E-LEARNING AS A TOOL FOR SOCIAL AND COLLABORATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN A PANDEMIC ERA: AN OVER VIEW

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic has truncated or even brought to halt socio-economic and cultural activities around the world. The worst hit is the educational sector where all educational institutions were closed down for almost a year. Educational institutions around the world have therefore adopted the use of information and communication technology (ICT) at various levels ranging from communication, commerce and even human resource management. This paper explores the use of e-learning as a tool for social and collaborative teaching and learning in pandemic era. The paper adopted descriptive documentary review approach based on the information that advocates for technology adoption for teaching and learning where tools and technologies for creating e-learning platforms were discussed. The Unified Modelling Language (UML) techniques of Use Case and Activity diagrams were used. The models show the interactions based on email interactions, social media network, and learning management system (LMS) were identified and described as tools for social and collaborative teaching and learning models. The paper concluded that educational systems in Nigerian should learn from the experience of developed nations such as America, Britain, France, Germany etc on e-learning to ensure continuity and stability in education systems even in the face of unexpected such as pandemic. The paper recommends that e-learning platforms should be used at various levels of educational institutions in Nigeria, stakeholders in education sector should come up with a policy framework that will enforce the adoption of e-learning in addition to conventional teaching and learning models in Nigeria, library and information services should be digitalized with cutting edge digital infrastructure in order to partake in the information sharing networks amongst others.