Remote Learning and COVID-19 Lockdown: Experiences of University Students from the Eastern Cape of South Africa

Abstract

COVID-19 lockdown has disoriented the usual way of life, including the closure of universities, necessitating the ushering in a new way of teaching and learning in South Africa and across the world. The motivation for this chapter stems from the panic that gripped not only educational officials but students in South Africa, especially given the introduction of remote learning, a way many students were not used to. Therefore, the aim of this chapter was to explore the experiences of university students during the COVID-19 lockdown in the Eastern Province of South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative research approach, which is within in the interpretative paradigm and the research design was exploratory case study. A sample of 40 UG students was selected from the four contact universities in the province, University of Fort Hare (UFH), Walter Sisulu University (WSU), Rhodes University (RU), and Nelson Mandela University (NMU). A few students known to the researchers were purposively selected, and the rest were recruited through snowball sampling. Data collection was through in-depth telephone interviews and also through e-mails since face-to-face 380was not possible during the lockdown. Documentary analysis was also another method of data collection. Data analysis was thematic, and the steps were scrupulously followed. The findings revealed that students were frustrated with the various restrictions. This was emanating from the fact that they were confined in rural and poor infrastructure environment. Conse-quently, the participants felt hopeless, frightened, and were academically demotivated. The findings further showed that the participants were embarrassed with online or remote learning and could not see a bright future. The participants also adopted some resilience strategies to mitigate the negative challenges posed by COVID-19 lockdown and include reading, exercising, and engaging with others on social media. Finally, the findings revealed that COVID-19 lockdown had its own positive spinoffs and included the fact that participants got support from different stakeholders, learning new digital ways of communication amongst others. The chapter concludes that despite the various challenges, COVID-19 lockdown also brought about some positive outcomes.