THE ROLE OF ONLINE LEARNING ON TEAC HING SPECIAL EDUCATION COURSES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC BASED ON FACULTY MEMBERS’ PERSPECTIVES AT PRINCESS NOURAH BINT ABDULRAHMAN UNIVERSITY

Abstract

This research aime at to explore the role of online learning on teaching Special Education courses during the COVID-19 pandemic based on faculty members’ perspectives at Princess Nourah University, the researchers in this research used a qualitative method to explore faculty members’ perceptions of their online teaching experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants in this research included 10 faculty members in the Special Education Department within the School of Education at Princess Nourah University in Saudi Arabia. They were selected as intentional sample they were selected as intentional sample of those who were studying courses online during the COVID-19 pandemic period and had also volunteered to respond to interview questions ,data were gathered using an in-depth interview protocol, resulting in the collection of faculty members’ detailed reflections. As the purpose of the research was to investigate the role of online learning on the teaching of Special Education courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, thematic analysis was applied for the analysis of the interviews. The findings of the research lead to suggestions for practical ways to improve the teaching of Special Education online courses, the research conducted semi-structured interviews with ten faculty members from the Special Education Department at the College of Education. The research findings show positive results with regard to online learning and teaching special education via the use of Blackboard, a learning management system that students can access online. However, the current research also showed that there are obstacles to the teaching of practical subjects and that these could be caused by Saudi social customs. The research has implications for teachers of special education and how they prepare their programs in Saudi universities. Researchers presented recommendations and suggestions for future researches.