Abstract:

One of the major global equity issues confronting us is the ‘‘digital divide’’, which has exacerbated the existing learning barriers. This is irrespective of whether the mode of teaching and learning is online or remote, or face-to-face. Moreover, such inequalities at times, compromise education. Generally, the digital divide is defined as a gap between people who have access to new forms of information technology, and those who do not have any access. It also appears that following the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, online teaching and assessment has, in one way or another, exposed certain inequalities, especially in education. Worse, there are fears that working remotely post the COVID-19 pandemic might also widen the inequality gap. For this study, the researcher will conduct a bibliometric analysis of publications or journal articles on the ‘‘digital divide’’ and teaching and assessment in higher education. She will gather the necessary data from the Scopus database and employ a qualitative methodology and analyse the data, using thematic analysis and bibliometric analysis. VOSviewer will be used to analyse the data. This study, will, therefore, explore the negative effects of the digital divide in teaching and learning, as well as assessment. Much of the literature reviewed suggests that the digital divide possess a major challenge for remote or online teaching, learning and assessment in certain parts of the world: hence, this paper presents the challenges brought by the digital divide in higher education during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The significance of this study is that it will seek to address the digital inequalities that are negatively impacting education, which would inform the development of global programmes to ensure that ‘‘no student is left behind’’ in teaching and learning.

Keywords:

Digital divide, teaching and learning, assessment, online learning, COVID-19, bibliometric analysis.