Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Sub-Saharan African Third-Year Students Studying Computer Science and Information Technology
7th IEEE World Engineering Education Conference, EDUNINE 2023
; 2023.
Article
in English
| Scopus | ID: covidwho-2323368
ABSTRACT
Low vaccination rates, inferior-quality vaccines, limited testing, and a lack of funding forced many institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa into online-learning-only environments for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instructors scrambled to put classes online. Only in 2022 did some face-to-face classes resume. Unforeseeable and unprecedented circumstances forced university personnel to function with reduced budgets and without regard for the return to in-person classes. We taught, studied, and analyzed a cohort of third-year Sub-Saharan African students who spent their first two years of studies online. We describe the struggles they faced and what can be done to make up for their shortcomings and missed opportunities. We quantify the shortcomings through focus groups, an analysis of what parts of an accredited program would have fallen short, interviews, and through anecdotal evidence. Our findings can help those who suffered a similar fate. These observations can be applied to non-STEM disciplines. © 2023 IEEE.
COVID-19 pandemic impact; curriculum development; face-to-face instruction; higher education; online learning; STEM disciplines; Budget control; Curricula; E-learning; Education computing; Engineering education; Students; Vaccines; Fundings; High educations; Inferior quality; STEM discipline; Sub-Saharan; Sub-saharan africa; COVID-19
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
Scopus
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Vaccines
Language:
English
Journal:
7th IEEE World Engineering Education Conference, EDUNINE 2023
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
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