THE VIRTUAL LEARNING SPACE: AN INQUIRY ON ACADEMICS' TRANSITION EXPERIENCE, ENGAGEMENT WITH STUDENTS AND DIGITAL SKILLS

In 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, higher education institutions had to adapt to online and digital learning (ODL) and carried on teaching. The spatial classroom experience familiar to lecturers and students alike was transformed into teaching and learning in the virtual space. One year on, how have academics adjusted to the ODL experience? This paper inquiries into the transition experience; level of engagement; and digital skills of the affected instructors at Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (APU), a private university in Kuala Lumpur. Surveys were carried out in 2020 and 2021 to find out about lecturers’ experience in transitioning from physical to online learning space; their challenges in keeping an increasingly distracted student audience engaged, and their experience in mastering technology tools to deliver effective instructions and facilitate learning. Their experience and reflections are reported in this paper.