The Corona Pandemic Impact on Education: Proposing a Mechanism for Postgraduate Programs at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSU)

Abstract

Based on the instructors' and the students' viewpoints, this study identifies and investigates the positive and negative effects of the pandemic (COVID-19) on the postgraduate programs in the Curricula and Teaching Methods Department (Department hereafter) at IMSU. The study provided a system for creating postgraduate programs at IMSU in the wake of the pandemic experience by employing descriptive survey methodology and designing a series of questionnaires. The study sample comprised 53 teaching staff individuals and 90 male and female graduate students studying in the Department at IMSU at the masters and doctoral levels. The results found that the study sample respondents' responses regarding the pandemic's positive effects on the postgraduate programs reached 3.85, indicating that the respondents' approval rate is very high. The study sample respondents' responses regarding the pandemic's negative effects on the University's postgraduate programs reached 3.43, signaling that the approval rate is high among the respondents. Accordingly, the network's poor service in remote areas and the absence of effective technical support to the e-learners and teachers are the significant negative effects of the pandemic recorded by the study's respondents on education.

Received: 25 March 2022 / Accepted: 26 June 2022 / Published: 5 July 2022