Evaluation of E- Learning in Engineering Education in Higher and Tertiary Education Institutions in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The adoption of ICTs and e-learning tools in institutions of higher education provides several benefits including enhancing engineering education. The Covid 19 global pandemic forced most institutions to adopt e-learning in order to improve access and quality of education. In order to evaluate the e-learning in higher and tertiary institutions, a cross sectional survey comprising of 32 instructors from the 5 departments in the faculty of engineering at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) was carried out. Data collected using a survey questionnaire was analyzed using IBM SPSS Grad Pack version 28.0 premium. On average 23.34 % of the instructors never practiced e-learning, 18.96 % practiced e-learning rarely, 15.84 % practiced e-learning moderately, 12.48 %practiced e-learning substantially and 26.66 % practiced e-learning extensively in their teaching and learning. The usage of virtual laboratories and online assessment was found to be extremely low at 11.4 % respectively. The study revealed that CUT has an official e-learning strategy embedded in the ICT policy. About 63 % of the respondents were satisfied with the e-learning systems and affirmed that their productivity and performance improved through the use of the e-learning system. The existence of a sound e-learning policy has a direct impact on educational delivery. Although instructors had computers 88 % had no access to web cameras for online teaching and learning. The most prevalent challenge was power failure. The study recommended the development of e-learning quality assurance standards to ensure consistency and uniformity in the conveyance of e-learning in engineering education. The output of this will provide useful insights on the current usage of e-learning and recommendation to address the challenges affecting the adoption of ICTs and e-learning in higher and tertiary education institutions in Zimbabwe.