ASSESSING TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT TEACHING AND LEARNING USING VIDEOCONFERENCING METHOD OF INTRUCTION

In a rapid changing world, technology has dominated many aspects in our lives, education is one of them. Many universities have started teaching high-degree courses online. There have been many and different reasons for making use of videoconferencing in order to allow access to those learners who are locationally (physically) dispersed over wide area. In Saudi Arabia, the culture urges universities to teach through videoconferencing when men teach female students. Although teaching by using videoconferencing medium is widely used, the quality and effectiveness of using this method of teaching has not been well-researched yet. This study aims at investigating the positive and negative aspects of videoconferencing method of teaching and learning from the English language teachers’ and students’ perception. Eighteen male faculty members and forty-six female students who are taught/learned through videoconferencing method were surveyed and interviewed. This is one way to find out if the videoconferencing is an effective teaching method. The results indicated that both teachers and students, overall, were happy with it and only recommended that technology equipment should be of high quality to ensure that videoconferencing experience is successful. The authors concluded the paper with some useful recommendations.