Development of An Assessment Benchmark for Synchronous Online Learning for Nigerian Universities

TL;DR

This paper develops an assessment benchmark to evaluate Nigerian universities' readiness for synchronous online learning, focusing on infrastructure and staff skill sets, using a case study of UNN during COVID-19.

Contribution

It introduces a benchmark framework for assessing Nigerian universities' capacity for synchronous online learning, based on infrastructure and skill set criteria.

Findings

UNN lacks sufficient infrastructure for synchronous online learning.

Staff skills at UNN are inadequate for implementing synchronous online learning.

The benchmark can guide universities in capacity assessment and development.

Abstract

In recent times, as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, higher institutions in Nigeria have been shutdown and the leadership of Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) said that Nigerian universities cannot afford to mount Online learning platforms let alone conduct such learning system in Nigeria due to lack of infrastructure, capacity and skill sets in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. In the light of this, this research undertook an online survey using University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) as a case study to know which type of online learning system ASUU leadership is talking about - Asynchronous or Synchronous? How did ASUU come about their facts? Did ASUU base their assertion on facts, if YES, what are the benchmarks? Therefore, this research project is focused on providing benchmarks to assess if a Nigerian University has what it takes to run a synchronous Online Learning. It includes Infrastructure needed (Hardware, Software, Network connectivity), Skill sets from staff (Computer literacy level). In a bid to do this, an online survey was administered to the staff of Centre for Distance and E-learning of UNN and out of the 40 members of that section of the University, we had 32 respondents. The survey seeks to find whether UNN has the requisite infrastructure and the skill sets to mount synchronous online learning. The available results of the study reveal that UNN is deficit in both the requisite infrastructure and Skills sets to mount synchronous online learning.