Challenges and Opportunities of the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Lesson Learnt

Abstract

COVID‐19 has immensely disrupted tertiary education ecosystem. The crisis has compelled numerous unprecedented and accelerated changes. The traditional and conventional way of teaching and learning has completely shifted to fully online. Nonetheless, the trend of integrating technology in the classrooms is not new. This has led to numerous questions and arguments of the existing concepts and theories of traditional education. This phenomenon also provides new opportunities for educational institutions to explore and leverage on the prospects of online modalities, fashioning unique inquiries. Thus, the key purpose of this research paper is to identify the challenges and opportunities encountered by lecturers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of the interviews showed that there are some challenges that the lecturers faced; for example, unpreparedness to tackle the new norm of online teaching and learning process, internet connection, and online engagement. The findings from the interview showed that there are opportunities which have emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic such as experimenting with numerous digital tools and platforms, employing different online teaching and learning modalities, and commissioning online assessments to support the students’ needs and engagement. It is postulated that the findings of the research although may be preliminary, are able to facilitate vital discussions on fashioning best practice guidelines for asynchronous or synchronous modalities post the COVID-19 pandemic.