Abstract:

South African universities were forced to transit from face-to-face to online learning (e-learning) as a result of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The result of the sudden shift in teaching caused various challenges amongst students and academic staff worldwide, even more so amongst disadvantaged students. These types of students not only have no background knowledge or experience in the realm of Architecture or Interior Design, but also have never utilized technology in the way that is being asked under COVID-19 conditions. This in turn has created an overwhelming teaching environment for academic staff where they now have to reset an effective Face to face teaching environment, into a full online platform which they themselves have never experienced before.

This study’s main objective is to provide retrospective insight into the struggles academic staff continue to face whilst planning online lessons to successfully support the needs of disadvantaged students. The study will be centred around the Extended Curriculum Programme offered within the Department of Architectural Technology and Interior Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa. The program is a one-year course aimed to support aspiring Architectural Technology and Interior Design students who do not meet academic and practical requirements for the mainstream course. Apart from a lack of academic experience and/or exposure to drawing and design elements, the majority of our classes consist of underprivileged students whom hail from impoverished areas.

Online Surveys and reflection writing assignments were created by Academic staff to evaluate how student’s mental and living conditions were being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and shift in teaching. The goal was for academic staff to gain more knowledge from the student’s perspective in order to provide better support in ways that would improve their online learning experience.

The sudden shift in Face to face to online learning caused students to feel isolated and discouraged, resulting in poor attendance, declining student submissions and lack of interest to learn. While a percentage of students managed to grasp the concept of online learning many ECP students struggled to a point where it was difficult to recover from however, academic staff have slowly been introducing and practicing more online content into the 2021 curriculum to ensure that students over time will become mentally and technically prepared to deal with online learning.

Keywords:

Online teaching, disadvantaged students, education system affected by 2020 pandemic.