CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) caused unprecedented disruptions in human activity, including education (Mouchantaf, 2020). Governments forced citizens to practice a new way of life that limited personal contact and subjected people to several restrictive measures, known as lockdowns. To contain its rapid spreading, over 70% of educational institutions, from early childhood learning to higher learning institutions, closed schools, and suspended face-to-face teaching, affecting over 1.5 billion learners (Gupta et al., 2020). Zimbabwean universities, colleges, and schools were forced to close in March 2020, affecting over 4.56 million learners (OCHA, 2020). Face-to-face learning was barred, and learners adopted remote-based learning. For the first time, most higher education institutions in Nigeria migrated to the online environment to protect staff and learners’ lives.
The implications of the coronavirus pandemic saw the abrupt shutting down of higher institutions of learning by government, and students were told to vacate campuses as one of the measures to curb further infections. Such effect curtly distorted the ongoing face-to-face classes programs of the various institutions of learning. Without an iota of doubt, the closure of these institutions would have a dramatic impact on the students, higher education sector and countries’ economic development (Tamrat & Teferra, 2020). The ripple effect of such action includes disruption of student cognitive learning process, delay in student graduation, tendencies of postponing academic sessions, and likelihood of student indulging in unwholesome behavior during the lockdown known as juvenile delinquency amongst others.
In order to bridge the gap and ensure uninterrupted educational delivery, universities across the continent are setting up institution-wide task forces to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. Many are attempting to shift to online teaching and learning through institutional, national, continental and international initiatives. Online learning is seen as alternate learning that its entirety is dependents on the use of internet and some other important technologies with no physical recourse to classrooms between the students and lecturers. (Tamrat & Teferra, 2020). In an effort to continually engage the students with their respective courses and programme of study, many higher institutions of learning in developed countries have quickly switched to online learning. (Awojide, 2020). In the same manner, many low and middle income countries are making concerted efforts at adopting the same approach; however, this has become a difficult task due to deficient infrastructure, mixed perception and inadequate preparedness by the institutions and students.
The migration to the online world was disruptive and had several limitations and difficulties for students. Students hurriedly left their campuses, with little time to adjust to the new norm; this demanded more financial resources for remote based learning. Students had not received any formal training on technology-based learning, and with no prior experience, students and their lecturers experimented using technologies as they transitioned to a fully online environment. It resulted in an unpleasant learning experience. The students would typically rely on campus-based facilities such as computer labs and Wi- Fi facilities. This sudden shift caused anxiety among students as the university curriculum was for in-person learning, and institutions were unprepared for an abrupt shift due to a lack of resources to support emergency remote teaching.
The idea behind adopting online learning during the pandemic is that it provides great flexibility in teaching methodology, content management, a synchronous and asynchronous interaction between teachers and students, organizing and structure of courses. In addition, it provides distance learning that is capable of creating new learning environments to achieve prosperous academic program as well as provides tools for students to be in contact with peers and teachers inside and outside the classroom without spreading Covid-19 (Tamta & Ansari, 2017; Rasouli, Rahbania & Attaran, 2016). Against this backdrop, the study was designed to examine the South Eastern federal university student’s perception of online education amidst covid-19 lockdown.
1.2 Statement of the problem
The Federal Government of Nigeria at a point directed heads of higher institutions of learning to recommence their aborted academic sessions as result of the COVID-19 pandemic via online learning (ASUU-UI Publicity Committee, 2020). However, this generated a lot of controversy and different opinion from the public, students and the lecturers which they ascribed to lack of properly laid framework for the implementation of online learning. Other perceived challenges identified includes lack of technological skills and experience and poor teaching infrastructural facilities required for running online learning smoothly. It is well known that online learning depends on the availability of functional ICT facilities, technical-know how (skills) and students’ readiness. It is against this background that this study intends to investigate undergraduate student’s perception, readiness and skills towards online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
1.3 Objective of the study
The main objective of this study is to examine the South East federal university student’s perception of online education amidst covid-19 lockdown, a case study of University Of Nigeria Nsukka. Specifically, the study aims;
1. To examine how conversant the students with online learning
2. To determine the perception of students towards online learning platform during Covid-19 lockdown
3. To evaluate how ready the students’ are towards using online learning platform?
4. To investigate the skills and competencies the students posses/have for using online learning platform
5. To determine the perceived challenges that could hinder students from participating effectively in online learning platforms during Covid-19 period
