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South East Federal University Student's Perception Of Online Education Amidst Covid-19 Lockdown
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
The outbreak
of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019 caused by severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) caused unprecedented
disruptions in human activity, including education (Mouchantaf, 2020).
Governments forced citizens to practice a new way of life that limited
personal contact and subjected people to several restrictive measures,
known as lockdowns. To contain its rapid spreading, over 70% of
educational institutions, from early childhood learning to higher
learning institutions, closed schools, and suspended face-to-face
teaching, affecting over 1.5 billion learners (Gupta et al., 2020).
Zimbabwean universities, colleges, and schools were forced to close in
March 2020, affecting over 4.56 million learners (OCHA, 2020).
Face-to-face learning was barred, and learners adopted remote-based
learning. For the first time, most higher education institutions in
Nigeria migrated to the online environment to protect staff and
learners’ lives.
The implications of the coronavirus pandemic saw the
abrupt shutting down of higher institutions of learning by government,
and students were told to vacate campuses as one of the measures to curb
further infections. Such effect curtly distorted the ongoing
face-to-face classes programs of the various institutions of learning.
Without an iota of doubt, the closure of these institutions would have a
dramatic impact on the students, higher education sector and countries’
economic development (Tamrat & Teferra, 2020). The ripple effect of
such action includes disruption of student cognitive learning process,
delay in student graduation, tendencies of postponing academic sessions,
and likelihood of student indulging in unwholesome behavior during the
lockdown known as juvenile delinquency amongst others.
In order to
bridge the gap and ensure uninterrupted educational delivery,
universities across the continent are setting up institution-wide task
forces to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. Many are attempting to
shift to online teaching and learning through institutional, national,
continental and international initiatives. Online learning is seen as
alternate learning that its entirety is dependents on the use of
internet and some other important technologies with no physical recourse
to classrooms between the students and lecturers. (Tamrat &
Teferra, 2020). In an effort to continually engage the students with
their respective courses and programme of study, many higher
institutions of learning in developed countries have quickly switched to
online learning. (Awojide, 2020). In the same manner, many low and
middle income countries are making concerted efforts at adopting the
same approach; however, this has become a difficult task due to
deficient infrastructure, mixed perception and inadequate preparedness
by the institutions and students.
The migration to the online world
was disruptive and had several limitations and difficulties for
students. Students hurriedly left their campuses, with little time to
adjust to the new norm; this demanded more financial resources for
remote based learning. Students had not received any formal training on
technology-based learning, and with no prior experience, students and
their lecturers experimented using technologies as they transitioned to a
fully online environment. It resulted in an unpleasant learning
experience. The students would typically rely on campus-based facilities
such as computer labs and Wi- Fi facilities. This sudden shift caused
anxiety among students as the university curriculum was for in-person
learning, and institutions were unprepared for an abrupt shift due to a
lack of resources to support emergency remote teaching.
The idea
behind adopting online learning during the pandemic is that it provides
great flexibility in teaching methodology, content management, a
synchronous and asynchronous interaction between teachers and students,
organizing and structure of courses. In addition, it provides distance
learning that is capable of creating new learning environments to
achieve prosperous academic program as well as provides tools for
students to be in contact with peers and teachers inside and outside the
classroom without spreading Covid-19 (Tamta & Ansari, 2017;
Rasouli, Rahbania & Attaran, 2016). Against this backdrop, the study
was designed to examine the South Eastern federal university student's
perception of online education amidst covid-19 lockdown.
Statement of the problem
The
Federal Government of Nigeria at a point directed heads of higher
institutions of learning to recommence their aborted academic sessions
as result of the COVID-19 pandemic via online learning (ASUU-UI
Publicity Committee, 2020). However, this generated a lot of controversy
and different opinion from the public, students and the lecturers which
they ascribed to lack of properly laid framework for the implementation
of online learning. Other perceived challenges identified includes lack
of technological skills and experience and poor teaching
infrastructural facilities required for running online learning
smoothly. It is well known that online learning depends on the
availability of functional ICT facilities, technical-know how (skills)
and students’ readiness. It is against this background that this study
intends to investigate undergraduate student's perception, readiness and
skills towards online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic in the
country.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The coronavirus pandemic saw the abrupt shutting down of higher institutions of learning by government, and students were told to vacate campuses as one of the measures to curb further infections. In order to ensure uninterrupted educational delivery, universities across the continent are introducing online learning. This study investigated the South East federal university student's perception of online education amidst covid-19 lockdown. This study employed descriptive survey research design a ... Continue reading---
