ONLINE PLATFORMS AS TEACHING STRATEGIES BEYOND CLASSROOM WALLS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN: A CASE OF LENS POLYTECHNIC, OFFA, KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Coronavirus (COVID-19) as a deadly virus is caused through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose of a person that is infected. The advent of this world deadly virus has hampered teaching and learning processes in all institutions across the globe. Since education is the bedrock of development for every nation, a way out must be found to the issue of inability to attend classes for lectures due to lockdown. As such, online platforms as teaching strategies are inevitable. Eight hundred and sixty respondents were used for outline platform teaching strategies to maneuver academic activities among the students of Lens Polytechnic, Offa. The instruments used for the study were based on convenience and importance of online platforms as teaching strategies questionnaire. Percentage formula was used to analyse the data. The findings reveal that highest percentage of the respondents found it convenient to use online platforms. It also reveals that highest percentage of learners from 55% to 99.30% valued online platforms as teaching strategies especially in a situation where learners are shut out of school, while as low as 0.23% to 45% respondents were against the use of online platforms. Based on these, it was concluded that very high percentage of respondents favoured the use of online platforms in order to cater for their academic needs in the period of global academic lockdown. It was therefore, recommended that governments at all levels should start to introduce ICTs in Nigerian schools right from the junior secondary schools to curb future exigencies.