ISRRT_COVID-19_book

Challenges that impacted effective online learning and teaching
Limited knowledge of digitally-oriented pedagogies, resources and time were significant
challenges that had to be overcome by both academics and students that are used to contactbased
education in order to have a digital space for effective and engaging learning and
teaching.
During informal interactions with undergraduate diagnostic radiography students they
highlighted four main challenges. For many South African students poor and intermittent
internet connectivity is common due to their geographical location, countrywide electricity
supply interruptions by way of rotation load shedding and the high cost of internet data.
Students also highlighted distractions they experience whilst having to create a conducive
learning environment at home since many of them are expected to complete their household
responsibilities first before they can engage with university-related work and activities.
Hence, they continuously had to adapt to and adopt new learning modes and styles to
mitigate the impacts of the previous two challenges. This also had a negative impact on
students’ time management as they spent more time adapting to the home environment and
therefore had less time to focus on their university work. Students indicated that this was
very overwhelming and stressful but once they managed to get use to the situation they
managed to balance university requirements and home-related responsibilities. Another
challenge faced by many students was that they did not have access to adequate, appropriate
or even any devices to participate effectively in online learning. The data and device
challenges were partly addressed by university-led initiatives by providing resources to
students.
The above student challenges have a domino effect since these impact on how academics’
teaching and learning activities should be designed and implemented to ensure optimal
student engagement so that they learn the required content, as well as enabling them to meet
the learning outcomes required. Complicating the situation further was the time pressures of
having to cover the remaining syllabus in a shortened academic year due to lost time, as well
as presenting each lesson twice to accommodate students across the two learning pathways
that the university rolled out from which students could choose. One can therefore appreciate
that the transition from campus-based to online learning and teaching can have a great
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