Online Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic in Zambian Universities: Unpacking Lecturers’ Experiences and the Implications for Incorporating Online Teaching in the University Pedagogy
Background: Educational institutions both private and public (schools, colleges, and universities) in Zambia are predominantly based on traditional methods (face to face) of teaching and learning. The unexpected outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory？syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) disrupted and shook the entire？world’s formal educational ecosystem. As a result, education systems all across the world, including Zambia, were forced to switch to remote teaching based on online platforms overnight. This study was conducted to explore the experiences of lecturers in delivering lectures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objectives of the Study: To assess the extent to which COVID-19 has influenced the lecturers’ mode of teaching; to establish the lecturer’s attitudes towards online teaching during the covid-19 pandemic, and to explore the lecturer’s online teaching experiences and student interaction during the？COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This study employed a qualitative approach and specifically the narrative design and was largely dependent on primary data. Data？were collected using face to face semi-structured interviews from 16 purposefully sampled University of Zambia lecturers. The data were collected between early November and early December 2020. All interviews lasted between 40-50 minutes. The data from the interviews were recorded manually, transcribed and coded thematically. Narrative descriptions, matrixes and diagrams have been used to present and analyze the findings.
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