Online Teaching And Learning Of Computational Courses Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic Among Undergraduate Students In Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the challenges confronting the online teaching and learning of computational courses amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The population comprised of 66 lecturers and 3,428 B.Sc. and B.Sc. Ed. students in the Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria. The census sampling technique was used to select 66 lecturers and the stratified sampling was used to select 478 students. The study had three research questions and three null hypotheses. The data-gathering tool was a 15-item online learning questionnaire. Experts in mathematics education and statistics were responsible for the instrument's face and content validity. Using the test-retest procedure, a reliability of 0.81 was gotten. The study questions were answered using the mean and standard deviation, and the independent sample t-test was employed to address the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed a substantial disparity between lecturers' and students' mean assessments of their familiarity with using online learning platforms in computational courses during the COVID-19 epidemic. The mean judgments of lecturers and students on the contextual elements that influence online teaching and learning of computational courses in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic were also found to differ significantly. The mean assessments of lecturers' and students' preferred methods of teaching and learning computational courses in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic were found to differ significantly. These results led to the recommendation that technological assistance be given to lecturers and students to encourage and improve online teaching and learning of computational courses.