The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt by both male and female students in Open and Distance e-Learning (ODeL) and contact-based learning institutions in South Africa. However, young female students have been the most affected group. Societal norms that reinforce cultural practices which favour male students hinder the academic…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the South African government's response of a lockdown required the cessation of all clinical training. Virtual environments offered alternative methods of teaching and learning clinical skills in an attempt to mitigate the cancellation of first year students' clinical visits. The research question of how a simulated…

COVID-19 pandemic forced several higher education institutions (HEI) to operate remotely. Emergency remote teaching, using synchronous and asynchronous instruction, was adopted by several HEIs. The experiences of students with remote teaching and learning in certain situations are not fully understood, thus need to be explored. This study explored…

The article presents the narratives of two academics with mobility impairments who work in the largest open distance learning higher education institution in South Africa. We share our experiences as we navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic and reflect on this phase. For many people, life will never be the same after this pandemic; people have…

Online learning has become a significant trend in education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Online educators, course designers and institutions need to understand the importance of social presence in the dynamics of a community of inquiry and its association with teaching and cognitive presence. This study examined whether social presence mediated…

When writing about transformation in higher education (HE) in South Africa, it is quite popular to mention the fall of apartheid, and perhaps also 1994, as a starting point for significant change. I, myself, have made this mistake (see Bernard, 2015). However, the recent #FeesMustFall protests highlighted that many approaches to transformation…

The unprecedented extended COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns forced higher education institutions (HEIs) to find innovative ways to effectively deliver student tuition and support. The lockdown brought many challenges to the education sector, including increasing the blurring of the work-home boundaries. This study investigated how COVID-19 accelerated…

This article explores student teachers' resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and their ability to thrive in online teaching practice. Amid the pandemic's unprecedented challenges, student teachers exhibited remarkable adaptability in navigating the shift to remote teaching. Through qualitative research and thematic analysis, this article delves…

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and the ensuing public health crisis, thousands of higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide have had to grapple with rapid pivots to emergency remote online learning modalities with relatively little time to prepare, and the need to maintain these modalities continues to extend longer than most…

This paper addresses the paradox of transition to online distance learning during COVID-19 pandemic in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in developing countries. The systematic review methodological procedures were employed to draw some limitations and possible opportunities that may inform future practices on online distance learning. The…

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an abrupt shift to remote teaching, presenting unique challenges for rural Physical Science teachers due to their limited access to technological resources. This qualitative study employed a phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of six Physical Science teachers from rural South Africa during…

Worldwide, COVID-19 has affected the most deprived communities the hardest and exposed many systemic inequalities, leaving nations vulnerable and destitute. The need for quality education, while heeding to international mandates, including enacting the sustainable development goals (SDG), has become more apparent in promoting equitable and…

This article is based on the journeys of four women who completed their doctorates in the discipline of Sociology. The four former doctoral students studied at the same distance education institution in South Africa, but they hail from Nigeria, Lesotho and Cameroon, respectively. Together with their former supervisor, autoethnography is used to…

Numerous open distance electronic learning (ODeL) institutions have embraced a virtual learning environment as a platform to facilitate e-learning. Although ODeL institutions have embarked on the use of a virtual learning environment (VLE), there is still a need to rethink e-learning processes to make content delivery exciting and interactive. The…

This paper identified the training strategies for distance education academic libraries that could improve remote clients' access to information resources during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The positivism research paradigm anchored this study and employed a quantitative approach. Eighty-two (82) online questionnaire was sent…