Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate the lived experiences, challenges and coping mechanisms of lecturers during the emergency remote teaching (ERT) situation induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: A case study on lecturers in colleges and universities in Penang, Malaysia is selected. A qualitative…

Purpose: Although numerous studies have been conducted to explore the impact of various factors on employees' turnover intention and intention to remain with the organization, the relationship between these two constructs remains largely unexplored. Considering the significance of these constructs, particularly in the context of the COVID-19…

The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences have put a lot of strain on the world's population, including academics. Universities were closed or went online worldwide due to lockdown regulations. In Malaysia, the first strict lockdown started on March 18th 2020 and was extended until May 12th 2020. The purpose of this four-month study is to examine…

This article was written as part of a bigger research project on developing a Graduate Employability (GE) Teaching Model which received university funding. Recent years have seen a growing literature on GE. The need for soft skills training is seen as parallel with the need to enhance employability skills. The changing work landscape due to the…

Although educators in higher education institutions have embraced online teaching, little research has been conducted on their experience transitioning from online to blended classes. This study aimed to conduct a comparative analysis and present feedback from educators in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Brunei and Malaysia who migrated…

This study investigated the effects of work from home (WFH) on language educators in Malaysian universities gauging specifically their perceptions on its advantages and disadvantages during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed-methods research design was employed involving 152 language educators. The results revealed that although the overall mean…

Purpose: This longitudinal study aims at assessing the impact of openness to experience and neuroticism on affective states experienced by the academics from the Malaysian public universities during the first strict COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Design/methodology/approach: The author collected data for openness to experience and neuroticism at the…

The coronavirus pandemic causes sickness and death, shutting down economies, damaging health care systems, and closing educational institutions. It has a profound effect on the education sectors, and most importantly, teachers' lives have been affected. This sector has been facing an immense change from traditional in-person classroom education to…

The COVID-19 pandemic has engulfed the whole planet, including the education sector in Malaysia. As a result, the quality of lecturers' work is critical in maintaining the number of students in a university, particularly during a pandemic. Lecturers are put through their paces as they move from traditional to e-learning, learning new ways to teach…

The Engineering Accreditation Council Standard 2020 requires the stipulated 12 programme outcomes that address complex engineering problems (CEP) and complex engineering activities (CEA) to be incorporated in the engineering programmes. However, the implementation of outcome-based education with regards to CEP and CEA is still in the infancy…

Although recent research looked at the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model among academicians, there is still lacking an adequate account for their technology adoption intentions and behaviors in the face of the COVID-19 virus. This study applies the conservation of resource (COR) theory to ground the statistical…

Exploring online teaching competencies is paramount in the pandemic setting. This study explores and compares the perceived importance of teachers' online teaching competence and ability in two higher education (HE) institutions in Sarawak, Malaysia. The study employs the validated Faculty Readiness to Teach Online (FRTO) instrument which assesses…

This report provides an overview of the nature of open universities derived from the responses from 28 open universities in the Commonwealth. The data not only provide a snapshot of the nature of OUs, but also show some evidence of the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on open universities where institutions had to move all their learning and…

Purpose: This study aims to examine the faculty perceptions of their competence and readiness for online teaching in Sarawak higher education (HE). Design/methodology/approach: A validated instrument, Faculty Readiness to Teach Online (Martin et al., 2019), was distributed to four main higher learning institutions in Sarawak, Malaysia, yielding…

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted higher education in Malaysia that requires the academics to transform their teaching style to online teaching. Hence, it is essential for them to be skillful in using new technology in teaching and learning. In Open and Distance Learning (ODL), the academic staff must learn a new environment of learning…