ONLINE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: VIEWS OF BASIC SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING FAULTY MEMBERS OF IRAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

With the exponential growth in technology and distance education, the need for skilled and qualified instructors in the field of e-learning has increased. Since classroom management in online environments is different from that of traditional classrooms, requiring special skills and strategies. The present study examined different strategies for managing challenges of online classroom from the perspectives of engineering and basic sciences instructors. Participants of this study were 38 faculty members of Iran University of Science and Technology in the fields of engineering and basic sciences. The instrument was a questionnaire on online classroom management with 17 challenging situations developed by the researchers. Data analysis showed that the majority of instructors from both groups tended to solve problems and issues of online classes and preferred interactive strategies. Communicative and student-centered strategies, paying attention to the needs and interests of students, and encouraging them received the highest frequency among the proposed strategies.