The perceptions of teachers about the effectiveness and efficiency of e-learning in rural schools in the Eastern Cape during COVID-19

September, Khanyile https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0354-3188

Title: The perceptions of teachers about the effectiveness and efficiency of e-learning in rural schools in the Eastern Cape during COVID-19
Creator: September, Khanyile https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0354-3188
Subject: Distance education -- South Africa
Subject: Rural schools -- Effect of technological innovations on
Date: 2023
Type: Master's theses
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/29540
Identifier: vital:77976
Description: The digital gap has been hitting rural schools across the world. This has also been witnessed in South Africa. This digital gap is a result of inequality amongst households. Hence, learners and teachers from rural schools cannot access technologies as urban learners and teachers do. This situation has caused a lack of connectivity, lack of information about ICT, lack of resources, and lack of skilled teachers in rural schools. Globally, almost all countries have shifted to do things online. However, some countries struggled to shift successfully such as India. The introduction of elearning in South African government schools was done with the aim of improving results performance and to develop skills in learners and allow a flexible learning environment. In some urban and semi-urban areas, teachers are able to use new technologies to teach; however, rural teachers are bound to use traditional teaching only. The problem actually surfaced when the new pandemic known as COVID-19 started in Wuhan, China, in 2019 and spread across the world. This also affected the South African education systems, where teachers and learners were ordered to stay away from school premises and institutions, as way of preventing the virus from spreading. Rural teachers could not perform any academic activities, like urban schools did, to reach out to their learners as they wished because of the challenges stated above. Using e-learning during the 2020 pandemic was an unending nightmare for these rural teachers as they faced more challenges than those that had existed prior to COVID-19. The identified challenges discussed in this paper are those that were experienced by Alfred Nzo district teachers. This paper also refers to how e-learning was used by these teachers. Challenges identified in the literature were addressed through guidance of the UTUAT model which was adopted for the study. Each problem was categorised in line with UTUAT model four construct. The two branches of philosophies were brought in which are ontology and epistemology. Ontology asks question about the reality or existence of something and epistemology asks question about proving he existence of something. This study adopted the qualitative approach and followed that approach in terms of research paradigm, data sampling, data collection and analysis and techniques. Interviews were conducted with 15 teachers (teachers, head of department, school principal and subject advisor) from high and primary school levels, after the consent forms had been issued to obtain permission to proceed with interviews. Notes and audio recordings were made use of during interview sessions for data analysis purposes, with NVivo being used to analyse the data. Form the issues identified, these are the themes that were created which are:poor understanding of the concept “e-learning” by rural educators, high levels of resistance from educators, pedagogy of educators, insufficient support of the concept “e-learning”, poor implementation of e-learning. Lastly, after the data had been collected and analysed, this study developed five new success factors that should be implemented by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to address issues identified as themes after thorough analysis of the literature and interviews.
Description: Thesis (MIS) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2023
Format: computer
Format: online resource
Format: application/pdf
Format: 1 online resource (xiii, 137 pages)
Format: pdf
Publisher: University of Fort Hare
Publisher: Faculty of Management and Commerce
Language: English
Rights: rights holder
Rights: All Rights Reserved
Rights: Open Access

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