An Introspection Into Instructional Challenges at a University in Zimbabwe During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

At the inception of COVID-19 in Zimbabwe, all institutions of learning were ordered to close and allow learners to receive learning from their homes from the 24th of March 2020 after which universities resorted to remote instruction. This paper is interested in assessing the challenges that were being faced in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at a university in Zimbabwe when conducting instruction during the lockdown. Data was collected through semi-structured telephone interviews with 28 research participants who comprised four lecturers from each of the seven departments in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The results of the study showed that the only possible way of teaching during lockdown was utilization of internet communication. Conclusions of the study showed that while online teaching emerged as the only strategy for remote teaching, there was need to do an intensive pre-assessment of available resources for enabling remote instruction.