Emergency Remote Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lesson Learnt from Higher Education in Bangladesh

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education systems in almost all parts of the world came to a sudden standstill followed by an expedited transition to emergency remote teaching and learning. Traditional universities in Bangladesh, a country with minimal resources and expertise in online teaching, also hurriedly transitioned to online education. This article focuses on the first phase of the pandemic and the impact that lockdown and social distancing had on the teaching and learning methods used in Bangladesh's higher education sector. The study highlights the need for strategic planning to improve future preparedness for emergency remote education. Using a mixed-method research approach, a dataset was developed through an online survey of public and private university teachers' views and experiences. Findings revealed that private university teachers tended to be significantly more engaged in emergency remote teaching and learning than their public sector peers. Although teacher participation was mainly driven by university initiatives, almost a quarter of this drive could be attributed to personal initiatives. Further, previous online teaching experience and training had a significant positive effect on full engagement. In addition to identifying important factors affecting the transition from conventional face-to-face to online teaching in Bangladesh, the recommendations for the future of emergency teaching and learning proposed in this article have important implications for higher education policy-makers in any resource-constrained context.