ESP educators in the post-pandemic e-environments: Teaching Presence and English for IT

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the educational landscape, since an almost immediate switch to online learning was the only way to keep education moving and bridge the physical distance between teacher and students. Technology has permeated every aspect of teaching to the extent where there is no going back to the “before the pandemic”, therefore, in the post-pandemic times, a number of higher education institutions has introduced a policy that hybrid mode of instruction has become a “new normal”. The instructor’s role in hybrid teaching appears vital, so educators must amalgamate the advantages of online instructions with the goals relevant to face-to-face teaching. Teaching Presence, as an overarching aspect of Community of Inquiry (CoI) that incorporates the course design, facilitation and organization, can significantly affect learning outcomes and course satisfaction. Within the CoI framework, the paper investigates students’ (n=83) assessment of Teaching Presence and satisfaction with the English for IT course. The study adopted an exploratory mixed-method research design and the data were collected through an online questionnaire. The findings of the research indicate that students highly rated the Teaching Presence in the course English for IT, and that there was a positive correlation between Teaching Presence and Satisfaction.