BUILDING E-TEACHING CAPACITY OF TVET LECTURERS TO CUSHION THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 AND OTHER FUTURE PANDEMICS ON TERTIARY EDUCATION SYSTEM OF LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES

The study built the e-teaching capacity of TVET lecturers to cushion the effect of covid-19 and other future pandemics on tertiary education system of low and middle income countries. Four research questions were posed while the null hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey design was employed by the study. The population for the study was 430 comprising information and communication technology experts, telecommunication/computer engineers, computer science and education lecturers at Management Information Systems, ICT centres and Departments of computer science and computer education of the participated universities. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data from the respondents. The questionnaire was validated by 20 experts while the internal consistency of the questionnaire items was determined using Cronbach alpha reliability method and 0.86 reliability coefficient was obtained. The finding of the study revealed that 21 competencies were required for effective planning of e-teaching;28 facilities/equipment were required for building the e-teaching capacity of the universities, 45 skills were required for operating and troubleshooting e-teaching facilities and 5 attitudinal management skills were required in using e-teaching. Recommendations include that all the skills and competency items determined should be employed to prepare TVET lecturers and support staff for effective e-teaching, the determined facilities and equipment should be used by relevant bodies including university administrators to setup e-teaching platform.