Preparations for and practices of online education during the Covid-19 pandemic: A study of Bangladesh and Nepal

Abstract

Online education has been adopted widely to address the educational chaos created by the Covid-19 pandemic. Reports on its constraints and challenges appear daily in the global media. However, accounts of teachers’ and students’ experiences of this abrupt shift in pedagogical modality are conspicuously absent in the available literature. This article reports the findings of a study that explored teachers’ and students’ experiences of online education during the pandemic in the context of higher education in Bangladesh and Nepal. The online survey with 147 students and 76 teachers and interviews with a sub-sample of 17 participants indicate that they adapt the action potentials of the digital artifacts to local contexts and use them in the best possible ways to facilitate their communication and enhance student learning in difficult circumstances. The major challenges and constraints they experience in transitioning to online education include poor network, lack of digital skills, lack of technological support from institutions among others. The study findings indicate some pressing policy, pedagogical and research implications, which are discussed in the final section.

Factors Associated With Underprivileged E-Learning, Session Jam Phobia, and the Subsequent Mental Distress Among Students Following the Extended University Closure in Bangladesh

“…However, about 75% of such students lost their income completely during the pandemic and are suffering from an unfathomed economic crisis ( 35 ). Furthermore, a majority of the public universities in Bangladesh lacked adequate facilities to conduct successful online classes by themselves, and such students have also declined the hope for institutional support that has been necessary for their studies ( 44 ). Eventually, the students from public universities suffered academically to a greater extent than private university students and experienced prominent underprivileged education.…”

Variables Influencing Professors’ Adaptation to Digital Learning Environments during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Over 1.5 billion students from around the world were affected by school or university closures during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and distance learning was introduced for many pupils [ 5 ]. About 94% of the world’s student population and millions of teachers around the world adapted to on-line teaching almost immediately in order to be able to continue teaching [ 6 , 7 ], including in laboratory practice [ 8 , 9 ].…”

Elucidating the role of environmental management of forests, air quality, solid waste and wastewater on the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2

“…It has been reported that distancing of 2 meters is inadequate ( Setti et al, 2020c ). Hence, it must be implemented with adequate ventilation, air purification, limiting number of individuals to certain time periods and use of masks, along with funding and education for digital transformations and architecture to support social distancing ( Augenbraun et al, 2020 ; Dzisi et al, 2020; Sun and Zhai, 2020 ; Cilhoroz and DeRuisseau, 2021 ; Megahed and Ghoniem, 2021; Shrestha et al, 2021 ).…”