Challenges and Opportunities in Using Online Professional Learning Networks: Perspectives of Secondary School Teachers in Multan

Abstract

The study seeks to investigate the challenges secondary school teachers encounter in online professional learning communities and the impact of these networks on improving their teaching skills and collaboration. The WhatsApp (learning) group and Facebook (learning) group consisted of 30 secondary school teachers. To collect this data, semi-structured interviews were conducted on thre Sadia Jalil khan, sadiakhan73@gmail.come focus areas: barriers faced by teachers in the OLCs, supportive services to address the barriers, and the influence of OLCs on teaching and teacher professional development. Informed consent was obtained, and after the interviews, all participants were interviewed in depth. The qualitative data collected during the focus groups was analyzed using NVivo 15 Pro in a sorting approach by each of the research objectives and in a summarization of the teachers' experiences and barriers/challenges and how they relate to OLCs' roles in teaching collaboration. Online opportunities strengthen collaboration and skill-building. But some factors such as time constraints, less support, and technology constraints bring their challenges with platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.