Time to study the lived experiences of students, staff

In the African higher education context, it is difficult to imagine public universities facing a more intense set of challenges than what they are experiencing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started in spring 2020, public universities in Africa closed, while some private universities, like many universities globally, switched to online learning.

The onset of the global pandemic not only threatened the well-being of individuals and communities, but also the survival of business operations as well as teaching and learning in higher education institutions.

Disruptions and loss of life

Indeed, COVID-19 disrupted every aspect of people’s lives.

In a joint statement, the International Labour Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the World Health Organization noted that the pandemic had led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presented an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems, and the world of work.

In the case of higher education, the crisis hit universities, both public and private, particularly hard.

As the COVID Education Alliance or, COVIDEA, noted in an October 2020 report, “The COVID-19 pandemic is far more than a health crisis – it is affecting societies and economies at their core and will have long-lasting consequences.”

The report is titled Adapting education systems to a fast-changing and increasingly digital world through the use of appropriate technologies.

The internet moment and the digital divide

Given the difficult pandemic situation, one major tool for supporting and sustaining the learning process is the internet.

Advances in technology have enabled students and professors to continue working and learning, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19.

Technology platforms such as Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, Microsoft 365, and Webex, among others, have made it possible for universities and organisations to not only reduce the costs associated with the delivery of training, but also to increase the effectiveness of the learning environment and help improve learning and teaching functions, especially for adult learners in colleges and universities.

In addition, technology advances have led to interactive learning and virtual platforms that are more sophisticated and now provide a video conferencing environment with high-quality eye contact, voice, and body language contexts.

For many public universities in Africa, obtaining financial resources to invest in digital learning infrastructure such as high-speed internet, learning management systems, Wi-Fi and computer hardware remains extremely difficult, write Gerald Wangenge-Ouma and Tawana Kupe in an August 2020 report of Universities South Africa titled Uncertain times: Re-imagining universities for new, sustainable futures.

Many universities in Africa suffer from limited digital infrastructure, capacity and connectivity, which made the transition to online learning even more difficult, as pointed out by Paul Tiyambe Zeleza and Paul Mzee Okanda in an article in University World News.

This is especially true for universities with large contingents of under-represented groups, such as ethnic minorities, women, learners in urban slums and rural areas, and those from low social and economic statuses in various African countries.

Is virtual workplace here to stay?

The notion of relying on a virtual workplace in higher education raises more questions than answers.

All university employees and students working and learning face-to-face, virtually, or in a hybrid format must make a deliberate effort to understand how the virtual workplace affects work practice and productivity, and the morale of faculty, staff and learners.

The relative importance of new internet technologies to those working and learning virtually is an open question that deserves to be studied the world over.

And, by extension, the question of how the virtual workplace has assisted the development and delivery of optimal teaching and learning must be addressed post-COVID-19.

There is an urgent need to study the lived experiences of faculty, leaders, students, teachers and staff who use virtual work settings.

In addition, further research into the mental health and well-being of students, faculty and staff during and after the COVID pandemic is necessary. The lessons learned would improve future face-to-face, remote and virtual workplace learning environments going forward.

An urgent need for collaboration

Based on the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for digital learning to benefit Africa, universities on the continent should collaborate directly with well-established universities in the areas of digital learning and mobile learning within Africa and outside Africa.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the positive impact of technology in ensuring the continued operation of universities around the world.

As educators, we must use technology and computers as tools to build better learning processes aimed at improving the learning and teaching processes.

African universities, as centres of excellence in teaching, research and outreach, should take up the challenge of promoting distance education while keeping in mind the cardinal principle of education: quality assurance.

The provision of higher education through virtual technology platforms should not be left to economic entrepreneurs alone, however. Instead, higher education professions should respond to the urgent need to work collaboratively with business and industry peers to harness technology for the purpose of advancing learning aimed at improving the human condition.

As professional educators and researchers, faculty should take the lead in digital and mobile learning innovations in education, training and development.

After all, technology can support the teaching and learning process only if the teacher facilitates the process. Even with the advancement of artificial intelligence, there is no way that technology will replace the human teacher, at least for many years to come.

For universities in Africa to make meaningful progress, there is an urgent need to continuously and meaningfully engage with those in the diaspora as was done recently during the Carnegie African Diaspora Alumni Convening in Washington, DC.

It brought together academics from Canada and the US to, among other things, share practices, learnings, challenges and opportunities, advance collaborative projects and identify policy priorities and recommendations to inform existing policy frameworks in African higher education.

Fredrick Muyia Nafukho is professor of educational administration and human resource development and senior associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Education and Human Resource Development, Texas A&M University, United States. The views expressed in this article are his own and not of his employer. He can be reached at nafukho@gmail.com. This commentary is based on a paper that was presented at the Carnegie African Diaspora Convening in Washington, DC on 9-10 October 2021.