Shrinking the digital divide in online learning beyond the COVID-19 pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many businesses, including the education sector. As the World Health organization (WHO) urged numerous countries worldwide to implement lockdowns and social distancing laws to curb the spread of the pandemic, higher education institutions responded by embarking on online learning. This article aims to use the systematic literature review to review articles on reducing the digital divide in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the technology-organisationenvironment (TOE) model, the benefits and challenges profiled will aid in proffering a way forward in handling and managing the digital divide beyond the COVID-19 pandemic in online learning. Using the keywords: digital divide, COVID-19 and online learning to search from online databases, the inclusion criteria resulted in 10 articles being reviewed. The articles revealed that: students faced many technological challenges in connecting to online learning during the COVID-19 epidemic, students need to be properly trained to be able to use online learning systems and they need to subside data packages for many students to afford the data. The study concludes and recommends that the TOE model can be used to elucidate the effects of the digital divide in online learning. The technological, organisational and environmental factors can help proffer a sustainable online learning model for the future, beyond COVID-19 pandemic.