(IMAESCII516) Article Review 6: 'Web-based Learning in Periods of Crisis: Reflections on the Impact of COVID-19' (2020)

Article reviewed:

Chiemeke, Stella and Imafidor, Omokhagbo Mike, Web-based Learning In Periods of Crisis: Reflections on the Impact of COVID-19 (July 14, 2020). International Journal of Computer Science & Information Technology (IJCSIT) Vol 12, No 3, June 2020, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3650893. 

As one of the first papers which highlighted the potential implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in online education, it began with a question for both learners and educators on how to respond adequately in the challenges of learning during this pandemic. As both education and health sectors play a key role in a country's development narrative, the pandemic exposed the main challenges of inadequacy among schools and universities in coping with the technology which has long been introduced; and at a time when this health pandemic happened. The paper underscored a research gap that there have not much research and papers which looked at the short-term shocks of teaching and learning published previously. 

Although the authors claimed that the short-term impact to the teaching and learning experiences will be largely negative, they argue that the experiences will be mainstreamed to generate more positive experiences in the long-term. The paper also introduced us to the different learning theories for online education which makes it a good reference material if you need a ‘one-stop-shop’ document to obtain snippets of these theories, rather than reading other voluminous articles and primary sources.  It also provided a theoretical grounding on the implications of the pandemic to the eight dimensions of online learning that were disrupted. Additionally, it offered recommendations to address the various challenges of embracing online technologies, maintaining the online environment secure, and in addressing the existing digital divide among the privileged and underprivileged sectors and learners. One terminology they introduced which piqued my interest was on how teachers should shift their mindsets to become ‘digital chaplains.’ 

The weakness of this paper is that it was not edited well. I was slighlty taken aback by some typographical and textual errors of the document which could have been revised before publishing. In terms of content, the authors acknowledged that empirical data was one of the limitations of this paper. However, there could be some anecdotal evidences they could incorporate to the paper to provide substance in some of the potential implications they outlined.   

Nevertheless, this is a still a very good read. Highly recommended to spark conversations in your classes and online forum discussions!

Study/Work-from-home arrangements have greatly affected the teachers in creating an engaging learning environment. Students also encounter the same challenges as well, most especially challenges for access of functional learning technologies and internet access. (Photo by McRhon)