Analysis Of School Closure And Online Teaching-Learning In Higher Education Amid Covid-19 Pandemic
C M Ugwuegede Ph.D
Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu
S N Okoli M.Sc
Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu.
C A Onumba
Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu.
Keywords: Corona virus, school closure, online teaching-learning, higher education
Abstract
Corona virus or COVID-19 sudden outbreak in the small city of Wuhan, China in December, 2019 threw the entire world into panic due to rapid spread of the virus. In response to the upsurge, the various International Health Agencies such as WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO and others in collaboration with government at all levels worldwide came up with the idea of school closure as one of the strategies to minimize the spread of the virus. Consequently, online teaching-learning was introduced in order to keep a good flow of the education curriculum so that learners especially those in tertiary institutions are not stagnated. There is therefore, the need to examine the efficacies of the platforms used during COVID-19 periods in order to identify the activities of the programme, the benefits and constraints of online teaching-learning, teacher-students’ perceptions of it so that appropriate measures can be put in place to address observed challenges in the event of another round of school closure following fresh waves of the pandemic. Notable platforms used in higher education level during COVID-19 include zoom, start-me, Classtime, Classwize, Google Classroom, Skillshave, ClassDojo, Blackboard Learn, Parley, Feedback Fruits and Wexideo, Codeacademy, Adobe, Captivate, Seesaw, Articulate 360, Future Learn, Inspire and many more. The review also shows that online teaching-learning brought about a change from the traditional teaching-learning methods to e-learning. However, it was noted that for any innovative change to take place whether external or internal, three wise step processes are involved namely; unfreezing, changing and refreezing. The identified benefits of online teaching-learning situation among others is that e-learning supports higher education students in effective utilization of the time and getting them committed to their courses. It also brought more confidence, reduce stress and enhance concern and empathy. Despite the observed benefits, it was reported that e-learning during the period was characterized by differences in the material and human resources invested in providing support for students in favour of upper/Middle –class students. Furthermore, students’ perceived a general lack of motivation as immediate feedback was not possible during the online teaching–learning transition phase while some teachers were unsure whether the students switched on the computer for the namesake or actively present at the moment or sitting somewhere hence evidence of participation sometimes could be doubtful. Based on that, the review concludes that school closures amid COVID-19 pandemic substantially increased the social class achievement gap. Some recommendations were made on possible ways to correct the observed anomalies in the event of another round of school closures amid fourth wave of corona virus pandemic