Abstract:
The research explored the pedagogic impacts of the virtual e-learning management
platforms adopted at Chinhoyi University of Technology, as a COVID-19 pandemic
resilience strategy. It established the link between students’ e-learning adoption patterns
and e-learning performance outcomes. Structural equation modelling was
applied in analysing data from a sample of 70 undergraduate students. The results
indicated that despite management’s good intentions in mitigating the COVID-19 disaster
on higher education, the performance of virtual e-learning system as a pandemic
response strategy was curtailed by more inhibitors than accelerators. Factors such as
unequal access to e-learning facilities, network connectivity challenges, internet access,
unreliable electricity and unaffordability of compatible digital gadgets, constituted serious
impediments to virtual e-learning adoption. Very few undergraduate students
accessed the most versatile BigBlueButton e-learning platform, with very limited application
of offline e-learning technologies like CD-ROM and flash disks. Instead,
WhatsApp groups with the least e-learning interactive capabilities were most popular
and highly subscribed. The implications are that universities’ future e-learning pandemic
resilience strategies should be supported by national level interventions that
promote inclusivity and accessibility to e-learning facilities. The use of offline e-learning
content material recorded in videos and flash disks should be promoted as lowcost
e-learning management systems.
