Move to Online Learning during COVID-19 Lockdown: Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences in Ghana

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has brought another dimension to teaching and learning across the levels of education. The lockdown imposed in many countries to curtail the pandemic forced many institutions of learning to shift to the online mode of teaching and learning. Using a descriptive survey research design, this study explored the online learning experiences of pre-service teachers at a Ghanaian university during the COVID-19 lockdown. The study focused on the pre-service teachers’ preparedness for online learning in terms of their digital literacy and technological devices used for online learning, their positive online learning experiences, and the challenges they encountered learning online. The findings suggested that the pre-service teachers were digitally literate and mostly accessed online learning using smartphones. Besides, online learning enabled them to communicate and collaborate actively with their course mates and lecturers. It was found that the flexibility of online learning increased the students’ motivation to learn. However, poor internet connectivity, the high cost of data, erratic power supply, lack of appropriate devices, inability to effectively manage their time, and family interruptions were some of the challenges experienced by the pre-service teachers.

The Usefulness of Online Learning During the Covid19 Pandemic as Perceived by Engineering Education Students: A Multidimensional Model

“…A study (conducted in Ghana) showed that pre-service teachers were digitally literate and mostly accessed online learning using smartphones. An increase in motivation to learn was also observed due to the flexibility of online learning (Ogbonnaya et al, 2020). It is important to emphasize the peculiarities of pedagogical/educational studies.…”

Fostering Media Literacy Skills in the EFL Virtual Classroom: A Case Study in the COVID-19 Lockdown Period

“…They applied and presented the results of their scientific works through social media groups (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. ); online libraries and torrent sites were often the only sources of knowledge and information for learners (Marinoni et al, 2020;Ogbonnaya et al, 2020).…”

Challenges and Support for Pre-service Teachers’ Virtual Teaching and Practicums: Implications for Bahamian Educational Systems

“…According to Ogbonnaya et al (2020), this is not an advantage for struggling learners who may not understand the information presented and require assistance from a teacher who is instructing via a face-to-face format. Individualized instruction, similar to whole class instruction, is often interrupted in the virtual setting due to disturbances from family members and other distractions in the home.…”

“…While virtual education is supported by research (Ogbonnaya et al, 2020) as an effective method of education delivery, the issue of device availability should be taken into consideration. Current research cited insufficient or lack of available devices such as laptops, tablets, and personal computers as a limitation to online instruction across K-12 virtual classrooms.…”