial time in figuring out how to ensure academic continuity for students.”
“It was very difficult to coordinate with students on a daily basis. I used WhatsApp groups for coordination and Google Meet for online classes. It took me 2–3 days to get comfortable with taking classes online.” |
Resource/
tools/platform familiarity | “I had never conducted an online class before the pandemic. I found it difficult to set up the classes on my own. There was no technical support available during the initial days. I felt I was going through the motions.”
“I am a mathematics teacher and use to whiteboard a lot during my classes. When I moved to online mode I found it very difficult to do justice to my subject. My college advised me to procure a pen-tablet, which I did. It took some time to get used to, but I could then write and solve maths questions for the class.” |
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| 2 | Training needs | Technology training | “While power point slides were easy to run, writing and solving problems was a major challenge. It took me some time to figure out using the pen-tablet to write and explain concepts to the students.”
“I did not have any experience on how to use any kind of platform for online classes. This training should be provided for at least one week days by the institutions. Only then can they expect faculty members to deliver quality.”
“My institution does not place emphasis on the use of ICT and hence we could not deliver good classes to students during the first two months. Initially we only shared handmade notes over whatsapp.” |
| Pedagogy training | “Conducting online evaluation was very challenging. We used Google Forms, but the examination was too easy and MCQ based. I don’t think the teachers were trained properly on conducting online assessments. It is definitely needed.”
“My institution is very progressive in terms of ICT adoption and we had all the systems in place at the time of the lockdown. Within the first week we received instructions to deliver online classes, and everything was handled smoothly. Now we are talking about experimenting with pedagogy and virtual labs to deliver enhanced experience to our students.”
“Online teaching is very different, there is no real-time feedback. I need training on how to conduct classes effectively and build engagement with the students.” |
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| 3 | Workload and stress | Work–life balance | “It was difficult to work from home. I had to cook, clean, manage the kids and the family. It was difficult to focus professionally with everyone around. I did not have a private space to myself to deliver classes effectively.”
“I definitely felt overloaded with work during the first month with the purely online model of delivery. There were things to be learnt, new processes to be adopted and preparation time for lectures increased quite a lot.”
“While I used ICT in my face-to-face classes, I had to prepare slide decks as per my lesson plans for all my classes which took a lot of time.” |
| Fear and anxiety | “I was down with Covid and had to take leave for 3 weeks. The post covid recovery was also slow and I was very anxious about my health. I probably did not do justice to my teaching assignment during this period and contemplated quitting my job.” |
| Uncertainty | “The lockdown period was very stressful. We were hearing bad news all round. Several of my friends reported job losses and salary cuts which weighed heavily on us. I felt I was under pressure throughout this period.”
“I was surprised at the reaction of the students and parents when they refused to pay the fees to the institution for delivering online classes. We were not sure whether the institution would be able to pay the salaries on time.” |
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| 4 | Support and recognition | Assistance received from the institution in delivering online classes | “I felt that there were too many instructions issued by the management without realising the tough environment and pressures on the faculty. I think the empathy was missing.”
“All the faculty did a fabulous job, but the management felt that working from home is not equivalent to a full-time office job.”
“Our management reduced the salaries by 40%–50% during the pandemic citing lack of payment of fees by the students. I felt cheated and felt it was morally wrong to reduce salaries in an already tough environment.”
“Our work was getting recognized through the internal stakeholder communication platform created to disseminate information. All the lectures recordings along with lecture content was being shared which helped us in sharing best practices. Overall the morale was good.” |
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| 5 | Teaching–learning effectiveness | Quality of the classroom teaching | “I am not very satisfied with the quality of classes I have conducted. I believe that online classes should be of shorter duration with more assignment-based learning for the students.”
“I think I completed only 65% of the curriculum during online classes, so the students have learnt less during this time. They were also not very serious during online classes.”
“Students didn’t respond much during the online classes. This may be due to their lack of interest or engagement in other activities simultaneously. Many a times I found students switching off their cameras and not being around.”
“Online examinations were a sham. The multiple-choice questions were too easy with very high student scores. The system was severely compromised.” |
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