ABSTRACT
Disruptions to education by the 2019 Global pandemic has amplified development educationists' advocacy for sustainable learner-focused curriculum that addresses cross-cutting themes. Teachers' failure to effectively use digital media for differentiated learning might continue to widen access, gender, and equity gaps in education for distance learners in the Global South. Within development education framework of raising awareness and understanding of impacts of global affairs on education, we argue that teachers' technology pedagogical integration competencies are likely to impact quality curriculum delivery in a full-online environment. On a pedagogical integration self-efficacy questionnaire, we elicited data from 197 distance education tutors on a Likert-type scale that yielded reliability coefficient of .9 and face validity checked by instructional design experts. Descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA were used for the data analysis and the results suggested that distance education tutors were more likely to select video-based digital tools than asynchronous techniques during tutorial sessions. Secondly, Internet access and technology professional development were the leading needs for tutors' instructional delivery during the pandemic. Finally, tutors' technology training and years of teaching experience in facilitating distance education courses were not statistically significant in online pedagogical delivery. We conclude that ICT training amongst distance education tutors remains generic in lieu of digital integration literacy. Recommendations for continuing education, curriculum development, and instructional design are made. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reseverd.
ABSTRACT
The University of Ghana Distance Education Programme was not spared from the disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Management of the Department needed to make a radical move to shift from its hybrid system of delivery to a full-fledged online delivery. In spite of the limited time for this move, a lot of creative planning had to go into this, which led to a virtual training of 340 tutors, through four modules, to prepare them adequately for the task. Aside from assessing the planning and the virtual training aforementioned, this reflective paper also delves into other important issues such as the rolling out of a virtual/online academic and counselling support and architecture for monitoring of all the 228 courses that were moved onto the online space. This paper has implications for both policy and institutions that might be faced with similar circumstances, and it makes suggestions for exploration of other useful tools for delivery and monitoring that would contribute to better online engagements.
ABSTRACT
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration is essential, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. While the need for ICT integration in today???s pedagogical activities is inevitable, online instruction in Ghanaian higher education is still challenging. Referring to the pressing need for ICT integration and online instructions amid COVID-19, we assess the challenges academic staff in Ghanaian universities encounter concerning online instructions and ICT integration into pedagogical activities. We conducted a cross-sectional survey with 628 (response rate of 83.1%, N= 522) academic staff from two universities. Results reveal that instructors/lecturers??? challenges (inadequate ICT infrastructure and lack of stable electric power) and institutional challenges (lack of consistent practice and limited technical assistance) predominantly affects online instructions and ICT integration. The implication drawn from our findings is that the challenges of online instruction and ICT integration in Ghanaian universities are interrelated. We recommend that stakeholders and policy makers in Ghanaian universities should endeavour to provide holistic solutions rather than solving the identified challenges in isolation.
ABSTRACT
With the global health crisis, COVID-19 brought University education under siege. The situation became even worse for the specialised and practical subjects or programmes that strive on the need for 'physical' or 'real' observations and or manipulations of experiences. This chapter identifies and explains the factors that affected access and participation of the undergraduate student-nurses who are also practising professional nurses in the rollout of a fully online Distance Nursing Education programme. This study, which was ontologically and epistemologically situated within the critical realist philosophy, took place at the University of Ghana and underpinned by the Mezirow's (1978) Transformational Learning Theory. Twelve participants were involved in individual telephonic semi-structured interview. The study found technology and professional practice to be the common factors that affected both access and participation of the student-nurses on the Distance Education (DE) programme. Factors found to affect access to online Distance Nursing Education programme are institution, faculty, peers, family support and resources. The participants revealed that their work shift schedules, practical lecture sessions, family demands, teaching learning and examinations timetabling are factors that affected it. This chapter strongly recommends a revisit to the curriculum design for online Distance Nursing Education programme. Again, the need for substantial investments into technological infrastructure and the capacity building of staff and students in innovative ways of using technology for nursing education in DE are highly recommended. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.