Abstract
The article discusses the online teaching and learning experiences of university students during the recent countrywide lockdown and higher education institutional shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on philosopher Joan Tronto’s phases of care and associated moral elements, the article reports on survey data from a large cohort of students in the Post Graduate Certificate of Education programme at Stellenbosch University and seeks to analyse the students’ care needs and experiences of care during this period. The aim of the article discussion is not to answer the question whether the university institution offered the students good care during the campus shutdown and remote teaching and learning, but rather to understand the experiences of the students of online teaching and learning during this time.
Highlights
Not unanticipated information, this unprecedented move caused significant uncertainty and concern within the education sector, most especially regarding the way forward for teaching and learning in schools and universities
Given the swiftness of the countrywide lockdown and the immediate decision by the university to suspend face-to-face tuition and switch to online teaching and learning, there was no time for lecturers and students to discuss the way forward and all future correspondence between students and faculty immediately moved to online modalities
Different to questionnaires that usually focus on a limited scope of questions to obtain information, the advantage of using surveys, in particular online electronic surveys, is that researchers can collect a large number of responses on how individuals feel about an issue (Tan and Siegel, 2018; Tuckman and Harper, 2012)
Summary
This unprecedented move caused significant uncertainty and concern within the education sector, most especially regarding the way forward for teaching and learning in schools and universities. At Stellenbosch University (SU), where the research for this article was conducted, following the president’s announcement on 15 March, the university rectorate issued a statement that all face-to-face lectures and assessments would be suspended from Tuesday 17 March. With this announcement, everyone, including most of the students in the university residences, was asked to leave the Stellenbosch campuses. Given the swiftness of the countrywide lockdown and the immediate decision by the university to suspend face-to-face tuition and switch to online teaching and learning, there was no time for lecturers and students to discuss the way forward and all future correspondence between students and faculty immediately moved to online modalities
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