efficacy of blended learning pedagogy during covid-19 pandemic: a quantitative study of teachers’ perceptions and challenges

The whole world saw a tough time due to the outbreak of the deadly pandemic covid- 19 which resulted in unanticipated drastic changes in almost every aspect of our lives. it has brought a significant change even in the education system of the entire world. in order to keep the teaching and learning continued amidst the complete closure and lockdown situation, there has been a paradigm shift in the entire education system, from traditional face-to-face classroom teaching to virtual, remote, or online teaching. this online mode of education incorporates innovative technologies and software to conduct virtual classes. as it is the only alternative to continue learning during the pandemic, teachers, the most important stakeholders of the education system, did not get any time to get ready for the change or to get trained in integrating technology in the teaching process. this research is an attempt to understand the perception of school teachers of odisha towards the efficacy of online classes and to study the challenges they faced while adapting to the complete online mode of teaching and learning. the research was carried out by collecting data through a questionnaire survey of 58 school teachers and analysing the result through spss. the findings of the study reveal that majority of the teachers have adapted to online teaching. they are motivated to take online classes however, they face technical challenges while doing online classes. one significant finding of the study shows that the majority of teachers believe that online teaching is not as effective as traditional classroom teaching. therefore, it is important to take the challenges and concerns of the teachers into consideration regarding the online classes during the pandemic in order to take some effective measures.