Abstract:

The radical change in delivery method caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced students and academics alike into the online space rather than the conventional brick and mortar learning model. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact that the digital divide has on student transition to online learning during the COVID 19 crisis at a selected higher education institution (HEI) in South Africa. Ensuring digital equality during the pandemic was crucial for higher education institutions around the world, to ensure the smooth transition to the online space. To achieve the aim, the study investigated students' Digital literacy level; Social Capital level; Economic Capital level; Digital access level; Ease of transition to online learning, and Skills developed through online learning. Ethical approval was received from the selected HEI in South Africa (SA). An online survey tool through Google docs was administered electronically, by posting it on the institutions’ notice system, to gather primary data. The methodology adopts a quantitative approach of gathering data to understand the impact of the digital divide on students’ transition to online learning. A total of 36 questions are asked with 9 on demographic data, and 25 requiring a rating on a scale or selection from options provided. 2 open-ended responses are included at the end as an option for students’ to provide supporting feedback on the issues being investigated in the questionnaire. The questionnaire was first piloted on 2 students from the identified population, for logic, flow, and understandability. Purposive sampling was adopted. A total sample of 366 students participated in the study, with a large majority being female students, between 18 to 25 years of age, who are SA citizens. The survey results indicate that during the lockdown, the majority of these students were resident in their home-country, SA, with the minority based in rural areas. Preliminary results indicate a significant percentage of the sample had access to free data provided by the institution. However, a significant percentage neither had access to mobile data nor to Wifi nor to free data at the institution. A significant majority had access to >10Gb of data per month. The overall quality of the internet regarding quality, reliability, signal and speed was found to be either ‘poor at times’ or ‘good at times’ by a significant proportion of the sample, in each case. A large majority indicated that they found the cost of internet access significantly expensive. It was noted that literacy levels had a significant effect on student perceptions of general usefulness of online learning. Further, the analysis indicated that digital literacy is a significant predictor of fostering independence. Good literacy levels for online tools are a significant predictor of perception that online learning is useful. There is significant agreement that both personal and engagement skills have been developed with online learning.

Keywords:

Digital divide, online learning, digital capital, social capital, economic capital, online skills, commerce students, South Africa.