emergency remote teaching: analysis of an iranian university’s performance amid a global crisis

The covid-19 pandemic brought significant disruptions to education systems worldwide, with a shift to online teaching resulting in substantial changes in higher education pedagogy. this global closure forced the transition to online learning and teaching described as emergency remote teaching (ert), defined as ''a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances ue to the abrupt move to ert, teachers and administrations worldwide had to quickly construct emergency remote learning systems and modify their lesson plans, teaching strategies, and assessment techniques. given the sudden shift of face-to-face classes to online ones, this qualitative case study aimed to discover the challenges efl faculty members and learners experienced during ert. it also purported to find some solutions for these unexpected problems and improve the quality of university online classes in the long term. twenty-two efl learners and six faculty members who had online general english classes during ert volunteered to participate in this research by invitation. the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews through social networking platforms and telephone conversations, and the collected data were manually coded and thematically analyzed. we found out that the inappropriate infrastructure of the university, learners’ and faculty members’ lack of technical knowledge, unsuitable online materials, paucity of training workshops, difficulties in taking online exams, problems with a steady internet connection, and some students’ financial burden to have their own devices were the most crucial challenges language learners and instructors experienced. implications: as a result, universities should provide high-quality online language courses based on the improvement of their infrastructure, provide up-to-date equipment for departments that offer online courses, hold sufficient educational workshops for learners and courses and seminars to familiarize faculty members with the online platforms and teaching techniques, and train instructors to produce suitable online materials and resources.