Abstract
The COVID-19 global pandemic has forced many universities worldwide to switch from face-to-face classes to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) to allow students to continue learning. Using the Community of Inquiry framework, this study aimed to examine a group of lecturers’ experiences of ERT at a university in Kenya. The study was conducted using a qualitative case study design within an interpretive paradigm. Ten lecturers were purposively selected to participate in semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that these lecturers had established teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence to enhance students’ learning experiences during the time they engaged in ERT. The Community of Inquiry was found to be a useful framework by the researchers for lecturers to use in order to rethink, organize, and guide ERT at the university, which was the site of the study. This study has practical implications for course designers, researchers, and students at universities and other educational institutions concerning curriculum re-design using a CoI as a framework.
Highlights
The COVID-19 global pandemic has significantly impacted education, forcing many institutions of learning to make an abrupt shift from conventional face-to-face classes to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT)
We argue that ERT as a crisis mode of teaching should reflect elements of teaching presence, the time put in would vary from the normal online teaching in order to respond to the rapid adaptation to a crisis situation
The results indicated that the lecturers established teaching presence by designing the course syllabus and schedule from existing curricula provided to them by Heads of Department
Summary
The COVID-19 global pandemic has significantly impacted education, forcing many institutions of learning to make an abrupt shift from conventional face-to-face classes to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). It has forced academics to barge into ERT as an approach to mitigating the impact of the current pandemic on teaching and learning. UNESCO (2020) reports COVID-19 to have negatively affected the learning experiences of undergraduate students in institutions of higher learning across the globe. Since most residential universities engage in face-to-face teaching, a sudden switch to ERT could significantly affect the learning of students at such universities. Ontong and Waghid (2020) see the lack of time on the part of lecturers to prepare for online classes as a significant constraining factor on higher education students’ capacities to learn effectively Since most residential universities engage in face-to-face teaching, a sudden switch to ERT could significantly affect the learning of students at such universities. Ontong and Waghid (2020) see the lack of time on the part of lecturers to prepare for online classes as a significant constraining factor on higher education students’ capacities to learn effectively.
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