The Transition of Universities from Face to Face teaching to Online Teaching: The Covid-19 Calamity

Abstract

The covid-19 plague has brought about momentous challenges for the higher institutions of learning worldwide. A particular challenge has been the sudden and urgent need for previously face to face learning to move online. Online learning calls for a certain science of teaching, mostly redesigning the face to face curriculum to suit the online learning mode as well as ensuring that the latter provides a distinctive and comfortable learning space, with the help of digital technologies. This paper provides some possible insights into this online learning related to the science of teaching, with the aim of helping university lecturers with little or no experience with online teaching to navigate in these challenging times. The findings point at the design of learning activities and teaching methods with certain features at the university of Namibia's Rundu campus and the need for adapting assessment to the new learning requirements. Interviews were conducted to find discernments on how online teaching and learning may be directed during the pandemic. The inquiries were made through lecturers teaching Integrated and Media Technology and those teaching Educational Technology modules at the university of Namibia. Data were analysed thematically. All in all, the paper provides insights on how responding to the covid-19 predicament may subdue teaching and learning practices in the post-digital world.