THE PERSPECTIVES OF UROZGAN INSTITUTE OF HIGHER EDUCATION LECTURERS TOWARD HELMS ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Abstract

This study investigates to find out the attitudes of Urozgan institute of higher education lecturers about the Higher Education Learning and Management System (HELMS). The data was collected from 19 lecturers (masters and bachelors) in survey design. The overall number of lecturer in this institute are forty (only males); nineteen (19) of them are enrolled in the survey and chosen as random sampling. The data has been collected using a questionnaire consisting of numerous closed-ended and open-ended questions. The language of the questionnaire was Pashto, the native language of the participants; later, the results were translated to English. Furthermore, the data were analyzed in the Statistical Package in Social Science (SPSS) program to find out the frequency and percentage of the items. The finding of the study suggests that the lecturers have negative feelings about the HELMS system. They believed that the system was unsuitable in Afghanistan's public universities. The participants added that technical errors, low internet connections, and complexities with portals are the main barriers to the system. They also suggested that using HELMS needs a high-quality internet connection and cost. Besides, the participants stated several common alternative programs instead of HELMS, such as; WhatsApp groups, Telegram channels, Zoom meetings, and Google classrooms, which also motivate policy makers to consider.

JEL Classification Codes: I20, I21, I23, I28.