Abstract
Using mixed-method approach and technology acceptance model (TAM)/diffusion of innovation theory (DOIT), this study evaluates the challenges and opportunities of COVID-19 driven virtual learning in undergraduate media programmes at Ghanaian public universities. A survey of 270 was sampled composed of 250 students and 20 lecturers and revealed that commitment from both lecturers and students towards virtual instruction is weak. We also found that lecturers and students were not consulted about the learning platforms the universities chose, and they had no orientation on their usage. However, some participants argue that virtual learning is crucial to media studies going forward and by these; we propose a blended learning approach that merges the physical and virtual spaces of instruction in a framework termed CHALLOPP workflow.
Introduction
After years of running brick-and-mortar classroom system, Ghana’s tertiary institutions made strides towards digitising teaching and learning where ‘educational technology’ (EduTech) became a buzzword. During that era, Ghana emphasised shifting from board and marker-based face-to-face instruction to technology-enhanced approaches. However, the ‘effectiveness of EduTech depends on the strength of national networks and technology connectivity’ (Ngare, 2020, p. 2). With advances in Internet and multimedia technologies (Kim & Bong, 2006, p. 25), Ghana’s public universities migrated from the utilisation of computer applications by lecturers and students in a physical classroom to distance learning (Addy & Ofori-Boateng, 2015). Thus, the integration of information and communications technology (ICT) into Ghana’s tertiary education improved teaching and learning, pedagogy and communication (Mikre, 2011). These were driven by international agencies: the World Bank sponsored the African Virtual University to deliver online education in Kenya and Senegal and later handed ownership to Africa with branches in other African universities (Limb, 2005, p. 12) including Ghana. In 2000, the World Bank Infodev Project helped established fibre optic wide area network infrastructure named the rresearch and educational network that enables local universities and government agencies to collaborate with foreign counterparts (Intsiful et al., 2003).
Despite these strides, Ghana is still low in ICT connectivity though it was the first to access Internet in sub-Sahara Africa (Instiful et al., 2003), and to Edumadze and Owusu (2013), it has been tedious for [some] lecturers to utilise the available ICT resources. The Accra Institute of Technology (AIT, 2020, n.p.) concurs as follows: ‘Don’t be surprised that in 2020, some of your professors may not even know how to prepare PowerPoint slides to think of teaching students on Zoom or Google classroom.’ Thus, universities in Ghana appear to have conflated distance learning and online/e-learning though the latter still uses the traditional face-to-face instruction approach termed ‘blended learning’ because it somewhat incorporates ICT (Hatsu & Asamoah, 2020). To Eggert (2019, p. 37), blended learning enables learners to assemble physically and virtually to enjoy both training models and more significantly, emphasises how e-learning can impact journalism training in developing countries. Amid these challenges, COVID-19 broke out which Singhal and Kim (2021, p. 135) describes as follows: ‘descending on us in an unexpected, uncontrollable and unpredictable manner, disrupting the world order and affecting all sectors of human society.’ Considering its contagion, ineffective vaccination and high deaths, COVID-19 protocols discouraged physical contact and mass assembly of people. As a result, education was badly affected (AIT, 2020; Mohamedbhai, 2020) considering its human-interaction centeredness and more specifically journalism education (Mpofu, 2020).
In Africa, Egypt recorded the first coronavirus case on 14 February 2020 (Danquah & Schotte, 2020) through travellers from endemic destinations of Europe, USA and Asia (WHO, 2020). On 12 March 2020, Ghana recorded its first two cases leading to the closure of universities on 16 March 2020 to avoid the spread of the virus (Ismail, 2020; Kokutse, 2020) marking the beginning of virtual teaching. According to Mohamedbhai (2020), the most hit disciplines are the sciences which require hands-on laboratory demonstrations. Similarly, media instruction is partly lab/studio-based and its practice encapsulates offline and online platforms. Principles seven and nine of the global standard journalism education advocate the use of media laboratories, on-the-job training/internships and the application of technology and computerised tools (World Journalism Education Council [WJEC], 2020). Subjecting these requirements to the Ghanaian context in COVID-19 era, there appear to be two hurdles for journalism schools to cross: First, media students may lack industry-based ‘attachment’ skills because media organisations are observing physical distancing protocols. For instance, in the USA, students of the Arizona State University were barred from in-person field reporting (Catania, 2020). Second is the need to procure infrastructure to enhance practical-based instruction in a virtual space. For instance, AIT (2020, n.p.) observes: ‘If you undermine technology use in improving education, COVID-19 will expose you.’ In concurrence, Bashir (2020) notes that the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world has been obvious in COVID-19 times. Generally, in Africa’s digitisation, its socio-cultural, organisational and economic conditions must be understood (Higgo, 2003). Whereas the COVID-19 crisis presents an opportunity to strengthen EduTech in Africa (Ngare, 2020, p. 2) and specifically journalism education; it has also introduced challenges to journalism practice and training (Mpofu, 2020). Jaron Murphy, MA investigative journalism lecturer observes:
Key to the process of adjustment to virtual learning has been sensitively framing the pandemic as a context for the development of journalistic empathy, resilience and employability, bolstered by reassurances that uneven motivation and periods of productivity are to be expected in such challenging circumstances. (Fowler-Watt et al., 2020, n.p.)
Paradoxically, Murphy appears to show that COVID-19 challenges are also opportunities to benefit students and lecturers of journalism and society at large. This article evaluates COVID-19 driven transitions to virtual learning in journalism and mass communication in Ghana’s public universities to uncover the challenges and opportunities therein. It is undergirded by the following questions:
What are the experiences of students and lecturers of media studies with online instruction since the COVID-19 restriction started in Ghana? What opportunities and challenges exist for students and lecturers of media schools? What alternative teaching/learning method could have been adopted?
This study uses journalism, media and communication education interchangeably as offered by Ghanaian universities.
Media Education in Ghana
Journalism education evolved largely from on-the-job apprenticeships to institutionalised university education due to journalists’ quest to earn higher remuneration in the media industry. Thus, universities are pivotal in journalism curricula design and research which impact the industry (Mensing, 2019). Generally, journalism education and capacity-building have grown tremendously across Africa (Spurk & Schanne, 2019). In Ghana, the following historical base is evident: Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) was the first formal journalism school (1959); University of Ghana’s School of Communication Studies (1972); National Film and Television Institute (1978). The essence of journalism education at the time was to educate journalists to aid and nurture the country’s fragile first republic democracy and hasten development agenda after independence from colonial rule. Governance instability from the late 1960s and 1970s saw many military administrations that suppressed media practice itself and somewhat had a spill over negative effect on the country’s media education. The 1992 democratic take-off saw media programmes increased in Ghana’s universities. Also, many accredited diploma and certificate journalism schools emerged.
The foregoing schools in Ghana and Africa prompted appeals to Africanise journalism education curriculum and incorporate it with indigenous knowledge systems (Nyarko et al., 2021; Serwornoo, 2019). To escape colonial inclinations, GIJ run along American style of journalism (Golding, 1979) but remained western-styled journalism education. Though transition to online education was originally triggered by increased learners (UNESCO, 2020), the paradox is whether this will not produce a techno-centric curriculum and further perpetuate hindrances at localising African media curriculum (Limb, 2005). Africanised journalism curriculum is that modelled on the realities of the socio-cultural, economic, political and environmental conditions in Africa. However, it appears that many African media schools joined the online instruction (OI) after foreign schools began and tended to follow the instructional principles of the foreign pacesetters. Ironically, this transition began at a period (16 March 2020) that the overall coronavirus cases in Africa are infinitesimal compared to the rest of the world. The following is evident (Table 1).
Comparison of COVID-19 Cases
Under these circumstances, it follows that media schools in Ghana could have adopted a different approach to teaching and learning other than the strict OI directive.
COVID-19 and Changing Face of Media Studies
Prior to COVID-19, attention has been drawn to giving African students the opportunity to stay connected (Bashir, 2020) to the Internet to aid education. Bao (2020) argues that online education is not a subservient alternative to face-to-face learning but Filius et al. (2019) contend that moving education to online demands a lot of planning and investment. Yang and Li (2018) note that universities that have failed to train students and instructors in OI and do not have enough resources, will hardly succeed. They recommend that universities evaluate the issues in online learning and avoid thinking that just posting PowerPoint slides for students constitutes online teaching. In media, new media has impacted journalism profession and largely its teaching and the curriculum structure (Deuze et al., 2004; Du & Thornburg, 2010). According to Song and Lin (2012, p. 400), ‘Along with the [new media] transformation of journalism practices come the re-configuration of journalism education.’ By this, the future of media fields hinges on their ability to adopt technological innovation and strengthen professional practices for Web-based media training (Larrondo-Ureta et al., 2019). Capucci (2012) notes as follows: the evolution of videoconferencing, PCs, wired and wireless connectivity and free applications has opened wide communication possibilities, which have altered the way people live, work, study and learn. It is within this thinking that it appears COVID-19 informed transition to OI was proposed. While this is essential, UNESCO emphasises incorporating misinformation, disinformation and mal-information into journalism education because trust matters. The global body further notes as follows:
This model curriculum is an essential addition to teaching syllabi for all journalism educators, as well as practising journalists and editors who are interested in information, how we share and use it. (UNESCO, 2020)
The changing landscape requires updates of the curriculum that moulds upcoming practitioners in the field (Catania, 2020; Mpofu, 2020). Specifically, a former journalism student Lonster Mutata notes as follows: Institutions need to produce graduates who are equipped to cover disasters like COVID-19. Health reporting modules need more focus than just disseminating information (Mpofu, 2020). Fowler-Watt et al. (2020, n.p.) also observe: ‘COVID-19 is redrawing journalistic boundaries. It has broken down objectivity, amplified subjectivity, and reminded students and professionals that, sometimes, we are all part of the story.’ They further explain that whereas usually, journalists report on crises, now coronavirus puts everyone including journalists in crisis. This informs Fernanda Santos’ observation that adaptability is crucial to success by journalists and journalism students whether there is a pandemic or not (Rosales, 2020). Overall, COVID-19 driven changes to journalism education may impact Africa differently from the rest of the continents and hence different adaptability measures. Irrespective of these challenges, journalism education online in COVID-19 times is feasible (Catania, 2020). Beyond education, South Korea for instance has deployed ICT during COVID-19 to contain the disease (Paek & Hove, 2021). With its novel nature, no study in Ghana has studied COVID-19 driven transition from offline to online space in media education.
Theoretical Frameworks
This article utilises TAM and DOIT to explore the extent to which the transition to online learning has gained acceptance by lecturers and students of journalism. The TAM was propounded by Fred Davis in 1989 and was influenced by the Fishbein and Ajzen’ theory of reasoned action (RA) (Bogozzi, 2007; Chuttur, 2009). TAM asserts that the acceptance of an information system is determined by ‘perceived usefulness’ (PU) and ‘perceived ease of use’ (PEU) variables. These variables forecast users attitude towards technology use, consequent behaviour intentions and actual usage (Davis, 1989). The DOIT, on the other hand, was propounded by E. M. Rogers in 1962 and asserts that an idea or product over time gains momentum and diffuses through a social system. To Rogers (2003), adoption of a new system requires decision-making in two domains: First, ‘full use of an innovation as the best course of action available’ [acceptance] and second, ‘not to adopt an innovation’ [rejection] (p. 177). Furthermore, Rogers explains that the adoption of innovation can be promoted through five adopter categories within a defined social system (Table 2).
Innovation Adopter Categories
In this study, the university and its journalism/media department is a social system [community] comprising different adopter population categories (management, students and lecturers). The DOIT proposes a five-step innovation-decision process: (a) knowledge, (b) persuasion, (c) decision, (d) implementation and (e) confirmation as consensus building streams to reduce uncertainty (merits and demerits of an innovation). With TAM and DOIT seeking to understand why IT system/innovation [in this case online teaching] may be accepted or rejected (Rogers, 2003; Singer, n.d.), they are expected to guide this study in line with UNESCO’s recommendation that journalism education should ‘prepare journalists to adapt to technological developments and other news media changes’ (UNESCO, 2007, p. 6). Here, we propose challenges-opportunities (CHALLOPP) workflow (Figure 1).
Method
Design
This study uses a mixed-method design. Creswell (2006) defines this approach from ‘methodology’ and ‘method’ perspectives. The former encapsulates ‘philosophical assumptions that guide the direction of the collection and analysis of data and the mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches in many phases in the research process,’ while the latter ‘focuses on collecting, analysing, and mixing both quantitative and qualitative data in a single study or series of studies’ (Creswell, 2006, p. 5). Mixed-method enabled both data formats to be collected. It is essential to state that triangulation of data and methodology was very useful because the lecturers teaching communication programmes were not many for any group comparison in quantitative terms.
Scope
The study targeted public universities that run undergraduate studies in media and whose departments have existed for over 5 years. This meant only students and lecturers from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) Communications Department and GIJ qualified to participate. Geographically, GIJ is Accra-based (Ghana’s capital) and it is the epicentre of COVID-19 cases and UCC is located in Cape Coast, a city that shares a border with Accra, had increasing COVID-19 cases and houses many high-profile colleges.
Instrument/Data Collection and Analysis
Students completed closed- and open-ended instruments while lecturers responded to open-ended qualitative instrument because their number was insignificant to validate meaningful quantitative study. The survey was administered on Google Forms and WhatsApp Add-on feature for easy circulation and access. Two hundred and seventy participants completed survey composed of 250 students and 20 lecturers. This disparity is due to the wide students-lecturer proportions in Ghanaian universities including GIJ and UCC. For instance, the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) states:
Student-to-teacher ratio in business programmes stands at 161:1, which is against the normal standard of 27:1. Also, medicine is 30:1 instead of 12:1, and such abnormal proportions in all courses: applied sciences, engineering, humanities, and science. (Ghanaweb, 2015, n.p.)
The introduction of the Free Senior High School Programme (FSHSP) may widen this ratio. Second, third and final year (levels 200–400) students of media studies departments participated in this survey because they experienced more years of face-to-face instruction and could better comment on the differences between online and offline models. Thus, sophomores were excluded. Due to researcher’s affiliation to UCC, they were able to draw more UCC students (n = 140) compared to GIJ (n = 110). Furthermore, the first batch of GIJ lecturers [n = 10] and UCC lecturers [n = 10]) who completed the survey after several reminders were deemed as only those willing to do so. Completed forms were downloaded and organised. The quantitative data were presented using descriptive statistics while the qualitative data were analysed textually. Textual analysis (TA) is used in social sciences thinking to interpret text like the interviews transcript and surveys (Caulfield, 2020). To Frey et al. (1999), there are four approaches to TA, and this study used the interaction approach to organise and code text that the remote interaction with students and lecturers produced.
Limitations
The study draws on the experiences of only undergraduates of two public universities (UCC and GIJ) which were somewhat restrictive. COVID-19 lockdown made data collection restricted to online where eye contact and mood expressed by respondents were missing. The study saw a high non-respondent rate due to Internet connectivity issues.
Results and Discussion
Student’s Reflections: Challenges and Opportunities
Dominant among the many interventions that COVID-19 outbreak introduced to media studies is the transition from brick-and-mortar lecture room to virtual instruction. Generally, challenges and opportunities emerged from issues of ICT usage competencies, applicable software packages and efficacy of OI. From student’s lens, views in Table 3 abound.
Students
Information and Communications Technology Proficiency Level
With a technology-centred model, the success of OI in media studies is dependent on the ICT skills of the participants for whom the IT system is implemented. With 40% and 8% of students having good and advanced ICT skills respectively and 51.07% falling within average and weak lines, there is likelihood that some students cannot participate in the instruction process. Significantly, only 50% of students studied ICT as an introductory subject in their current media studies degree. Thus, the other students (50%) without prior ICT knowledge may lose the full benefit of OI. A student recalls:
Normally as students, we are not equipped with and exposed to IT equipment to enhance our study at the junior and senior high secondary education levels so it’s a new thing altogether when we enter the university.
This reflects Winthrop and Langford (2018) observation that ‘The talent and energy of Africa’s young people are being poorly served by many of its underperforming education systems’ (n.pag. p. 91). The respondent seems to show that the success of OI is dependent on previous exposure to EduTech devices at the physical setting. While the expectation is that all media students own a PC (Laptop) due to the technical/practical nature of media courses, the study showed that 92% and 60% of students personally own smartphones and PCs respectively with 7% owning non-smartphones and no phone at all. It follows that 95% of students use smartphones to access instruction online with only 40% using PCs and 4% visits Internet cafés. This shows a trend that as at 2016, many Ghanaian students used smartphones to surf Internet (Frimpong et al., 2016). Furthermore, Porter et al. (2016) found that students’ mobile phone usage is expanding exponentially across sub-Sahara Africa in the last decade and in Ghana, from 2007 to 2014, mobile phone use grew from 2.4% to 16.2%. While smartphone’s interface design may present a challenge to navigating both Zoom and Moodle during instruction, those who do not own smartphones and/or no phones are excluded from lectures. Moreover, disruptive Internet Café environments in Ghana question the comprehension efficacy of students who use that facility. Again, tight lecture schedules (timetables) may overlap queues at Cafés. Moreover, the closing times of Cafés may deny this student category access to lectures. Reflecting that owning electronic device in itself is not a guarantee to lecture accessibility, this response is evident:
Yes! Although one may have the tools to access online learning, network connectivity is a big challenge. Moreover, lack of data, faulty phone, electricity outages, rural dwelling also impacts. Those without access to such tools personally may visit Internet Café or miss lectures.
Generally, students identified poor Internet connectivity and data cost as hindrances to running OI. Bashir (2020) found that despite the submarine cables installation on West African coast in 2002 informing a fall in broadband prices, affordability remains a hindrance compared to other worlds. Many students’ inability to login at the start of lecture due to network problems leaves them at different pages on one hand, and the lecturer at another. In extreme situations, students living in remote locations are excluded from instruction due to ‘no network coverage syndrome’. Significantly, Ghana’s erratic power supply, termed dumsor (Akan language meaning consistent on and off) also hinders OI. Whereas brick-and-mortar space has ‘quietness protocol’ during instruction, students face internal and external disturbances from their homes when they are in the virtual classroom. For instance, students observe:
Homes are different environments compared to schools and many of us find it extremely difficult to cope. Noise comes from siblings, cars and pedestrians on the streets and going on errands. Oftentimes while instruction is on-going online, students will be doing something else. I remember an instance where I left my phone in the hall during lecture to prepare food in the kitchen and joined again.
This suggests that environmental obstacles hindering OI may be accidental or self-generated. Here, students find distance of the lecturer as a leeway to divert their own attention to other chores. Limb (2005) observes that generally in Africa, ‘there is a danger that purely techno-centric perspectives will not pay enough attention to national or local conditions’ (p. 12). Thus, Africa and specifically Ghana should not just jump into the ‘OI bandwagon’ due to COVID-19 pandemic, but should do so within a defined model that fits its local situation. More significantly, Ghana and Africa generally have less coronavirus compared to other places. The global trajectory of virtual learning in journalism tends to perpetuate the already foreign-dominated paradigms in African media studies.
Online Instruction Platform/Software
To move online, many universities have procured and implemented EduTech and learning management systems (LMSs). For instance, 81% of students received instruction through Zoom, Moodle (57%), Google Meet (25%), Skype (0.7%) and others like WhatsApp and Email constituting 6%. This shows lecturers used different platforms to teach students depending on availability, cost and ease of use. For instance, on platform usability and navigability, 12% and 45% of students find them ‘Very easy’ and ‘Easy,’ respectively; Difficult (27%), Very difficult (5%) and 12% did not login to any platform. Eggert (2019) argues that Moodle is a preferred platform because of its easy use and open-source nature. The following responses reflect these positions:
I and most of my colleagues went online because we had to, but learnt nothing. After one Zoom classes, many students were complaining of hearing nothing but were afraid to say it because of the lecturer’s behaviour. Personally, I have no problem with OI but lots of my friends do. For instance on Zoom, when people are asked to turn off their audio and microphones, they find it difficult.
This indicates many students enter online classroom as a routine and requirement by the department but hardly benefit from the instruction. Students attribute this shortfall to lack of audio clarity during instruction linked to student’s own inability to properly set audio features on Zoom. Though students used Google Meet and Skype, reference to Zoom suggests complexity of its design and accounts for some student’s difficulty to interact with it especially those without strong ICT skill. In these circumstances, students are unable to freely express their concerns to the lecturer. These difficulties seem to emanate from software/platforms choice for virtual learning as pure management decision without consulting the users. Given the option, the 81% Zoom-instruction students may opt for other platforms. This buttresses TAM assertions that system acceptance is determined by its PU and PEU variables (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008) by users. Furthermore, a student reiterates:
After class, students cannot ask due to noisy background caused by other students or poor network making it difficult for the lecturer himself to hear a student and to answer.
The challenge of OI which is partly attributed to the ‘lecturer’s behaviour’ rather emanates from noises perpetrated by students themselves and/or bad connectivity. In such communication dilemma, the ‘question and answer’ session is impeded leaving both students and lecturers frustrated. This reflects that 51.07% of students fall within average/low/weak ICT proficiency category; hence, the proposal as follows:
Since there has not been enough orientation on the use of online learning applications, both students and lecturers need more orientation because some lecturers find it difficult [even] uploading material onto the platform.
In this reasoning, Yang and Li (2018) observe that institutions of higher education could only succeed in OI only when they train their instructors and students on the model’s rudiments.
Online Learning Effectiveness
While students (65%) see the transition to online as challenging, 35% of them find it good. Moreover, majority of students (57%) agree that OI is ineffective compared to 43% who think otherwise. The latter argues virtual instruction comes with the following opportunities:
OI is effective because if you miss a class, you can go to chats and read through. You can also listen to voice notes to understand. I can access instruction in comfort from home. While network is a major problem; [buying] data, to me, is the least problem; because we buy books. I believe online learning will be effective if these challenges are addressed. With lecture material available, students can revise anytime unlike time-bound face-to-face class.
First, OI effectiveness is attributed to study material availability because online repositories allow spaces for lecture discussions and audio-video records. This approach is non-transient and enables students to refer to lecture notes later. Second, OI flexibility enables students to study remotely. To the respondent, buying books and data bundles are indifferent and that comfort, which is a prerequisite to effective comprehension, is evident in virtual learning. However, these opportunities are conditional to the eradication of identified challenges. Moreover, ‘absenteeism’ and ‘comforts’ cited for effectiveness by students seem to suggest freedom to stay out of class. Students who share contrary view put the situation into perspective:
I don’t find it effective because of the surrounding situation. First, it’s home-based, an environment not conducive for learning and second, network is bad. If lecturer’s Internet does not go off, the student’s will.
Furthermore, students (70%) saw student-lecturer interaction reduced in OI against 30% who finds no difference. This reflects student’s observation that actual teaching has been shelved for uploading notes as these statements show:
Some lecturers don’t take instruction seriously. While some do not engage us, others upload PDFs without explaining them to us. All that students do is to read them. It’s more theory rather than practical.
Exploring COVID-19 and Ghana’s higher education, Hastu and Asamoah (2020) seem to attribute the foregoing concerns to the speed of implementing LMS by tertiary institutions in Ghana. While Filius et al. (2019) maintains that OI requires planning and investment to succeed and which seem to reiterate Roger’s five-step innovation-decision process that ensures doubts about a system’s workability is ascertained before usage is confirmed, Yang and Li (2018) affirms that OI goes beyond mere upload of PowerPoint material for learners to read. Some students buttressed foregoing claims on two grounds:
Due to inadequate preparation of some lecturers and others are not technologically abreast, the whole programme was disorganised and ineffective. In our part of the world, online learning is not our thing. We are used to the normal classroom environment so it would take time for the online learning to prove effective.
These observations explain the extent some journalism schools lack exposure to infrastructure hence affecting staff expertise captured: virtual learning is ‘foreign to Ghana’. With TAM, if users are unwilling to accept info-system, its benefit to an organisation is quashed (Davis, 1985). In DOIT terms, it shows that sections of student community was not orientated to satisfy even stage one of the adoption-decision processes because they lacked knowledge of the online innovation (Rogers, 2003). The foregoing reflects another comment that: ‘Our department, in terms of ICT, I can say is not ready to migrate to online teaching and learning. Even the use of ICT in face-to-face teaching is sometimes difficult [to achieve]. How much more OI?’ Deuze et al. (2004, p. 27) reckon that although convergence and digitalisation has impacted media and society greatly, journalism schools have not adapted to the changing media landscape due to economic tendencies and unpopularity of the subject among educators and students. However, experts insist that adaptability to the new model is fundamental to success irrespective of COVID-19 outbreak and that OI of journalism is feasible (Catania, 2020; Larrondo-Ureta et al., 2019; Rosales, 2020). The challenges that COVID-19 present to media instruction online also have many opportunities to be gleaned (Fowler-Watt et al., 2020). To some students, this transition emersed them into the Internet, the biggest learning platform and somewhat enhanced their ICT skills, usage of LMSs, study comfort and access to lecture material.
Lecturer’s Reflections: Challenges and Opportunities
Lecturers of media studies also identified issues similar to their students. On the challenges, lecturers noted that
Online teaching is challenging because of the cost of data, network instability, lack of access to electronic devices and ICT infrastructure. As a new model, lecturers need to devote extra time and other personal resources to see some successes.
Specifically, Maniou et al. (2020) explain that with growing demands on journalism schools to better prepare students, resources are lacking. Danaher et al. (2005) concludes that lack of bandwidth hinders multimedia presentations. Generally, Bashir (2020) observes that African universities need broadband and countries that subscribe to it can develop their education system, youth well-being and foster research and development. To see the model running, some lecturers invested their own assets suggesting that the media schools were unprepared to switch to the online mode. In a statement that seems to suggest that teaching has become stressful, a lecturer bemoaned:
Waiting for students to login takes time because class sizes are huge. By this, some lecturers emailed notes to students, made phone calls to course reps and created WhatsApp platforms for discussion instead of the LMS implemented.
Virtual learning comes as an opportunity for media studies to solve increasing student populations in a brick-and-mortar classroom. For instance, while Maniou et al. (2020) conclude that digitalisation offers journalism studies new possibilities by using the internet and its platforms, its method of entering classroom (login) is a challenge to lecturers. This may either distract lecture schedules or intermittently interrupt instruction (allowing participants into class). Pikkarainen et al. (2004, p. 225) explain that how good or bad a system is depends on user feelings about it. To overcome these challenges, some lecturers resorted to emailing course material to students, phoning course reps and interacting with students through course-specific WhatsApp platforms which, in an instructional sense, is not collaborative enough. Considering the under-utilisation of the LMS by stakeholders, an alternative model could have worked better. Furthermore, a lecturer lamented:
Students are usually not in class. They tend to ignore this [online] instruction compared to the physical classroom and when many students join class, the Internet is erratic.
While lecturers find high absenteeism in the virtual model, the irony is that sometimes students also wait for lecturers who experience unstable connection. The dilemma is that within these constraints, lecturers put pressure students who may be having similar challenges to join the class. Another lecturer observed:
Some students login but don’t follow instruction. They don’t pay attention. Students sometimes combine learning with other activities or leave the meeting without notifying lecturer. Monitoring students during meeting and evaluating them [concurrently] is a challenge.
To this lecturer, mere successful login to classroom does not guarantee successful instruction session because paying attention and participation are student’s decisions. Some students have not shown commitment towards their own education and the collaboration required of them by lecturers is non-existent. Meanwhile, Rosales (2020, n.p.) observes that the success of online model depends on the co-operation of key stakeholders in a statement:
My students are amazing. If my students had not rolled up their sleeves and decided, ‘We’re going to get it done’, it wouldn’t have mattered what I said. I needed the cooperation of the students. Now, we had to adapt certain things.
To Rosales, her successful transition to online class is attributed to students’ devotion and commitment. However, in the Ghanaian experience, a lecturer confirmed students’ submission that:
We rarely meet hence low interaction. Navigating through the platform and getting students to do same for discussion was problematic coupled with background noise. The lecturer is unable to ask enough questions or make sufficient contributions.
This shows that absenteeism and reduced lecturer-student interaction is a shared blame for lecturers and students. The user-unfriendly interface of the software and poor audio impinges lecturer’s ability to discuss key issues arising from the instruction. In a more candid opinion, a lecturer ranted:
While some colleagues [lecturers] lack ICT skills, the online model took off without training. The moment government announced a transition to online tuition; university management implemented it without adequate engagement with parties.
AIT’s (2020) reiterated that in the twentieth century some lecturers lack the skill of using EduTech and Internet-based learning applications. AIT further explains that COVID-19 has exposed the weakness of schools that overlooked the significance of technology. The fact that almost all undergraduate online teaching began without orientation worsens the situation. Furthermore, Sammons (2003) explains:
Training and support of faculty is a critical constituent of quality online education. Sammons notes that the roles of instructors in a traditional classroom are different when they teach online courses. However, it appears that some media schools in Ghana are yet to accept this reality because the model started without orientation.
By this, Anna Mountford-Zimdars, the academic director of the Centre for Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, UK, said: ‘If African universities are moving to remote teaching, they should try, within their means, to support access to devices and Internet connectivity’ (Sawahel, 2020). Mount-Zimbars seems to caution universities this transition requires massive financially injection. For instance, some Ghanaian media schools have not subscribed to Zoom but hinging on its ‘40-minute freebies,’ the schools embedded it in their LMSs as the official application for faculty to access. In such circumstances, lecturers intermittently halt classes and re-login. This suggests the transition was dead at birth due to structural and institutional bottlenecks because lecturers were not consulted. Finally, a lecturer’s platform choice depends on usability, allowable usage time, interactivity and navigability. Moreover, politics seems to be at crossroads with University management because government directives overrode media school’s readiness to run virtual classes. Beyond these challenges, some lecturers identified some opportunities as follows:
It has awakened faculty to a new reality of change in teaching and learning via ICT tools online and have learnt new teaching methods. It has made teaching borderless, flexible and dynamic.
To some lecturers, the online class has helped improve their computer skills and become conversant with online delivery. Maniou et al. (2020) reiterate that digitisation has created new forms of training and open access to global resources. To them, online model has removed the hedges physical classroom imposes. Based on these opportunities, stakeholders should be flexible and abhor entrenched positions in rolling out e-learning options (Hatsu & Asamoah, 2020, n.p.). They observe that the position: ‘it cannot be done’, ‘we won’t do it’ and ‘we are not ready’ must be shelved for the narrative, ‘how do we do it?’ and ‘what do we need?’ By DOIT postulations, the foregoing recognises that within the media education community are different adopter categories with different perceptions about online teaching innovation’s workability. While virtual learning is expected to ease escalating student enrolments, others think that it is becoming a global trend. With e-learning technologies growing, teaching and learning are being commoditised beyond the reach of many students in developing countries who are technology laggards. The current model used by Ghanaian media schools is neither online nor brick-and-mortar but exhibits features of the latter than the former and not collaborative as ‘online collaborative learning’ asserts (Harasim, 2017).
CHALLOPP Workflow
We propose a CHALLOPP workflow (Figure 1) which establishes that the transition (denoted by T) of media instruction from physical to online domains comes with challenges (X) and opportunities (Y).
Figure 1 shows that the state of EduTech installations at the physical setting of media departments and users (students/lecturers) familiarity of them determines the preparedness and ease to embrace the virtual setting. For example, the attitude of users towards and acceptance of an info-system impacts its successful adoption (Davis, 1989). Due to numerous X identified in media schools over Y, the blended learning (BL) approach which merges the physical and virtual instructional spaces is the way forward to satisfy some unavoidable conditions COVID-19 imposes on media education. Figure 1 asserts that to deem this technology-centred education transition successful, the X confronting users of e-learning should be suppressed (solved) to achieve Y. Thus, the lower the X (dotted arrow: LOW), the more effective is media instruction leading to higher Y (dotted arrow: HIGH) and hence positive attitude towards the system (SA) by users (students/lecturers). Similarly, the higher the X (firm arrow: HIGH), the less effective is media instruction leading to lower Y (firm arrow: LOW) and hence negative attitude towards the system (SR) by users (students/lecturers). These interplay, in the lens of TAM and DOIT, make new innovative system of media instruction accepted; otherwise, the continuous overflow of X over Y leads to rejection.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Subjecting the feasibility and efficacy of the COVID-19 driven transition to teaching media studies online to test, this study found that students and lecturers experienced challenges and opportunities. First, the success of OI model is dependent on the infrastructure base: ICT, Internet connectivity, stable telecommunication network, stable electricity (dumsor) and data affordability making economic consideration a major hindrance. Moreover, socio-environmental factors like nature of housing, its proximity to streets and family structures create disturbances that impinge learning from home on virtual classes. Some students and lecturers are not ICT proficient to the level required to utilise implemented LMSs. Considering the state-of-the-art of many media departments on the one hand, and escalating student population on the other, media schools are not ready to venture fully into OI. Second, institutional bottlenecks associated with managerial decisions in choosing software applications (Zoom, Google Meet, LMSs, etc.) were not done in broad consultation with users as TAM and DOIT assert. In the end, the collaborative learning expected of OI is quashed because some users find it difficult to navigate the software. Third, online learning is misconstrued as uploading of lecture notes for students to read, hence shelving actual collaborative teaching. Beyond blame game overlaps, both students and lecturers have not shown real commitment towards the model but agree that there is room for improvement. In the end, the swift transition to virtual learning is deemed ‘unplanned’ because it was sparked by government directive through Ghana’s Education Ministry than by university management’s recommendation based on its infrastructural preparedness.
On the opportunities front, the transition to online teaching interfaces technology and enhances the ‘global village’ agenda. It comes to solve the limitedness of brick-and-mortar’s physical media classrooms at a time student populations have bloated and worsened by Ghana’s FSHSP policy. More significantly, the model is ‘borderless’. It has sharpened the ICT skills of users and learnt techniques of OI. OI has introduced flexibility in studying at the comfort of students because they could access course material at any time.
Overall, different adopter categories (see Table 2) exist within the media education community of universities (social system). First, the government (education ministry) and university management are seen as innovators and early adopters. They form the leadership category that welcome change and opportunities, and hence risked to embrace the transition to online innovation due to COVID-19. Second, students and lecturers who are the players to use the online innovation are categorised as early and late majority adopters. They expressed both optimism and doubts (acceptance/rejection) of the system’s workability as captured under X and Y of Figure 1. As evidence-based adopter category, some users lacked orientation and extensive testing of the software’s usability to ascertain majority approval of the innovation. To these categories, university leadership implemented the online system without broad consultation. The final adopter category is the Laggards. They cover both students and lecturers who lack ICT skills, the very dexterity required to use the innovation. Hence, they resist the transition because to them, its implementation is impossible.
In Ghana and fairly African contexts, OI fuels two-way responsibility rooted in a financial, socio-cultural, technological and environmental quagmire. First, media schools should acquire the infrastructure for implementing the model and second, students depend on their parents and should afford computerised devices and Internet data to access online classroom. There should be commitment balance between media schools and students/guardians for a successful online education. To this end, the transition to virtual learning in Ghana is hindered by economic considerations among other factors.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr Oswelled Ureke, lecturer at Midlands State University, for proofreading and offering insightful suggestions leading to the publication of this work.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.