Lessons from Covid-19: A Silver Lining for Teaching and Learning In Selected Lesotho Institutions of Higher Learning

There has been a myriad of negative implications on teaching and learning at tertiary level that came

along with the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the lessons

and opportunities presented by the pandemic to the learning and teaching process in Higher

Educational Institutions (HEIs). The study employed a survey design and used diary and semistructured questionnaires as key data generation tools. A sample of 80 lecturing staff was used from

three HEIs in Lesotho adopting a stratified random sampling. The findings from the study suggest that

the implementation of online teaching and learning brought positive implications to Lesotho’s HEIs as

most of the sampled respondents supported the intervention. The study also revealed that the COVID19 pandemic exposed shortcomings such as a lack of staff capacity to teach online, adoption of blended

learning, and teaching and infrastructural preparedness in tertiary institutions. The study further

suggests that there is a need to redevelop and redesign the curriculum, harmonize policies of teaching

and assessment, and align them to online learning and teaching. The study recommended an inclusive

stakeholder approach at the national and institutional level to drafting and implementing online

learning supportive policies. Further research is recommended to quality regulators of tertiary

institutions to understand their insights and perceptions of adopting online teaching and learning in

HEIs