title: University Teachers’ Views of Adopting Digital and Online Technologies in Higher Education During and After The COVID-19 Pandemic in the UAE
Creators: name: Mady, Mohamed
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2024

description: With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the immediate transition to online education
due to the lockdown of university campuses worldwide, university teachers were left with one
option to teach and interact with students through online communications. A sense of confusion
was common at the beginning of this new situation. This applied to all stakeholders in the academic
system including students, teachers, administrators, parents, and policy and decision-makers.
Several studies conducted during the past three years to elucidate the effects of the immediate shift
to the online modality. Some of these studies describe and assess the students’ learning experiences
in studying online for more than 18 months, and others report the advantages and disadvantages
of online education during the pandemic. However, very little to no research has been conducted
to study the university teachers’ views on using digital and online technologies during and after
the pandemic in the UAE.

This thesis explores and studies the phenomenon of utilizing digital and online technologies
(DOTs) in university teaching during and after the pandemic in the UAE. The views of a small
group of university teachers have been investigated. The approach in this study was qualitative. A
phenomenological methodology and the Hermeneutic Phenomenological Approach (HPA) were
employed as the research framework. The data were collected from twelve university teachers
from private, semi-governmental and international universities in the UAE. In-depth interviews
were performed with the participants individually according to the procedural and ethical
conventions of qualitative research. A thorough contextualized investigation of the participants’
lived experiences of the phenomenon was performed. The collected data was then analyzed; the
participants were divided into three group: (1) proponents, (2) conditional proponents, and (3)
opponents of using DOTs in teaching. Deductive and inductive themes were then identified and
analyzed based on the collected data.

The findings were interpreted based on the theoretical framework underpinning the study, which
is the extended version of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM2), the research questions, and
they participants’ statements and narratives. The analysis revealed new conceptualizations of the
university teachers’ views about using DOTs. A general congruence about the usefulness of DOTs
in teaching was detected. However, some unique views emerged. The lived experiences of using
DOTs in teaching during after the pandemic were confirmatory for the proponent group,
transformational for the conditional proponent group, and none-substantial for the opponent group.
After answering the research questions about the teachers’ views and envisioning the future of
using DOTs in university teaching in the UAE, the study revealed three factors that can be
considered as new influencing factors for predicting the acceptance and use of DOTs. For example,
the enforceability of using DOTs factor can be transformed to desirability which can influence the
teacher’s perceived usefulness of the technologies. Finally, the study recommends further
investigations on the account of identifying and implementing different approaches for teachers,
administrators, policy, and decision-makers in integrating and utilizing DOTs in higher education.