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RUFORUM Thought Piece on COVID-19: Assessing the Opportunities and Challenges of Online Learning-Prof. Ezin

Published

5 years ago

on

September 28, 2020

By

Mark Wamai

RUFORUM Thought piece on COVID-19 by Professeur Eugène C. Ezin, Director Institute for Training and Research in Computer Science, University of Abomey Calavi

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African Universities in post COVID-19: Assessing the Opportunities and Challenges of Online Learning

Appeared in China in December 2019, the coronavirus quickly spread across the world and has more than nine hundred thousand deaths as of September 16, 2020. Africa remains one of the least affected continents in terms of victims. The business world and the education system were seriously affected. However, there have been many opportunities for both Africa and the rest of the world. In this piece, I discuss, among other things, the opportunities and challenges related to e-learning, the training costs in the context of COVID-19, some platforms for e-learning, the quality of online courses and the educational policy to support the massive use of ICT in education.

Opportunities and Challenges of Online Learning

The emergence of COVID-19 has triggered opportunities for many stakeholders to resort to new ways of working, particularly through use of remote technique tools. The education system has also shifted in most countries towards e-learning with the integration of videoconferencing tools for educational purposes. These new avenues presented two key opportunities such as service continuity and reduction of pollution and greenhouse gases.

Several African countries embarked on online learning without prior preparation as this appeared to be the only alternative likely to ensure the continuity of teaching services.