Reflections on digital teaching approaches in African Universities: A case of South Africa.

This paper analyses the readiness of African Universities to employ virtual classrooms in order to achieve their throughput in students' course completion on record time. The paper is both conceptual and empirical in nature. Interviewing technique and documents review were employed to generate data pertaining to promoting teaching and learning that go beyond the on-campus routine of physical delivery of lectures to students. Research findings revealed that firstly, African universities were found to be under-resourced for virtual classrooms. Secondly, the bulk of the African Universities were not ready for the imposed virtual classrooms. Thirdly, the curricula rolled out at African Universities is not designed to suit the "new normal" of digital teaching and learning. Fourthly, there is a great mismatch of the curriculum roll out and the available facilities at African Universities. Lastly, there are technical limitations for students who are at a different digital literacy levels. The researcher recommends for the gradual approach of shifting from the contact kind of teaching and learning at universities to a digital one where virtual classrooms are the "new normal" for every African University, irrespective of its geographical location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]