COVID-19 and technology enhanced teaching in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa:A Case of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented disruption to universities in Africa. Similarly, on March 19, 2020, the Tanzanian government ordered all colleges and universities to be closed as the mitigation step against the virus's risk. The University of Dar es Salaam appointed a task force to lead the process of rolling out the university-wide technology-enhanced teaching during and after COVID-19. The team started by conducting an audit to identify existing ICT infrastructure, skills gap amongst instructors, and possible information systems that could be quickly adopted. Through this audit, three information systems: Moodle System, zoom video conferencing system, and Postgraduate Information Management System (PGMIS) were identified and recommended. Similarly, skills gap analysis amongst instructors was conducted on the identified information systems. After the audit, 340 instructors were trained on PGMIS and Moodle System, with 369 new courses being developed and uploaded. Similarly, 551 instructors and 845 students were uploaded into the PGMIS. This article aims to share an experience in the University's process of adopting and delivering technology-enhanced teaching and learning during the COVID-19 crisis. The experience from the steps taken by UDSM in embracing technology in teaching activities during the COVID-19 crisis will contribute to the body of knowledge around online learning, especially in resource constrained universities in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

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Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/483

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https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/1d8a3352-b041-4a3b-b65b-fc41f259da0e