Developing country educators’ experiences of higher education teaching during COVID-19

Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Developing country educators’ experiences of higher education teaching during COVID-19
 
Creator Keevy, Monique Verhoef, Grietjie Tharapos, Meredith
 
Subject COVID-19; developing country; digital divide; higher education; information technology; online learning; social disruption.
Description Orientation: Higher education institutions (HEIs) globally were required to transition from face-to-face to online learning to circumvent lockdowns, social distancing and other public health interventions during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Research purpose: This study examined the experiences of developing country educators of higher education teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.Motivation for the study: The study aims to understand the influence of the pandemic on the delivery of a quality programme to enable developing country HEIs to better withstand challenges arising from future social disruptions.Research approach/design and method: The study employs a qualitative methodology comprising semi-structured interviews with educators from HEIs situated in two African developing countries.Main findings: The findings of this study indicate that educators were able to transition to online offerings amid the pandemic and employ new tools, systems and innovative delivery methods, despite the lack of contingency plans. However, the digital divide was amplified for their student cohort because of the cost and reliability of the internet and the absence of suitable devices. This in turn resulted in educators often resorting to teacher-centric teaching practices. The findings also highlight that online assessments were compromised in terms of quality and integrity.Contribution/value-add: Far from being just a disruption, the pandemic is an indication of the urgent need to build sustainable HEIs for educators to deliver quality academic programmes to assume their intellectual responsibility toward society.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor None
Date 2023-06-15
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jef.v16i1.829
 
Source Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences; Vol 16, No 1 (2023); 11 pages 2312-2803 1995-7076
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/829/1599 https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/829/1600 https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/829/1601 https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/829/1602
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Monique Keevy, Grietjie Verhoef, Meredith Tharapos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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