1. Introduction

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many changes have been made to the educational sector, including the shift from face-to-face instruction to online learning instruction. Before this, online learning modalities were less common and primarily designed for distance and online education [1]. In higher education, only 20% of these formats were properly implemented [2]. These changes were made in an effort to promote innovation in a variety of online learning platforms (OLPs). Moreover, the world’s educational system has been severely damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic [3], leading universities to make the decision to temporarily move face-to-face classes online instead of delaying them [4]. As a result of this abrupt switch, students, teachers, and administrators have faced numerous difficulties [5–7]. According to Gambo and Musonda [8], when navigating OLPs, teaching staff, students, and managers have encountered a number of challenges [9–13].

In Ethiopia, all educational institutions were temporarily closed due to the early COVID-19 outbreak, and the former Ministry of Education mandated that all classes be taught online. Literature has well-documented that teachers may find OLPs difficult to experience and prefer; one of the reasons being that they may not fully understand its importance and how to use it [14, 15]. Studies on the teacher’s experience and preferences toward OLPs have yielded some interesting results [13, 15]. For instance, Basheti et al. [9] assessed teachers’ preferences and needs for successfully implementing OLPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, studies on using Twitter to improve college students’ teaching process were conducted [12, 15–17]. The results showed that many of the sample students used Twitter for nonacademic purposes [12], and the researchers conducted a qualitative analysis using focus groups and found that language teachers’ preferences toward OLPs varied depending on their backgrounds and personal preferences [16, 18], while others preferred face-to-face modes [19].

In light of these findings, the researchers proposed that teachers’ needs should be better addressed to ensure they have access to appropriate professional development materials as well as meaningful online interactions. Similarly, Capacio et al. [20] stated that using social media learning environments for classroom instruction needs to be guided by the level of preference, and Maatuk et al. [21] added that students’ and instructors’ perspectives on using and implementing OLPs in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic had its own challenges and advantages. However, understanding the nature of online learning, findings from other studies may not be replicable or generalizable to language teachers’ experiences and preferences (LTEP), particularly in the Ethiopian context. As a result, the primary focus of this study inquiry is to explore what language teachers already experience and prefer that leads to promoting their understanding and implementation of OLPs in the Ethiopian context.

As the pandemic spread, educational sectors began to reevaluate their educational approaches, forcing professors to make significant changes in how they delivered course material, often with little notice and rapidly altering curricula, resources to support online learning [6, 22]. The majority of teaching staff responded by delivering face-to-face course and seminar content online in order to maintain educational continuity and lessen the distress felt [23]. The preferred language teaching and learning formats for students during the COVID-19 pandemic were examined by Vassileva [24]. The outcomes showed that the development of OLPs is influenced by the learners’ preferred teaching methodology. Teaching-learning progress has become more efficient as a result of the use of digital forms of OLPs. Online learning entailed carrying out pedagogical instructions via online chatting and communicating devices that students had access to, such as smartphones, laptops, and computers [11, 23–31]. OLPs incorporate both active online learning topics of daily routines and passive online learning issues [10, 18, 28, 32–34]. According to Barrot et al. [32] and Benmansour [33], many educational institutions adopted online learning practices to respond to the challenges faced during COVID-19. Previous studies have focused more on learner’s experience and preference for OLPs, but less attention has been paid to the teachers, particularly language teachers and their OLPs experience and preference during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Ethiopian educational system.

The current teacher’s pedagogical expertise and online teaching experience in the context of Ethiopia were critical to its success [19, 25, 35]. Al Shammari [36] asserts that technology has greatly influenced language teaching, ushering it into a new phase of transforming communication into a digital form, empowering language teachers to communicate without having to travel. The researcher noted that classrooms have been replaced with the virtual and limitless world of technology, which can be adapted to respond to the language teacher’s needs and satisfactions. This potential of reaching out to distant geographical spaces has transformed remote teaching into a highly welcome opportunity in times of crisis. Moreover, in terms of language teachers, digital platforms have been found to be easily accessible and suitably tailored to their needs [16, 36, 37].

Conversely, according to Em [11], language teachers often lacked prior OLPs teaching experience. To accommodate both traditional face-to-face learning and new digital learning experiences, teachers have been forced to adapt their own teaching strategies, methods, materials, and techniques, putting more emphasis on readings, videos, exercises, and so forth [8, 34, 38–40]. The COVID-19 pandemic also influenced teachers’ preferences of online learning [39]. Due to the numerous challenging skills required, educators often experience frustration when using OLPs [41]. This frustration, while strengthening the OLPs and its preference for effective use, can fuel a sense of despondency and failure to advance in rank [39, 42–44]. According to Mishra et al. [35], the effects of workload, a lack of digital competency, and a lack of knowledge of digital pedagogy on staff stress are all being studied. Although there has not been much research on online education in emergency situations, as most studies have focused on distance learning [36, 37, 45–53], the current pandemic has demonstrated that educational settings must take a proactive approach to ensure that their students receive the best education possible.

Although the experience and preferences of students and teachers toward OLPs have received increased attention in recent years, its ecological context continues to be critiqued. Previous studies [e.g., 1, 22, 36, 37, 45–51] have explored students’ and teachers’ uses of OLPs from around the world, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic [52–56]. For instance, Al Shammari [36, 37] studied the experiences of devices and preferences of OLPs of English major college students in Saudi Arabia and found that laptops were their most used device and Zoom was the most preferred platform. Regarding the teachers’ experience of PLPs, Sarı and Keser [56] investigated language teacher’s online teaching experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of technological content knowledge and concluded that teachers did not use OLPs primarily for pedagogical purposes. Similarly, Liu et al. [48] explored teacher competence in online teaching experience and revealed that teachers’ perceived experience of online teaching was positive.

However, due to the lack of ecological validity in previous studies, the findings may not be applicable to the context of this study. Online learning is now at the forefront of the educational landscape due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which calls upon everyone in the educational field to use innovative OLPs to promote continuous learning [51, 53]. Hence, as the context of this study is in developing countries with language teachers who are not well familiar with innovative technologies, this study seeks to increase language teacher engagement in OLPs by exploring how well language teachers perceive their experience and preferences toward OLPs in an ecological context. Furthermore, similar studies to those of Al Roomy [55] and Al Shammari [36, 37] could be replicated in the future with a larger number of teachers from various backgrounds to observe the experience and preferences toward OLPs in order to produce more insightful study results. Additionally, research on the experiences of Ethiopian language teachers with OLPs is limited. This study’s ecological focus does not emphasize any of the previous studies’ ecological contexts. Nevertheless, research suggests that OLPs are essential for academic success [54], and are also effective for teachers in general [31, 57–60]. Consequently, this study supports an important assertion: teachers must be able to integrate web-based tools into classroom teaching to prepare students for technological innovation and implementation.

2. Methods

3. Results

The objective of the current study was to investigate LTEP toward OLPs. To achieve its objectives, a descriptive survey design was used to obtain quantitative data. As participants of the current study were language teachers in the context of Ethiopia, the results of the data collected from language teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic to gauge their experiences and preferences toward OLPs were analyzed as follows.

4. Discussion

The COVID-19 pandemic is still causing stress in the world until its spread and recovery causes are not only controlled [19, 31, 66, 67], but also sustained [36, 38, 60]. In the context of Ethiopia’s education system, the level of teacher engagement toward OLPs could be used to influence policy and counter the traditional face-to-face approach to teaching and learning. Furthermore, while the findings may not be generalizable, they do include features that teachers in other contexts may find useful. Regarding these results, the discussion will continue as follows.

The first question sought to ascertain the level of teacher engagement toward OLPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of the descriptive analysis, including mean and standard deviation scores, revealed that teachers encountered more difficulties with digital reading materials platforms than with video streaming platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Moodle, YouTube, Twitter, Zoom, Telegram, and Facebook, and mixed OLPs, while using OLPs. Not only this, a statistically significant correlation was shown between teacher engagement (even with each dimension), but there were no significant differences between the preferences indicated during the OLPs implementation in the Ethiopian context. This demonstrates that Ethiopian language teachers’ preferences improved following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the 2020 academic calendar [55, 68]. The study’s findings are consistent with previous research, which focused on teachers’ preferences for OLPs before and after the COVID-19 pandemic [26, 35, 51, 61, 69]. According to Basheti et al. [9], even though they experienced a moderate level of difficulty (2.60–3.39), there may have been some difficulties experienced with the OLPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first question’s answer was consistent with previous research [1, 8, 33, 37, 48] that revealed language teachers’ preferences toward OLPs by extending the theoretical online learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic and creating the opportunity for them to become accountable for their learning experiences [54].

By contrast, the findings contradict previous research. According to Al Shammari [36, 37] and Barrot et al. [32], the teachers’ experiences with OLPs were not positive. Furthermore, Paul and Jefferson [66] described teachers’ experiences with OLPs as a challenging issue that requires technical solutions to enable reliability. Eldeeb [10] study also concluded that teachers lacked experience during the E-learning process, which extends the social learning theory. In relation to previous studies, one possible interpretation of this study’s findings is that the level of teacher engagement toward OLPs is a contentious issue among E-learning academics.

The study also confirmed the use of OLPs in the education sector to address challenges posed by COVID-19. According to Capacio et al. [20], the majority of teachers had a strong preference for technology-focused platforms. However, these findings contrasted with those of Basheti et al. [9] and Alsuhaibani [26], who found that teachers prefer face-to-face education. The study’s findings suggest that, now that COVID-19 is considered a normal occurrence, the experience of language teachers gained during the pandemic period is beneficial for the development of OLPs in the Ethiopian educational sector. Furthermore, this study discovered that these experiences can help OLPs throughout the Ethiopian educational system.

The study results revealed a positive link between LTEP (except video streaming platforms and digital reading materials platforms) and OLPs during the contained COVID-19 pandemic among Ethiopian teachers. Furthermore, each of the OLPs (except video streaming platforms and digital reading materials platforms) were statistically significantly correlated with each other. This positive, significant correlation demonstrates that the OLPs dimensions have an impact on one another. According to Souheyla [39] and Sobaih et al. [34], teachers have a generally positive attitude toward OLPs, despite some limitations. Em [11] study also indicates that high school teachers and administrators faced challenges in navigating online learning due to a lack of technology materials (such as smartphones and computers) and money to recharge phone credits.

While OLPs are the most acceptable during the COVID-19 pandemic era, language teachers should master them as they will be used in their future careers and the literature must continue to practice and experience them [56, 57]. Additionally, Basheti et al. [9] concluded that, while students preferred face-to-face learning over online learning, teachers believed that OLPs could be a less stressful approach for language-based instruction. Moreover, this study found that language teachers’ preferences toward OLPs are not affected by one another. This suggests that many language teachers are uncertain of their experience and preferences toward OLPs, as described in previous studies.

In light of the limitations of this study, some directions for further research are proposed. Primarily, the study was limited to LTEP toward OLPs, and thus likely does not capture the entirety of teachers’ instruction opportunities through OLPs, nor the students’ outcomes linked with the teachers’ experiences and preferences. Additional limitations should be acknowledged and taken into consideration, such as the representativeness of the sample and the generalizability of the results. Since the data were collected via questionnaire, self-selection sampling bias is present. Moreover, the sample may be imbalanced with reference to the ecological site of the study, as the participants were language teachers, likely resulting in a predominant professional and experienced bias among them. Hence, further studies should address this gap by including homogenous participants from both language teachers and students to provide clearer insight into the potential role OLPs can play in academic interaction. Additionally, the study should also explore the potential effects of OLPs on language teachers’ long-term outcomes, such as their performance in language classes, their attitudes toward language learning, and their intercultural understanding.

5. Conclusion

As the study investigated Ethiopian LTEP toward OLPs during the COVID-19 pandemic, two research questions were developed and data were collected via a self-report questionnaire from language teachers who had enrolled in summer professional development courses. The results revealed a significant correlation between teachers’ experience and their preferences but no statistically significant correlation between language teacher’s preferences dimensions. This suggests that there is a need to use blended technology for successful online teaching and learning in the context of Ethiopian language teachers. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers incorporate OLPs into the curriculum and take advantage of their experience with the preferable online learning and teaching when it has a positive effect.

Further investigations into LTEP toward OLPs would be beneficial to future researchers. The findings of this study may also be useful to other developing countries experiencing issues with the use of OLPs in terms of LTEP. The study also suggests that language teachers be trained in the use of OLPs for the positive development of teacher’s self-efficacy, optimism, and professional resiliency. Additionally, the study’s findings encourage language teachers to seek opportunities to broaden their experience and preferences in order to incorporate additional activities that improve teacher’s literacy of OLPs.

Ethical Approval

This article is unique, and the data reflect the actual information of language teachers who took part. It has not been published in any form or language, in part or in its entirety, anywhere else. The outcomes are presented clearly, truthfully, and without fabrication, falsification, or improper data manipulation. There is no representation of information, text, or concepts by others as though they were the author’s original work, with appropriate acknowledgment of others’ works taken into account.

Consent

Before implementing the data collection process, the author declares that all participants were informed that they could voluntarily participate in the study and that the results would be used for educational research purposes.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that there is no conflicts of interest.