Members of the University community are hereby invited to an Inter-College Lecture being organised by the College of Education as follows:
Topic: The ‘Shadow Pandemic’ in Online Learning: Perspectives of Visually Impaired Students from Ghana and Egypt
Lecturer: Prof. Samuel Amponsah, School of Continuing and Distance Education (SCDE), College of Education, University of Ghana, Legon
Date: Thursday, July 13, 2023
Time: 4:30 pm
Venue: Smart Classroom (SCDE)
Chairman: Professor Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, Provost, College of Education
All are cordially invited
ABSTRACT
The emergence of COVID-19 accelerated the integration of digital technologies in teaching and learning as a means of expanding access to education. However, one cannot be sure if visually impaired students learning online (VIOLs) benefited from such access. A phenomenon, this netnographic study explored. Social media tools were used to elicit responses from 12 VIOLs from Ghanaian and Egyptian higher education institutions. Analysis of the data revealed multiple ‘shadows’ in the experiences of the VIOLs. The findings also revealed that the studied institutions prioritized physical access. Secondly, they also used lopsided crippling discourse. Lastly, the support systems that enhanced the studies of the VIOLs came to light. The study findings have consequences on VIOLs and recommend agile and futuristic policies to reverse the trend. Finally, it is recommended that the capabilities of faculty and staff need to be enhanced to effectively accommodate VIOLs in virtual spaces.
KEYWORDS: A4E framework; COVID-19; netnography; online learning; shadow pandemic; VIOLs
Profile of Lecturer
Samuel Amponsah is an Associate Professor at the University of Ghana and heads the Distance Education Department. Prior to his appointment at the University, Samuel lectured and headed the Farming Management Department of Esayidi TVET College in South Africa. He was a fellow of the Global Challenges Research Fund/Liverpool John Moores University digital fellowship programme in 2020. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the American University in Cairo under the sponsorship of the BECH-Africa and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2022. He was appointed an Adjunct Associate Professor by the University of South Africa (Unisa) in 2021 and a Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham Christian College in 2022.
Samuel has a deep passion for teaching, researching, mentoring and community work. He has presented at several international conferences and has published widely in his areas of research interest: adult learning, inclusive education and open distance learning. Samuel is the Editor-in-Chief of the Multidisciplinary Journal of Distance Learning and has served as a Guest Editor for the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, International Journal of Smart Technology and Learning and the prestigious British Journal of Educational Technology.
