When the Covid-19 hit, it sent people into panic mode and chaotic scenes were witnessed across different parts of the world as airports began imposing travel restrictions, and business owners resorted to closing businesses. To slow down the spread of the infections, and limit the impact of the pandemic, the government initiated a raft of measures including calling for people to work from home. As a result of these new directives and measures, higher learning institutions responded by suspending studies. Millions of students across the world were affected by the pandemic because the pandemic delayed their graduation.
Amidst the pandemic, universities shifted to offering their courses online and virtual classrooms became the new trend. As more universities embraced this new trend, learning remotely became the new norm with students getting the opportunity to continue with their studies outside the classroom. For the universities, the move to offering new classes online helped prevent wastage of time that would have delayed the academic calendars. The online classes were a success considering that millions of students managed to continue with their studies without having to wait for the pandemic to end.
When the first covid19 vaccine was produced, it brought hope that things would return to normalcy, and it surely helped because before the vaccine came, people observed social distancing, and teachers could not be able to teach students in a normal classroom setting. As more vaccines were manufactured, and the number of vaccinated individuals grew, teachers and students became hopeful that things will return to normalcy. Although this hope was dashed by the emergence of the new strains of the covid-19 such as the delta virus, universities were continuing with offering their programs online.
Reflecting back from when the pandemic began to the time universities resumed their operations, it is clear that the internet has played a significant role in terms of helping universities continue offering their programs at a time when the pandemic halted certain activities including learning. Something that universities can learn from this experience is that the internet provides an avenue or an infrastructure through which they can deliver content to remote learners. One cannot predict what might happen in the future but if the next pandemic like Covid-19 hits, universities should be prepared for unfavorable events so that learning is not paralyzed. The experience and the knowledge of how universities managed to deal with the pandemic can be used as case study to respond to similar challenges in future.
