CamEd Open Access Repository

Yem Bunthorn
CamEd Business School, Cambodia

International Research Symposium
2021, pp. 133 – 150

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62458/CamEd/OAR/Symposium/2021/133-150

INTRODUCTION

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been harmful and widespread. The regrettable loss of so many human lives worldwide and the incalculable damage caused by this novel coronavirus is one of the most tragic disasters in human history. There have also been many associated changes to work practices. One of the drastic changes caused by this pandemic in countries around the world has been the change in education, and in particular, the changes in teaching and learning modes. Li and Lalani (2020) predicted that COVID-19 has changed education forever. When a change in teaching and learning modes happens so quickly, it can be hard for both the teachers and students to prepare themselves in order to adjust to the new and unexpected environment. It can be even harder for any educational institutions or schools to prepare themselves, quickly organizing the infrastructure, supporting facilities, human resources and the like, in order to cope with the new environment and to ensure a successful and rapid transition. There are so many things that the institutions have to do during this process. Cadungog-Uy (2020) proposed that schools and universities should have an important role in supporting the learners to alleviate the potential negative impact of the quick transition. However, schools and universities should do even more to prepare the stakeholders for more changes during this unpredicrable situation both as the crisis continues and when it is over. After the pandemic is over, it is uncertain whether things should go back to ‘normal’ as they used to be before the pandemic. In their study, Lau et al. (2020) noted that observers pondered whether the future might just have become the present. It is questionable whether the present online learning environment will become the future or revert to the traditional learning mode of in-classroom teaching, or whether there will be a mix of the two, and scope for unpredictably beyond this.

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