Analysis of the home-based online teaching and learning policy during the COVID-19 second wave in Brunei: a joint parent/teacher perception

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the traditional face-to-face forms of educational instruction and has led to increased involvement in online learning. Consequently, online learning has gained popularity and has become the norm worldwide today, because it offers a safe learning environment as well as convenience and flexibility. During the pandemic, school campuses in Brunei were closed, classes were conducted online, and parents/guardians were expected to cooperate and assist their children with home-based online learning. However, online teaching posed a different set of challenges for teachers and students, which warrant research and policy attention at the national level. This study provided a review of the literature on the policies and best practices for online teaching and learning and formulated three key objectives. The first was to identify the policy initiatives and guidelines introduced by the government of Brunei to facilitate and ensure the effectiveness of online teaching and e-learning. The second referred to obtaining the perceptions of teachers and parents on three specific dimensions, namely, the implementation of blended learning, the use of online pedagogy, and enhancement of the e-learning experiences of students. The last objective was to identify the challenges associated with these dimensions and to propose actions and policy recommendations for improvement. This study employed document analysis, interview, and data collected from public social media. The implementation of online teaching and e-learning in Brunei was met with many challenges due to the poor network infrastructure and weak knowledge and content development of ICT. Thus, this study serves as a basis for improving innovation and governance in education, which focuses not only on the enhancement of academic performance but also on the digital divide. The paper was first presented at the 21st International Conference on Education Research (ICER) at the Seoul National University, Republic of Korea on October 21, 2021, by the first author. This research is part of the research project entitled: Pandemic Policies and Governance in Small States in the Southeast Asian Region.