Online Teaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring University Teachers’ Burnout Levels

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36832/beltaj.2023.0701.07

Mazid Ul Hasan1 , Apala Biswas2

Abstract

In 2020, traditional classroom learning was shifted to distance learning because of the Covid-19pandemic. In Bangladesh, educational institutions closed in March 2020. Both public and privateuniversities decided to take classes and examinations online to provide uninterrupted educationto students during this closure. The Ministry of Education, Bangladesh, reopened the secondaryand higher secondary institutions as well as universities in February 2022, considering students'vaccination status. The long period of online education from March 2020 to February 2022 hasbeen a new experience for both the teachers and students, and both groups faced severalchallenges to adapt to this novel situation. For teachers, a significant challenge was to adapt tothe abrupt transition to a different mode of instruction they had no experience with. Dealing withthis challenge might have caused burnout among them. This study was designed to determine theextent of burnout Bangladeshi university English teachers have possibly faced in online teachingscenarios. The Maslach Burnout Inventory- Educators Survey (MBI-ES) was used to collect thedata and understand the burnout level of the participants. Data analysis revealed that BangladeshiEnglish teachers from universities felt a moderate level of Emotional Exhaustion, a low level ofDepersonalization, and a low level of reduced Personal Accomplishment. The results alsodemonstrate that private university teachers felt more burned out than public university teachers.A positive correlation was also found between workload and burnout. The teachers also providedseveral reasons, effects, and suggestions through interviews, demonstrating a clearer picture ofteacher burnout in online teaching.

Keywords: Online teaching, public university, private university, burnout, teachers’ experience


  1. Department of English

    Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh

  2. Department of English

    East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh


Volume 7, Issue 1, June 2023
Page: 1-18