Investigating the E-Learning Challenges Faced by Students during Covid-19 in Namibia

Abstract

Over the past two decades, e-learning has become an increasingly important field of study that has attracted scholarly and policy makers’ attention. Many developing nations have embraced e-learning as a tool to enhance accessibility and affordability of higher education. During the COVID-19 lockdown period, many universities across the world were forced to embrace online teaching and learning to circumvent lockdowns, social distancing and other public health interventions put in place to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Consequently, this study sought to establish students’ experiences with the e-learning mode during the COVID-19 lockdown in Namibia. The paper discusses the results of an online survey of 137 undergraduate students about their experiences using e-learning technologies during the COVID-19-induced university closures. An online survey instrument was created on Google forms and a link distributed to students through WhatsApp class groups. Quantitative data were presented through frequency tables and figures, whilst we adopted thematic content analysis to analyse qualitative data. The results of the survey indicate that mobile devices remained the primary computing device used to access academic information. An analysis of the study results led to the emergence of five themes, viz, e-learning system accessibility, e-learning platform layout, resources to access Internet and network, isolation and home environment that captured student challenges with online classes. This paper argues that e-learning is still faced by a myriad of challenges that need to be addressed if it is to be a success. Furthermore, we advance the argument for mobile learning as a viable option for Africa due to the ubiquity of mobile devices.