Experiences from Online Teaching and Learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Implications for Future Digital Education
Marianne Synnes Emblemsvåg
Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced education systems worldwide to find alternatives to face-to-face teaching. Although digital education has provided the opportunity to continue teaching despite the pandemic, several challenges have been identified. This paper reviews the experiences from online teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results indicate that the experiences from online teaching and learning, have not been unanomously positive. Lack of internet connectivity and suitable digital equipment, lack of student-teacher and student-student interaction, challenges for students with special needs, students’ lack of motivation and unprepared teachers, are among the challenges identified. Scaling up digital teaching and learning has been a political goal in many countries for years, and online teaching is considered the solution for achieving life long learning. There are however, challenges that must be solved before online teaching alone can be considered as a replacement for traditional classroom teaching.