COVID-19 Pandemic and Innovations in Institutional Transformation, Technology and Pedagogy

Abstract

The 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic has been among the worst nightmares in the past century. It brought in panic and despair, but also reflection, resilience, and hope; and adversely affected the economic and education sectors the most. Teaching-learning and training in almost all countries were affected, with over 90% of students out of school including above 570 million in the Commonwealth (Kanwar & Daniel, 2020), and above 1.37 billion students studying from home (UNESCO, 2020). Most countries and educational institutions quickly delved into putting in place additional policies, systems, infrastructure, teaching-learning strategies, and capacity building of teachers and instructors; and some others followed suit gradually. The school and vocational sectors have been the worst-hit compared to higher education institutions (HEIs). Suddenly, online teaching/learning became the buzz word. Published reports and research during the pandemic indicated limitations (and constraints) in perceptions; and most were actually engaged in emergency remote teaching, rather than proper online/blended teaching-learning (Hodges et al, 2020).