Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Lecturers’ Experiences with Digital Assessments and Continuity of Digital Transformation in the Higher Education

Version 1 : Received: 26 July 2023 / Approved: 28 July 2023 / Online: 31 July 2023 (04:32:19 CEST)

How to cite: Zitha, I.; Mokganya, G.; Sinthumule, O. Lecturers’ Experiences with Digital Assessments and Continuity of Digital Transformation in the Higher Education. Preprints 2023, 2023072037. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202307.2037.v1 Zitha, I.; Mokganya, G.; Sinthumule, O. Lecturers’ Experiences with Digital Assessments and Continuity of Digital Transformation in the Higher Education. Preprints 2023, 2023072037. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202307.2037.v1

Abstract

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the higher education sector in South Africa. However, academics and students’ preparedness and competencies have been considered a major conundrum concerning the integration of online learning in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to examine the academics’ perspectives on a blend of a metaverse in the higher education sector in the post-COVID-19 era at one of the South African rural-based universities. A survey was administered in 2022 to ten (10) academics and the reports were consulted from four (4) E-learning practitioners to solicit their perceptions regarding the use of online learning and contact classes in the post-pandemic era. A qualitative research approach was employed to comprehend the challenges encountered in a historically disadvantaged rural-based university in Limpopo Province. The findings of this study show that there are major issues and challenges impeding the establishment of effective e-learning education. Consequently, technological continuity as a new normal in the post-COVID-19 era appears to be unattainable due to the challenges encountered by the students and lecturers. The use of Learning Management Systems among academics seems to have deteriorated due to the adjustments in COVID-19 rules and regulations. Furthermore, the findings revealed that most academics believed that contact learning remains irreplaceable throughout generations and ages as some are technophilic. This paper recommends that the incompetence and technological resistance and reluctance in adopting transformative pedagogies may not be used as a stumbling block to consider e-learning as a viable option to discontinue online education.

Keywords

Technophilia; Connectivism; Learning Management System; Affordances; transformative pedagogy; Moodle

Subject

Social Sciences, Education

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