Impact of COVID-19 on Online Education in Developing Countries - An Overview

The COVID-19 lockdown since March 2020 necessitates higher education institutions to deliver education online. Although education institutions in high and higher middle-income countries could relatively easily transition face to face education to online delivery, most higher education institutions in low-income and lower middle-income countries were unable to do it. World-wide, more than half of the world's 1.5 billion students is out of online education activities especially in developing and emerging nations. Hence, the primary objective is to examine the difficulties and challenges experienced by some of those countries in their higher education institutions' transition to online education. The study focuses on internet infrastructure, accessibility, affordability, digital learning management system, academics and students' perspectives and digital knowledge gap related to online education. The study finds that poor or no internet infrastructures/connections, streaming devices, learning management system, inexperience in online education, and socioeconomic conditions are the main impedances for slow or no transition to online education in most emerging and developing countries. Some action plans (recommendations) to overcome these challenges are also compiled.