Online teaching at Egyptian private universities during COVID 19: Lessons Learned

The aim of this empirical article is identifying and showing the key challenges and core problems faced by private universities with international affiliation, located in west Cairo, when applying online educational learning in the context of COVID-19. As well, it aims to assist in assembling the lessons learned to maximize the learning impact. a mixed-methods approach was used and it included: (1) observations complemented with five in-depth interviews with experienced faculty members and decision-makers (2) followed by a survey to comprehend the drivers of students' satisfaction concerning online education throughout COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 200 replies were collected from two universities, located in west Cairo. A literature review was conducted to validate the research constructs and to support drafting the recommendations. The results show that faculty members have identified five challenges, which are: (1) course design, (2) instructor quality, (3) assessment techniques, (4) technology and e-learning platforms, and (5) students' attitude. The survey results have proved that the first four challenges are drivers of student satisfaction, especially the assessment techniques. A list of recommendations was proposed based on the previously mentioned challenges. This was the first survey that targeted students at private universities in Cairo post- COVID-19 pandemic. The findings will be useful for preparing short to long term strategic plan focusing on blended techniques.