Online learning on the African continent during the COVID-19 pandemic

Towards best practices in digital content development and pedagogy: A comparative study of opportunities and challenges in United States International University-Africa and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

“…Universities cancelled all face-to-face classes and transitioned to online digital learning platforms such as learning management systems (LMS) (Dlamini & Ndzinisa, 2020). The pandemic therefore escalated the uptake of digital technologies in the African higher education context (Akahome & Ekakitie, 2022).…”

“…Post pandemic and after seeing the affordances of online learning, institutions of higher learning are convinced about developing online learning programs. However, there are no best practices for higher education institutions to mimic and no known models to follow (Akahome & Ekakitie, 2022). Post pandemic there are some glaring challenges towards offering online education.…”

“…Some of the challenges as seen by Zawacki-Richter & Qayyum (2019) and Akahome & Ekakitie, (2022) are lack of devices, inadequate infrastructure, limited but expensive bandwidth, lack of faculty capacity to teach online, lack of political will and limited access to LMS off campus. These challenges will have to be overcome before online education can start to take shape in Africa.…”

“…In an exploratory factor analysis study, Siddiquei & Kathpal (2021) As the world learnt to live with the pandemic, accrediting bodies demanded that face-to-face programs be taught on campus and both students and lecturers were recalled to physical learning. Although face-to-face lectures are slowly being normalized again, teaching and learning will never be the same again (Akahome & Ekakitie, 2022).…”