Psychosocial Implications, Students Integration/Attrition, and Online Teaching and Learning in South Africa’s Higher Education Institutions in the Context of COVID-19

Abstract

This article explores the psychosocial impact of online teaching and learning on students, following the decision by South African universities to move teaching and learning from physical contact platforms to cyberspace interactions. South Africa’s intervention, like many other countries, adopted the necessary measures that would prevent the spread of the virus among its population, particularly educational institutions. One such measure was the decision to shut down institutions in South Africa and the contingent measure to operationalise teaching and learning using cyberspace. The unprecedented move to online teaching engendered levels of anxiety and fear, and presented a highly disruptive and traumatic experience for many students, especially those from impoverished and rural backgrounds. While focusing on student psychosocial vulnerabilities during this pandemic, the article also presents background factors such as social and economic factors that constrain student success in South Africa’s higher education institutions (HEIs), and which became exacerbated during the pandemic. It further explores the behavioural significance of online teaching and learning’s impact on the physical and psychological energy that students devote to their academic work. The study is underpinned by psychosocial and student-integration theories, and it weaves the argument articulated by leaning heavily on the secondary data. Lastly, by way of recommendation, the study highlights the unique challenges that the COVID-19 disaster posed for South African students in HEIs and emphasises the need to give symbolic attention to these unique challenges. The study, therefore, is proposing improvement in preparedness and the mitigation of societal disruption in South African society and higher education during future pandemics.

The Influence of Internet-Specific Epistemic Beliefs on Academic Achievement in an Online Collaborative Learning Context for College Students

“…Despite the fact that online collaborative learning is a widely adopted learning approach in the educational field in the era of educational informatization [65], not all online collaborative learning results in good learning outcomes [66]. In order to improve the quality of online collaborative learning among university students, this paper firstly examines the relationship between Internet-specific epistemic beliefs and online collaborative academic achievement.…”

Higher Education in Mexico: The Effects and Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Sinaloa and Quintana Roo were the States most affected, with their dropout rates rising from 8.8% to 18.0% and 14.3% to 18.0%, respectively, between 2019 and 2020 [7]. This trend was observed worldwide [29,30], even in primary and secondary education [31]. These reports analyze various indicators such as school closures, student enrollment, dropouts, and student perceptions.…”

How Formal and Nonformal Education Shapes a Student: A Case of Minke from Pramoedya A. Toer’s Buru Tetralogy

“…Notably, Learning is omnipresent, often eluding recognition due to its ubiquitous nature. A prevalent sentiment among tertiary students asserting superior learning outcomes from extramural engagements (Almohesh & Altamimi, 2024;Lombardi et al, 2021;Otu et al, 2023;Rodriguez & Crawford, 2022;Shoeib, 2022), advocating for the integration of external experiences to foster "seamless learning." Additionally, multifaceted domains facilitate learning in outdoor educational contexts, advocating for the systematic integration of outdoor pedagogies across diverse settings and demographics (Abdrakhmanov et al, 2024;Armstrong, 2021;Barfod et al, 2022;Bautista et al, 2021;Gal & Gan, 2020).…”