Determinants associated with an effective online learning system of a teachers’ training college in Awi Zone, Ethiopia during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Higher educational institutions were forced to stop face-to-face classes and shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The government of Ethiopia closed schools in all educational institutions on 16 March 2020, and then directed educational institutions to teach students online. This study was conducted to discover the determinants of online teaching practices at teachers training colleges. A cross-sectional study design was conducted using randomly selected 343 students from Injibara College of Teacher's Education, Ethiopia. Results of the statistical analyses revealed that socio-demographic characteristics of students do not affect the effectiveness of the online learning system; but determinates that are directly related to the online learning system, such as infrastructure, access to the internet, parent support, and technological resources have a significant effect. Online learning at the study area was only 77% effective, which indicates that there is a need for intervention to make it more effective. Therefore, we recommend to governmental and non-governmental institutions to establish ICT centers and provide online learning trainings.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• access to internet
• categorical data analysis
• parent support
• smartphone

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Belsti Atnkut Tadesse

Belsti Atnkut Tadesse received his BSc degree from Department of Biology, Debre Markos University, Ethiopia, and his MSc degree from Department of Biology, Hawassa University, Ethiopia. Currently, he is working as a microbiology lecturer at the Department of Biology of Injibara University, Ethiopia. His research interests include education, agricultural and biological sciences.

Bekele Gebreamanule

Bekele Gebreamanule received his BSc and MSc degrees from Department of Biology of Adama Science and Technology, Ethiopia, and Department of Biostatistics of Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia, respectively. He has published a few journal articles, and now he is working as a Biostatistics lecturer at Injibara University, Ethiopia.

Atalaye Nigussie Temesgen

Atalaye Nigussie Temesgen received her BSc and MSc degrees from Department of Statistics, Hawassa University, Ethiopia. Currently, she is working as a Statistics lecturer at Injibara University, Ethiopia.

Tadesse Tilahun

Tadesse Tilahun received his B.Sc. degree in Applied Biology and M.Sc. degree in Genetics from Hawassa University and Haramaya University, Ethiopia, respectively. He has published four articles, and currently, he is doing his Ph.D. at Bahir Dar University, Institute of Biotechnology, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

Tessema Astatkie

Tessema Astatkie is a Professor of Statistics at the Faculty of Agriculture of Dalhousie University, Canada, and he is a Professional Statistician accredited by SSC and ASA. Tessema conducts collaborative research with several researchers in 29 countries, including Ethiopia, who specialize in agriculture, food processing, human nutrition, human health, and other related areas. Over 225 papers from these collaborations were published in over 90 different journals indexed in Scopus.