ABSTRACT
BackgroundAfrica, like other parts of the world, continuously strives to deliver quality health professions education. These efforts are influenced to a larger extent by the socio-economic and cultural context of the region, but also by what happens globally. The global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 necessitated the implementation of emergency remote teaching to continue delivering on the mandate of educating future health professionals. The purpose of this research was to describe the response of selected health professions education institutions in Southern Africa to the impact of COVID-19 and their preparedness for remote learning and teaching.MethodsA case study design was applied using an adapted ADKAR model as a conceptual framework for data interpretation. The purposively selected study population consisted of educators, students, and administrators in undergraduate medical and nursing programmes from six institutions in five countries.ResultsA total of 1307 respondents provided data for the study. Many of the institutions were caught off-guard when most educators and almost all students were required to leave their universities and go home. Stakeholders immediately became aware of the need to adopt online approaches as an emergency measure. In all programmes, educators, students, and administrators agreed that change was desired, and students realised that they had to take charge of their own learning independently. Overall educators reported confidence in the ability to use of standard Microsoft software, while knowledge of learning management systems proved more challenging for both educators and students. Many stakeholders, especially students and administrators, reported uncertainty about their ability to function in the new reality. Conducive family dynamics, a quiet space to study, good connectivity, a reliable electricity supply and appropriate devices were reported to reinforce learning and teaching.ConclusionsThe findings highlight the need for higher education institutions to prepare for alternative modes to face-to-face learning and teaching approaches with the ultimate aim of transitioning to full online learning more expeditiously. This requires scaling up educational infrastructure, prioritising strategic directives driving continuous professional development of educators and fostering co-constructivist approaches towards student centered education.
ABSTRACT
This article explores impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on elementary and junior high schools in Japan through preliminary analyses of nation-wide surveys conducted under the commission of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). After explaining the outline of the research project, this paper elucidates outcomes of preliminary analyses of the first wave of the school survey. The analyses reveal that over the school closure period in 2020, schools identified communication difficulties between teachers and students and their parents as well as those between students in each school. Although those communication problems were substantially mitigated in most schools after the end of school closure, the increasing workload of teachers has been realized as a serious problem since the reopening of schools to date. Whereas the similar patterns in problem recognition were observed, those communication problems are more seriously recognized in the three major metropolitan areas than in the other regions, despite that the same problems occurred in any regions to some extent. The paper concludes that results of the comprehensive research are highly expected to provide meaningful empirical evidence for policy making for the central and local governments to support schools and students under the pandemic. © 2021 Japanese Association for Mathematical Sociology. All rights reserved.