As it can be seen worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant interruption in all the domains of human lives. Likewise, the educational sector also encountered many challenges by the institutional closure from schools to universities, and traditional education shifted to the online paradigm (UN, 2020). The scenario of this technological transition affected the education of about half of the student population globally (UNESCO, 2020). Thereby, the situation raises the importance of technology integration in education, and teachers are required to update their competencies to endow quality education and make changes to their curriculum and instruction accordingly. Regarding the application of information communication and technology (ICT) in education, however, instructors and learners are familiar with the traditional technological teaching aids, such as Smartboards and PowerPoint; still, their practical employability is required in the teaching practices (Nikolopoulou and Gialamas, 2016; Guillén-Gámez et al., 2018). Besides, this provisional period raised the necessity, especially for the teachers, to gain competency in applying ICT in their teaching practices. Meanwhile, the application of ICT in higher education has remained a major subject of concern for decades at the global level (e.g., US Department of Education, 2017; Daniela et al., 2018). Many studies have highlighted that the application of ICT in the classroom setting has become a critical factor for meeting the needs of the learner in the knowledge society (Martins et al., 2019). Besides, the successful integration of ICT can make the learning process more exciting and keep learners motivated (Hanafi et al., 2017), which are considered as the significant predictors of their academic performance (Xu et al., 2021). In the same manner, the utilization of ICT is suggested by the government of Pakistan to optimize the educational outcomes, as it helps to enhance the pedagogical competencies of teachers and boost learners to learn actively [Pakistan Ministry of Education (MoE), 2018].

Moreover, the effective integration of ICT is essential in systematizing an efficient online educational program. The successful application of ICT not only contributes to learners’ satisfaction but also helps individuals to acquire their desired outcomes (Cervero et al., 2020). It is, therefore, essential to develop competencies in teachers to use ICT effectively in their pedagogical practices by organizing professional development programs (Guillén-Gámez et al., 2020). However, teachers’ professional training for the efficient use of ICT in teaching did not apply because of the sudden pandemic situation and put students at risk (Guillén-Gámez et al., 2020; Hong et al., 2021). Consequently, it caused excessive pressure on teachers to achieve students’ required educational attainment (Rodriguez-Segura et al., 2020). Although teachers made every effort to continue students’ learning, yet they had to encounter several challenges in adopting digital platforms for teaching, which include insufficient inter-institutional coordination (Talsma et al., 2021), little understanding, and investment in advanced technologies (Akram et al., 2021). In the past decade, however, in Pakistan, online learning has also been handled significantly, still been endured with the various constraints that prevent the effective integration of ICT in educational practices (Kanwal and Rehman, 2017; Salam et al., 2017). Earlier studies indicate that students generally show better academic performance in digital platforms comparing with the traditional ones (Shehzadi et al., 2020). On the other hand, the digital competencies of teachers are found inadequate, particularly in the formulation of lesson plans (Farid et al., 2015). However, most of the teachers are digitally literate and can conduct online lessons, yet they are found incapable of integrating ICT efficiently in their teaching practices (Al-Samarraie and Saeed, 2018). Consequently, their digital instructional approaches may remain unsuccessful in delivering the content effectively (Adnan and Anwar, 2020). In this regard, the situation raises the importance of teachers’ professional learning to acquire technological competency, as a successful pedagogical practice would mainly be possible if teachers possess a sound technological competency. The relationship between technological competency with educational content was considered necessary by Mishra and Koehler (2006) and presented this in their framework, namely, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). Their primary focus was derived on the basis of the premise that teachers are required to acquire technological competency to use it effectively in the instructional approaches. Regarding evaluation, several studies have presented instruments to evaluate the technological competencies of teachers differently, but their main focus remained on teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and adaptation (Ertmer, 2005; Aldunate and Nussbaum, 2013; Kim et al., 2017). The complementary fact in various studies was that they comprised only one of the components of the concept.

In contrast, technological competency involves all the major components, such as knowledge (technological, pedagogical, and content), skills, and attitudes (Voogt et al., 2015), whereas limited literature and studies have been found regarding all the major components. In addition, the acquisition of TPACK depends on social, cultural, and contextual attributes, which may vary from one country to another. However, several studies have been investigated teachers’ digital competencies through all the determinants of TPACK in various countries (i.e., Lin et al., 2013; Scherer et al., 2018; Ortega-Sánchez and Gómez-Trigueros, 2019; Acikgul and Aslaner, 2020; Castéra et al., 2020). But, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that aims to examine teachers’ digital competencies via all the mentioned sub-components of TPACK during the pandemic phase, specifically in the context of higher education in Pakistan. In this regard, the present study examines the integration of ICT in faculty members’ pedagogical practices by unfolding their technological competencies level. Subsequently, lecturers and professors from public universities of Karachi city of Pakistan were considered for a case study under the guidance of the following research questions:

For examining faculty members’ TPACK, a quantitative survey design was employed as it was considered the most appropriate approach to gain accurate reflection via numerical representation (Watson, 2015). Subsequently, the study was guided by questionnaires, which were mailed and also emailed by the researcher to various universities.

All the collected data were analyzed by employing various descriptive and inferential statistical tests, i.e., descriptive test (mean and standard deviation) and inferential test (T-test and ANOVA). Subsequently, the analysis was completed by applying the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which enabled the examination of the differences between subsamples with respect to their TPACK scores. The ROC curve is a two-dimensional graphical representation of the values of sensitivity vs. 1-specificity ranges from 0 to 1, which helps in determining the difference between different subgroups (Bradley, 1997).

COVID-19 outbreak has transformed the traditional educational practices and brought teaching-learning around digital format across the world. This transformation not merely raises the importance of the educational technology infrastructure of the country but also establishes a prerequisite for teachers to integrate technology in their pedagogical practices effectively to sustain students’ learning. Since the systematic implementation of ICT in teaching practices is remained at an early stage and a limited focus has been given at the higher education level. In this regard, the current study gives a deep insight to understand the levels of core competencies of faculty members’ TPACK with the role of personal variables (i.e., gender and teaching experience) in the acquisition of digital competencies during the COVID-19 period.

In view of the obtained findings, the study reveals that faculty members possess adequate knowledge in all the sub-components of the TPACK model, which shows that teachers have sufficient knowledge and skills regarding technology use in their pedagogical practices. This finding shows consistency with the findings of Mouza et al. (2014), where participants experienced a significant gain in all sub-components of TPACK. Hence, our results indicate that TPACK is an excellent framework to examine teachers’ competencies in the context of universities’ teachers of Pakistan.

The results further indicate that the highest competence of faculty members among all other domains was obtained by the content knowledge (CK), which shows that faculty members seem more confident in their content knowledge than other domains of expertise. A similar finding is also identified by Acikgul and Aslaner (2020); accordingly, teachers’ content knowledge was found adequate. In contrast, the study conducted by illustrated that teachers were confident primarily in the pedagogical knowledge (PK). It is therefore imperative to draw attention toward teachers’ content knowledge through continuous monitoring and by offering in-service workshops to sustain the students’ learning outcomes, as it helps learners to understand concerning concepts significantly.

Technological knowledge involves operating particular technologies, which plays a crucial role in integrating technology in the process of teaching and learning (Chai et al., 2010). Besides, successful e-learning can only be yielded when teachers can use technology in their pedagogical practices appropriately. On the other hand, the technological knowledge (TK) of faculty members was found at the lowest level among all other domains, which indicates that teachers lack technological competence. Thus, they require professional guidance to update their technological skills. The findings of Schmid et al. (2021) also indicated that teachers’ technological and TCK emerged as the least acquired competencies. Therefore, to enhance the technological literacy in teachers, ICT training centers with ICT professionals should be originated at the national and provincial levels.

The knowledge regarding the interaction between all domains of TPACK plays a significant role in the development of an innovative learning environment (Ortega-Sánchez and Gómez-Trigueros, 2019). However, the other reported lowest competence of faculty members was found in the domain of TPACK. This finding reflects the finding of Lye (2013), who indicated that teachers possess low TPACK, and they need improvement in several areas of TPACK. In light of this result, teachers should be given a range of guidance in terms of all the domains of TPACK and the interaction between those domains by providing both initial and ongoing support to implement the technologies in their pedagogical practices successfully.

This study further found that male teachers’ TPACK was significantly higher than female faculty members. This finding reflects the finding of Koh et al. (2010), where male teachers showed more positive attitudes, competencies, and knowledge with respect to technology use. This result indicates that female faculty requires more support to gain their competencies in all the sub-components of TPACK. Regarding teaching experience, it is usually expected that teachers’ knowledge increases with the increase in years of experience. In contrast, the results showed a statistical significance in the TPACK of faculty members’ knowledge, where faculty members with experience of 2–5years shown higher TPACK than the teachers with more experience and novice teachers. This finding supports the results of Claro et al. (2018), where years of teaching experience were found significantly associated with the TPACK of teachers. Based on the personal factors, policymakers and teachers should be aware of gender differences’ effect on technological knowledge and competencies; therefore, gender differences should be monitored closely by conducting longitudinal TPACK studies. There should be an equal emphasis on training programs on pre-service as well as in-service teachers so that teachers of all levels may learn effectively to integrate technology into their educational practices.

In addition, the study suggests that the new technological instructional context in the COVID-19 phase appeared as an important moderator for teachers in upgrading their competencies in terms of TPACK. Regarding the contextual environment, Mishra (2019) indicates that the addition of contextual knowledge (XK) may reveal the situational and institutional limitations that teachers work within. During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers and learners experienced their practices in multiple new and unfamiliar contexts, which impacted teachers’ abilities to teach successfully remotely in the digital environment. Therefore, future studies should examine teachers’ XK comprehensively to determine the influence of different contextual factors on teachers’ TPACK with a focus on facilitating teachers with contextual change.

Finally, remote work and online learning are teaching conditions that will continue to advance steadily. In turn, the post-COVID-19 reactivation and recovery processes do not seem to contemplate that the teaching and learning processes as before. Therefore, future research should be aimed not only at understanding human behavior while studying or teaching virtually but also at understanding the TPACK model and building better ways to integrate technology into educational practices. In this regard, the findings of the study are highly significant, not particularly in determining the technology integration during the COVID-19 pandemic phase, which is currently the most crucial issue, but also for the integration of technology in the post-pandemic time in higher education.

Based on the obtained results, the study affirms that the COVID-19 pandemic phase significantly influenced the digital competencies of faculty members and reveals adequate knowledge in all the sub-components of the TPACK, with a significant difference in terms of gender and teaching experience. Regarding consistency, the TPACK model was verified by means of factorial analyses in terms of seven sub-components and in the context of higher education faculty members in Pakistan, which supports the value and appropriateness of the model. Accordingly, the study suggests that the TPACK model should be employed in the professional development programs to develop teachers’ TPACK for integrating technology efficiently by bridging the gap between ICT knowledge and ICT practice.

The findings of this study contribute to society in several ways. Regarding theoretically, this study has enriched the literature on the technological competencies of teachers during the COVID-19 transitory period and verified the reliability of the TPACK model in the context of Karachi, Pakistan. It can be further used for verification in other cities and countries. In terms of methodological contribution, the study provides tentative insight in evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 transitory period on teachers’ digital competencies and their state of implementation in pedagogical practices. Regarding academics, this study provides a pragmatic direction to relevant educational authorities and policymakers for the improvement of online education by providing pertinent solutions and recommendations as per the situation. In addition, the future planning of professional development and training programs for the teachers can be based on the feedback provided by the faculty members. The study can further contribute to elevating e-learning outcomes and satisfaction during as well as post-pandemic phase.

Furthermore, the study also noted some limitations. Firstly, faculty’s response biasness may have affected the results since digital competencies were assessed self-reported quantitatively. Therefore, the future studies may select other approaches to unfold the understanding of teachers and establish the criteria for evaluating the TPACK of teachers. Secondly, the current study only focused on the TPACK model to assess the digital competencies of faculty. The findings of this study can be further strengthened in the future by employing other indicators to examine the teachers’ competencies in teaching with technology.

Finally, the analysis was cross-sectional and evaluated the teaching practices of university teachers during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Online technological, pedagogical, and content competencies of teachers may change over time, which should also be observed. Therefore, a longitudinal study should be conducted to strengthen the evidence by understanding the causal effects and interrelationships among various other variables, critical in elevating the online pedagogical practices at the higher level in Pakistan.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

HA is the principal investigator of the study. From conceptualization to the data analysis, she conducted by herself. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.