Reflections on the transition to online teaching for health science education during the COVID-19 pandemic

Speech–language therapy educator reflections on the planning and implementation of education and training during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Thus, capacity development for remote teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) became an immediate focus for university leadership (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021). Educators felt ill-equipped to encourage student participation in an online environment where they were aware that students had limited use of ICT for the purpose of learning (Al-Yateem et al, 2021;Kumar, et al, 2021), and they were suddenly required to develop an online presence and engage with http://www.sajcd.org.za Open Access students (McGill, Turrietta, & Lal, 2021). The educators tended to describe students as unresponsive during online teaching and learning (Yakar, 2021).…”

“…However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the temporary halting of all in-person learning opportunities in training platforms such as schools, hospitals and other clinical sites (Kumar et al, 2021 ), concerns were raised regarding appropriate clinical practice and even whether this could be successfully performed using online delivery. Therefore, the proposed move to online teaching was daunting, as most academic and clinical educators were unfamiliar with online teaching principles, theories and strategies (Al-Yateem et al, 2021 ). However, Khoza-Shangase, Moroe and Neille ( 2021 ) highlight the need for the South African speech–language pathology (SLP) profession to seriously consider this mode of delivery for the provision of clinical services, as well as for education and supervision even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Universities and schools across the world experienced lockdown and total closure of learning institutions around March 2020, impacting more than 94% of the world’s student population (Al-Yateem et al, 2021 ; Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021 ). Thus, they had to discontinue face-to-face teaching to slow down the rise in numbers of new infections and deaths (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021 ).…”

“…A Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) survey conducted in 2020 on 13 000 students in South Africa reported that 40% of respondents could not buy food during the pandemic, whilst 30% did not have a suitable study space, 6% did not have electricity and more than 40% felt socially isolated (Krull & De Klerk, 2021 ). Whilst these realities are not new, emergency remote learning has brought them to the fore and required monitoring of students’ performance, health and participation by support and teaching staff (Al-Yateem et al, 2021 ; Oyedotun, 2020 ).…”

“…The educators tended to describe students as unresponsive during online teaching and learning (Yakar, 2021 ). Common methods to facilitate engagement included online quizzes and interactive class sessions encouraging group work (Al-Yateem et al, 2021 ). Training for emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL) for educators was sudden and covered copious amounts of content over a limited amount of time.…”