Digital Readiness for Online Teaching and Assessment: Insights from Pakistani University Teachers

Abstract

The present paper took into consideration the online teaching and assessment digital preparedness of university teachers in institutions of higher learning. Data were collected through an online questionnaire (a structured questionnaire of 40 items) based on a quantitative research design to obtain information about 500 university teachers. The descriptive statistics, the reliability analysis, the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the independent samples t-test, the one-way ANOVA, the correlation analysis, the multiple regression, the moderation, and the structural equation modeling were employed to analyze the data. It was established that the digital readiness of teachers had a moderate level with the digital competence being the highest in the sense of mean scores with the online assessment being lower. Much difference was found among different demographic variables with particular focus on past training, nature of university and teaching experience. Regression and structural analyses have produced the fact that digital competence, technological confidence, training exposure and institutional support were the key predictors of digital readiness. The paper unveils the importance of lifelong learning and institutionalization of professional development in polishing the capacity of the teachers to teach and assess students online in universities.