Nigerian Law Students’ Perception of Online Teaching: Appraisal of COVID-19-imposed Online Classes

Abstract

The Council of Legal Education, which is the regulatory body for the legal profession in Nigeria, has made it clear over the years that the training of lawyers cannot be adequately carried out through correspondence or distance learning, which can be interpreted as online learning or remote learning. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, various online teaching and learning methods were adopted by educational institutions all over the world, to ensure the continuity of the learning process, truncated by the pandemic. This study, carried out through a multidisciplinary approach, is an assessment of the perception of students on the level of effectiveness of COVID-19-imposed online teaching and learning, especially, in comparison with the traditional classroom setting among legal education students in Nigeria. From the study, it was observed that students perceived the online learning method to be more effective than the traditional face-to-face method of delivery but were less focused during the online classes as compared to physical classes. Furthermore, many of the students opined that online classes should be discontinued after the lockdown. Despite students’ distractions during online learning, there is a need to recognize that online learning is a panacea for the crisis at hand (the COVID-19 pandemic), and for as long as it lasts, there may not be a complete return to the physical classroom setting. The study suggests ways of minimizing the challenges that students who do not find online learning effective face with its use, while also calling on the Council of Legal Education to revisit its stance towards the adoption of online learning as a suitable teaching method to be incorporated into legal education.