Students’ Emergency Remote Learning Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown in a Selected University in Africa

Abstract

Remote teaching is a form of course delivery in which courses originally designed for face-to-face delivery are modified and delivered online to meet an emergency situations [9]. This is the situation in which universities all over the world found themselves at the beginning of the calendar year of 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID 19 Pandemic. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate Students’ Remote Learning Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a selected University in Africa. Quantitative research method was used in gathering, analyzing the data and interpreting the results. The data was gathered online through google forms immediately after the students had completed emergency remote learning and taken the online examinations, while in the CIOVID-19 pandemic lockdown recess. Respondents were 681 students in a selected university in Africa. They responded to seven questions pertaining to their remote learning experience during the COVID- 19 pandemic lockdown. Results revealed that 87% of respondents were able to access either part or the whole of the materials sent to them remotely by faculty. Only about 13% of respondents indicated that they could not access the online materials. Majority (73%) of respondents indicated that lack of reliable internet connectivity was the main challenge they faced during remote learning. Lack of resources (58.4%), power failure (54.9%), and lack of skills in handling technology (15.6%). Generally, respondents reported mixed feeling of their emergency remote learning experiences. Half of respondents (50.4%) indicated that their experiences were frustrating whereas 32.2% of the respondents indicated that their experience was neither frustrating nor exciting comprised, Only 16.4% indicated that their experience was exciting. 49.8% of respondents prefer blended learning to continue after COVID 19 while 34.5% prefer that the online learning ends immediately and face-to-face classes continue. Very few (15.7%) of respondents prefer that the online course delivery continues even after COVID-19.