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Teachers

COVID-19 Pandemic Transforms Educational Landscape in Iraq, Virtual Education Experiences Revealed in New Study

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

Researchers at Islamic Azad University have conducted a study on the experiences of Arabic virtual education teachers in Iraq, uncovering the challenges and implications of adopting online teaching methodologies. The study aims to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational landscape in Iraq, where traditional classroom settings have been rapidly replaced by virtual education. The research highlights the significance of addressing infrastructural gaps, providing adequate training, and fostering equitable access to technology to boost the effectiveness of online education in Iraq.

Key Takeaways:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly transformed the educational landscape in Iraq, necessitating a rapid shift from traditional classroom settings to virtual education.
  • A mixed-methods approach was used, incorporating a qualitative-quantitative approach for tool development, with 15 experts in virtual education from Iraq participating in qualitative sampling and 368 teachers from 20 schools in Baghdad, Iraq, selected via cluster sampling.
  • The study identified 10 factors extracted from the quantitative findings, which accounted for 85.823% of the total variance, including Utility, Implications, Flexibility and Adaptability, Equity, and others.
  • The research concluded that addressing infrastructural gaps, providing adequate training, and fostering equitable access to technology are crucial for improving educational outcomes in Iraq.
  • The study highlights the complex challenges encountered by Iraqi educators in virtual learning environments, emphasizing the need for educational stakeholders to address these issues.
  • The findings of the study have implications for educational policymakers and stakeholders in Iraq, as well as for educators and researchers in the field of virtual education.

Statistics:

  • 368 teachers from 20 schools in Baghdad, Iraq, participated in the study.
  • 15 experts in virtual education from Iraq contributed to the qualitative analysis.
  • 398 teachers were inspected through exploratory factor analysis for content analysis.
  • The study extracted 10 factors, which accounted for 85.823% of the total variance.
  • The sample's adequacy and the test's suitability were validated using two indicators: Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO = 0.684) and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity, both significant at 0.001.

Sources:

  • Teachers' Virtual Education Experiences in Iraq: Insights from a Mixed-Methods Study on Challenges and Consequences. Journal of Advances in Medical Education and Professionalism, 2025, 13(3): 235-248.
  • Islamic Azad University.
  • Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (publisher of Journal of Advances in Medical Education and Professionalism).
  • Abbas Taher Allawi Ghrabat, Nasrolah Ghashghaeizadeh, Jalal Shanta Jaber, Frank Mosavi (authors of the study).

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