Designing Online English Academic Program at Private Universities in Bangladesh: Issues and Challenges

This study is an attempt to determine problems and prospects associated with designing a fully online English program at private universities in Bangladesh and it reflects the experiences of faculty members and students who have participated in fully online semesters in private universities. It acknowledges that online education is no more a fantasy that receives criticisms at the beginning rather it is becoming a part of equal learning opportunity in global education where learners can carry out the desire for knowledge from any corner of the world. This paper aims at analyzing important factors and potential challenges regarding online English academic program in private university context in Bangladesh as the online academic program is becoming part of higher education around the world and COVID-۱۹ has transformed all English programs into virtual classrooms and Bangladeshi private universities are performing the pioneering role in online education at this time of the pandemic. This study considers that traditional teaching-learning habits are challenging for online learning acculturation of learners in Bangladesh and it attempts to explore cultural contexts of online learning. It addresses the concept of research-based approaches that are required for an effective and quality e-learning environment which can be rightfully compared to face-to-face learning. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are followed for conducting this research and secondary data collection sources are also used to determine the impact of the teacherless classrooms in different settings. It represents data collected from ۱۴۵ students and ۲۰ teachers at five private universities in Bangladesh through questionnaire, interview, and focus group discussion. It reveals that online programs have many challenges but proper research based-policy and need-based programs can bring futuristic changes in higher education. Based on findings from collected data, some practical and pedagogical recommendations are discussed and some proposals are included for future research.

Keywords:

online learning , English program , private universities , learning culture , learning outcomes , online learning , English program , private universities , learning culture , learning outcomes