The Covid-19 has had a universal influence and has affected the education systems in most world states. The crisis forced academic institutions to change the format of their teaching, adjust the policy of the educational institution, closing the institutions' doors and moving to distance learning. (UNESCO, 2020) In Israel, as in the rest of the world, in March 2020 all state schools, including higher education teacher training institutions were closed, and they began to operate a distance learning system.

Frontal teaching and learning, which is the prevalent traditional method used in teacher training colleges, was transferred to synchronous or asynchronous teaching or a combination of both. (Donitsa-Schmidt & Ramot, 2020). This new reality set complex challenges for the policy-makers attempting to implement distance learning, without appropriate previous preparation and without time to adjust (Ministry of Education, Office of the Chief Scientist, 2020).

In the last decade, there has been a growing trend to integrate Digital Games-Based Learning -DGBL in teaching-learning processes in education systems around the world (Koh et al., 2012) and in Israel (Ministry of Education, 2020). The DGBL is designed to promote learning, acquire knowledge and develop cognitive skills and abilities (Backlund & Hendrix, 2013). It is also considered motivating, appropriate for long-term learning and increases meaningful learning. DGBL may therefore be one of the technologies that can be adopted during the Covid-19 period, as it can be integrated into distance teaching (Davis et al., 2018).

Many studies have been conducted to examine the degree of efficiency and effectiveness of integrating Digital Games-Based Learning (DGBL) into teaching-learning processes with an emphasis on the characteristics of the game and learners. There are almost no studies that have examined the issue of policymakers' perceptions regarding the integration of DGBL, even less so during the Covid-19 crisis and the transition to distance learning. However, the integration of the DGBL in teaching in the higher education institutions encounters many difficulties and barriers (Dietrich et al, 2020). The reasons and factors for this are many and varied, including pedagogical, economic, technological and political factors. The main criticism concerning this subject is directed towards teacher educators who find it difficult to adopt innovative teaching methods in practice in teaching student-teachers and lack the skills, tools and confidence required to integrate DGBL in their teaching (Gleroğlu, 2015). They need adequate professional training (Hayak & Avidov-Ungar, 2020; Wu, 2015;). Along with these claims, the spotlight is also turned towards policymakers in the academic institutions entrusted with teacher training. For example, there is a lack of clear policy on this subject on the part of the education institutions' policy-makers, and a lack of techno-pedagogical, budgetary and technical support in the integration of the DGBL in teaching (Xu & Xu, 2020.; Prestiadi, 2020). It seems that policy-makers in teacher education institutions have an important role in policy making and resource allocation, to promote and integrate the DGBL in teaching in these institutions. As this issue has not yet been explored, it is therefore important to examine it from the perspective of policy-makers in teacher education institutions who are in policy-making posts, especially in light of the challenges they face during the Covid-19 period.

Research questions

1. How and in what way is the integration of DGBL reflected in the teaching of teachers' educators in teacher training colleges from the viewpoint of the college policymakers during the Covid-19 pandemic?
2. Do the teacher education colleges have a policy regarding the integration of DGBL in teacher educators' teaching? If so, in what way is it implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic?

The study employed qualitative methodology (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008) to examine in depth college policy-makers' perceptions of the process that the academic teacher education colleges underwent in the context of DGBL integration. Participants Interviews were held with 25 policy-makers from 12 academic teacher education colleges across Israel. The research participants held the following posts: President of a college (N = 4), Deans / Heads of the Schools of Education (N = 8), Head of a Department of Learning Technologies Training (N = 6), heads of various units, whose role is to promote innovation in teaching (such as: Head of the Center for Innovation, the Head of the Center for Simulations, etc.) (N = 7). Among the interviewees were eleven women and one man. Age range of the interviewees: nine aged 50-60, three aged 35-40. Academic degrees of the interviewees: Two of the interviewees held the rank of Professor, six had a doctorate and four had a master's degree. Data Collection Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with all policy-makers. In order to recruit interviewees for the study, the websites of the various colleges were searched to locate senior policy-makers who might be suitable for the interview. These policy-makers were sent an e-mail that included the need to fill in informed consent to participate in the study. If the e-mail was answered in the affirmative by the post holder, a date for the interview, was coordinated according to the interviewee's convenience. At the end of the interview - the interviewee was asked to recommend another suitable post holder in their college, so additional interviewees were recruited using the snowball method. Policy-makers who did not respond to the email, were again contacted via e-mail and interview time was coordinated with them if they responded positively. All interviews were conducted using "Zoom"; the interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data Analysis The transcripts of the interviews in this study were analyzed using the constant comparative method. According to this approach, the analysis consists of reflective cycles during which inductive categories are identified and compared to the contents of the interviews to determine whether the categories can be further honed or need to be changed or reorganized.

The research findings suggest, that in all the colleges the Covid-19 period served as an accelerator for the integration of technology-assisted processes, including DGBL which was taught as part of the teacher training process (Crawford, et al., 202). These processes may serve to meet the demand for distance learning teacher training (Ministry of Education, 2020) The findings provide new knowledge indicating that three statuses were identified in the colleges in relation to the integration of DGBL in college teaching. These are the statuses of clarification, aspiration and application. Five dimensions were examined in each status from the policy-makers' narratives: the perception of the DGBL, personal vision, the teacher education institution's policy, the resources allocated to integrating DGBL, the gaps between policy and practice and the Covid-19 pandemic as a factor accelerating the need to integrate innovative teaching technologies. Below is a list of the statuses found: 1. Clarification status - where policy-makers are still in a process of clarifying the contribution of DGBL to the teaching process; 2. Ambition status - in which policy-makers are in the process of designing a clear policy for the integration of DGBL in teacher education in the colleges, but there is a gap between their desire and vision and the college's ability to invest financial and other resources and manpower which limits the level of integration 3. Implementation status - in which policy-makers report that they act to integrate DGBL in teacher training while investing significant technological, pedagogical and financial resources for this purpose.This paper discusses various dimensions of this issue and the way in which institutional policy in this context is reflected in the actual implementation processes. Special attention is dedicated to the consequences of COVID19 and the way in which the institutions deal with the effects of the pandemic.

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