Video conferencing as a teaching mode in higher educational institutions in Uganda: teacher perception

Abstract

Recently, Information Communication Technologies (ICT) have gained significant usage in enabling institutions to continuously deliver education even during the COVID-19 pandemics lockdown. Its significant application in the education sphere has resulted in new capabilities at all levels of educational institutions. In Uganda, the use of video-enabled teaching is increasingly being established in universities especially during the COVID-19 lockdowns. In this study, we examine teachers’ perception of the use of video conferencing, as a mode of teaching in higher educational institutions. The findings of this study show that teachers are of the high opinion about Video Conferencing (VC) as a mode of teaching at Higher Education Institution (HEI). In the study, several challenges that included poor ICT infrastructure, slow internet connection and those related to the cost of establishing a reasonable ICT infrastructure that can support VC were revealed. We conclude our study by providing recommendations required to improve infrastructure and to create policies to support online education as a whole and in particular VC as a teaching model that bridges in person, in class and remote learning.