Abstract:

The coronavirus disease 2019 has impacted every aspect of society, from social and economic sectors to higher education across the globe. The pandemic resulted in the closure of educational institutions and decisions that would have taken months took weeks. For some universities, the shift from contact classes to online lecturing was swift because they already had mechanism in place for online teaching and assessment. For others, the shift was more challenging due to limited resources and capacity. Adapting education practices to crises is nothing new, but in contrast to past experiences, the world has never witnessed or experienced a global education lockdown. The pandemic has challenged the higher education sector to critically assess how teaching and learning takes place and how to optimally use online learning to equip students with skills needed for the workplace. When the 2015/2016 #FeesMustFall protest actions swept through South African universities, some Institutions of Higher Education introduced contingency plans to ensure that learning continued via online platforms. In 2020, universities had to draw on lesson learned during the student protest actions to ensure the continuity of teaching and learning amid the unprecedented challenges associated with Covid-19.

Our paper serves two purposes. Firstly, we qualitatively explore and report on undergraduate Criminology lecturers’ experiences regarding online teaching because of the rapid transition from contact to virtual classes. Five Criminology lecturers were interviewed by means of virtual platforms and phone calls. The semi-structured interviews provide a rich understanding of lecturer’s fears, creativity, and challenges experienced. Secondly, we represent the results of a survey involving 322 undergraduate students registered for Criminology modules. The survey data stems from the COVID-19 International Student Well-Being Study (C19 ISWS). C19 ISWS is the result of a study design, study protocol and questionnaire developed by a team of the University of Antwerp, Belgium. A consortium of universities from 24 countries, including four from South Africa, participated in the survey (the present article reports on the survey results of only one South African university).

The lecturers highlighted the limited time and subsequent stress in preparing for online teaching and learning and commented positively on the opportunities which online assessment provides. Additionally, the lecturers commented on their and the students’ feelings of isolation and adapting to working from home. The survey results suggest that students significantly (p < 0.001; r = 0.49) spent more time on online activities during lockdown, 46.1% strongly disagreed that online education offered by the university was of a poorer standard and two-thirds agreed that their workload had increased amid going fully online. The pandemic caught the world off-guard. Our study demonstrates that technological advancement is indispensable, and it is imperative to develop lecturers’ technical and pedagogical skills for remote learning. All hands have been on deck, from universities management, academic staff, learning designers, educational developers, to students, working together to achieve one goal, that is to ensure that no student is left behind.

Keywords:

Online, Covid-19, Teaching and Learning, Criminology, institutions of higher education, students, lecturers.