A Systematic Review of African University Student’s Learning in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from China

Abstract

Over one billion students worldwide were severely impacted by school closures predicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most reviews have focused on developing countries with established infrastructure supporting e-learning. This contrasts with many African countries struggling to provide their students with the financial and structural support they need during this unprecedented time. This literature review examines Africa University Student learning during the COVID-19 era. A literature search was conducted on the Web of Science and EBSCO for relevant studies published from 2020 to 2021. The search terms include COVID-19, university student, learning, and higher education. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were used in selecting the final 58 articles. Our analysis found that Africa benefited from e-learning by acquiring technical skills and developing proactive coping strategies. However, the benefits are undermined by challenges associated with restricted access to technology, poor institutional policies, disruptive environments, and emotional turmoil. We learned that the representative Asian country, China, invested in multiple online teaching methods and focused on improving awareness of e-learning. These strategies enabled China to go back to school quickly after the lockdown. Future research should include all the scientific databases to obtain comparable results.