Emergency Remote Instruction (ERI) in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Educators at Zimbabwean Higher Education Institutions

ABSTRACT

As part of COVID-19 containment measures, the government of Zimbabwe declared a state of emergency on 17 March 2020 and higher education institutions closed by 24 March 2020. Against this background, this chapter seeks to examine the experiences and preparedness of educators in adopting, and adapting to, emergency remote instruction (ERI) on one hand, and availability of infrastructure that facilitates ERI on the other hand. Our study was prompted by the prevailing challenges faced by educators in transitioning from conventional face-to-face teaching to ERI through Google Classroom, Zoom teaching, and other platforms. This qualitative research adopted an exploratory research design. Data was gathered through telephone interviews, Zoom and Skype meetings, and online questionnaires. Purposive and convenient samplings were utilized for the selection of six key informants and 30 educators from six higher education institutions in Zimbabwe. The findings reveal that the majority of the educators were not ready to adopt ERI in performing their duties. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.