Exploring the impact of migrating online of higher education in Ghana: The case of Ashesi University
Date
2021-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
According to Bao (2020), five high-impact principles exist in order for online education for be sustainable, namely:
(a) high relevance between online instructional design and student learning, (b) effective delivery on online instructional information, (c) adequate support provided by faculty and teaching assistants to students, (d) high-quality participation to improve the breadth and depth of student's learning, and (e) contingency plan to deal with unexpected incidents of online education platforms. (Bao, 2020, p.115)
The objective of this thesis is to understand how and why Ashesi University was able to migrate online faster than other Ghanaian universities, as well as investigating the impacts of this migration on the teaching quality, student experience and operations of the institution. A sequential exploratory research was conducted using a purposive non-probability sampling method to select the respondents to be engaged for the purpose of this study. The findings from this research were obtained from students, faculty and staff from Ashesi University by way of interviews and online questionnaires. All the targeted respondents were from Ashesi University’s community.
The findings show that teaching quality since the online migration has not dwindled, but students’ own motivation towards learning has decreased. Also, the findings showed that Ashesi managed to migrate online quickly due to having contingency plans in place as well as already having most of its operations online. The main problems with the online migration are the breaks in communication between all groups (i.e. staff, students and faculty) as well as Zoom fatigue with showed major effects on all groups based on their responses. Also, student experience was shown to have been hanging in a bittersweet balance; there was a tight-knit network between students regarding feedback and emotional support, but there was also a sense of nostalgia due to the sudden campus closure and online migration.
Description
Undergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, May 2021
item.page.type
Thesis
item.page.format
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, higher education, campus closure