Covid-19 and its impact on higher education institutions: The use of online mediums to ensure the continuation of teaching and learning

Abstract

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on communities, cities, countries, and continents globally, not solely in Africa. The affluent and most developed countries were not equipped for the COVID-19 pandemic. Organisations that were usually not recognised as critical services realised that in order to survive, they needed to substitute and find alternatives to continue doing business. Some countries went into level five lockdown. Higher education institutions were instantly pushed to switch from face-to-face teaching and learning to online learning. Teaching at the University of Zululand is done mainly through Moodle and WhatsApp. Lecturers use BigBlueButton to deliver Moodle lessons. These classes are recorded and readily accessible. M-Learning is becoming a common way of learning, however, lack of data, network connectivity, and load shedding has been a major challenge.
The theoretical framework for this paper was the Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication. A mixed method research approach was used as part of their methodology. Due to students not being present on campus, Google Forms were used to disseminate the questionnaires. From the data, it is clear that students have a challenge with online assessment, however, the majority still prefer to study online. However, internet data connectivity and load shedding have become major obstacles in online teaching and learning.