E - Learning during Covid-19 – Perspectives of Academics in a Crisis (original) (raw)

This study offers insights into how e learning, can be sustained in universities in developing countries, using a minimalist approach, during a crisis such as Covid-19. The banning of face-to-face classroom teaching in Zimbabwean universities and the adoption of e learning motivated it. Whilst this was unexpected, unprepared for, with no precedent or blue print, very few studies appear to pay attention to the perspectives of the academics - the people who are doing the teaching of the students and from a developing country perspective. Apparently, those studies that have been conducted to date are largely quantitative and appear to concentrate on the perspectives of students. To address this gap, this study explores how academics at one school and in one department at a university in Masvingo province of Zimbabwe were teaching their students, the challenges they were encountering and the opportunities that were presenting themselves. The researchers adopted a qualitative research de...