Imperative to bridge Africa’s online learning divide
RESEARCH by a University of Cape Town (UCT) PhD student Matthias Krönke reveals that 34 African countries are on strikingly different levels when it comes to online learning.
Krönke, a student at UCT’s Department of Political Studies, said his research into the digital divide in Africa and the continent’s readiness to embrace online remote teaching and learning is imperative.
Universities had to turn to online education when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
In his paper titled “Africa’s digital divide and the promise of e-learning”, Krönke found that different countries responded differently to remote learning.
“From my research it is clear the countries surveyed have very different levels of remote online learning readiness. Hopefully these findings will help us to think differently about who we could turn to when incorporating new technologies. While it’s helpful to learn and adapt to new technologies from the Global North, there is a lot that African countries can learn from each other in this regard,” he said.
The research revealed that only 20% of adults on the continent have access to both a smartphone and a computer, while 43% indicated that they only have access to a basic cellphone.
He said only 20% of adults are “well prepared” to participate or assist members of their family with the online learning transition, and 55% reported to be “ill prepared” for remote learning.
Further, 25% of respondents noted that they are able to participate in digital learning if smartphones or laptop computers are provided.
Interestingly, he said Africans’ readiness to engage in remote learning was primarily shaped by their level of formal education and access to electricity, rather than by their overall wealth and geographic location. “This was surprising to me. I expected that smartphones or laptop computers would have a much bigger effect on citizens’ readiness to participate in, or assist with, remote learning,” he said.
A sizeable digital divide exists among countries on the continent because access to digital devices remains limited.
Bridging the gap will take hard work.
He argued that Africans need access to smartphones and education on digital literacy to make e-learning work. “A preliminary analysis suggests that in the short term, government provision of smartphones and/or computers could redraw the contours of the digital divide.
Albeit effective, this could be a costly intervention.”
He said African countries should focus on providing access to electricity and make quality education a priority in order to close the digital divide.
“It would be great if the Covid-19 pandemic and the forced move to e-learning would also signify the starting point for more inter-university collaboration to develop different models of blended learning. With more opensource tools, opportunities for digital African collaboration increase rapidly.”