EDUCATION BEYOND COVID-19: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF DIGITAL LEARNING IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The incorporation of digital learning into the Nigeria tertiary education system has always heralded plethora of challenges that has continued to stall such effort. Nevertheless, the year 2020 would always be a point of reference towards surmounting such challenges. It is the year, every education system activated emergency response to mitigate the effect of school closure on the education calendar resulting from COVID-19 pandemic. To continue teaching and learning during the lockdown period, efforts were directed towards online classes, digital learning and various education technological connections between teachers and learners. One big lesson of COVID-19 with respect to education is that learning processes can be innovative. COVID-19 global emergency heralded such an unprecedented shift in education and innovation which hitherto has never been felt simultaneously on a large scale around the globe. Such paradigm shift in teaching and learning during this emergency buttressed this, and would always be referred to in post-COVID education reformation. However, the question now is- judging from the peculiarities of Africa schooling system and technological advancement, how prepared is Nigeria for such reformation? How would we look beyond the challenges of digital learning to the opportunities presented forthwith? It is on this note, that this paper, through a descriptive study highlighted some of the challenges and opportunities of incorporating digital learning into the tertiary education system in Nigeria, beyond COVID-19. It further proposed modalities for achieving this. Through the connectivist theory of learning, guidelines for developing digital learning materials were also highlighted. In conclusion, the paper thus opined that beyond COVID-19, there is urgency in the need to incorporate digital learning into the tertiary education system in Nigeria. Such would enable the sector surmount the challenge of similar closure of schools in the future as well as other noted opportunities.