VALIDATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE TO EVALUATE TEACHER'S STRESS DURING ONLINE TEACHING IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The covid -19 pandemic has led to closures of schools /colleges affecting education for over two years. School/Colleges started online mode of education to reach out to the students. This sudden shift to a digital platform was full of challenges and was stressful for the teachers. This study aims to understand teacher’s experiences and the unique set of challenges faced by them during the online classes. To explore the impact of this dissonance online survey data was collected through google forms from teachers. The questionnaire included questions dealing with background information like, gender, age and type of students they taught (secondary, higher secondary and higher education), barriers experienced while teaching, coping strategies and their stress levels. All metric variables were analyzed by using parametric statistical procedures while the non-metric variables by Chi Square test. The survey showed that teachers having adequate pedagogical and technical skills had a successful transition to online classes. Some teachers encountered significant challenges and made adequate adjustment in order to adapt to the need of online classroom. Analysis also showed that teachers were also concerned for the students as there was a significant low response from them in terms of interaction. More than 50% teachers spent more than 3 hours in online teaching and spent further hours in assignment checking resulting in more screen time leading to headaches and eye stress it was found that unstable network was the major hinderance faced by 30% teachers. A substantial relationship was found between teacher’s subjective stress level and their type of school.