Impact of online teaching capacity building programmes on online teaching: a case of University of Kabianga Kenya

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic disrupted educational programmes globally, Kenya being not an exception. Most universities in Kenya closed down before slowly shifting to online teaching shrouded with challenges, partly due to inadequate staff expertise in online teaching. There was therefore a need for capacity building on online teaching to build resilience and support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 amidst the pandemic. The University of Kabianga initiated programmes to train the teaching staff on online education. The staff were also encouraged to enrol for online teaching Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offered locally and internationally. This study sought to assess the lecturers’ perceptions of the impact of these online teaching capacity building programmes in terms of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. The study is underpinned by the Impact Evaluation Model and Mezirow's transformative learning theory. Descriptive-participatory research design through an online survey was used for data collection and the results revealed that although the programmes were considered relevant, most lecturers averse to the interventions and recommends further structured training.