Abstract:
The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has brought another
dimension to teaching and learning across the levels of education. The
lockdown imposed in many countries to curtail the pandemic forced many
institutions of learning to shift to the online mode of teaching and learning.
Using a descriptive survey research design, this study explored the online
learning experiences of pre-service teachers at a Ghanaian university
during the COVID-19 lockdown. The study focused on the pre-service
teachers’ preparedness for online learning in terms of their digital literacy
and technological devices used for online learning, their positive online
learning experiences, and the challenges they encountered learning online.
The findings suggested that the pre-service teachers were digitally literate
and mostly accessed online learning using smartphones. Besides, online
learning enabled them to communicate and collaborate actively with their
course mates and lecturers. It was found that the flexibility of online
learning increased the students’ motivation to learn. However, poor
internet connectivity, the high cost of data, erratic power supply, lack of
appropriate devices, inability to effectively manage their time, and family
interruptions were some of the challenges experienced by the pre-service
teachers.
