Evaluation of Online Education Delivered by the Universities During Pandemic COVID-19: A Case of North Cyprus

Abstract

Universities skipped from face-to-face education on campuses to online education worldwide due to the outbreak of COVID-19  started in December 2019. But it remains unclear how effective online education was, given that most instructors and students  had little experience with online education and with lack of technological resources. This study aimed to evaluate the online education offered by the universities during Pandemic COVID-19. Mixed research was conducted with randomly  selected 500 university students  and 24 instructors from various universities in North Cyprus between April 2020–August 2020. Students agreed with the 30 benefits of online education, and they stated  serious obstacles that they faced during online lectures. Instructors mentioned  their online teaching experiences and the obstacles they faced during the pandemic. Also, participant instructors made some suggestions for the government, universities, and  instructors to improve and ensure the effectiveness of online  education. This type of  in-depth research can be carried out by all universities globally and the data will help all education leaders and management of the universities to determine the weak and strong points of their online education and re-manage and redesign their online education to meet the needs of students. Universities  can  produce  solutions to mitigate their problems in online education and increase the quality of online education which can be accessed by all students.