Improve pre-service teachers’ online learning attendance and accessibility through multiple platforms

Abstract

In this paper, we report on the use of multiple platforms to circumvent challenges associated with nonattendance because of limited accessibility to conventional video conferencing digital tools such as Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) and Blackboard collaborate. One hundred and sixty-five participating pre-service teachers were given the autonomy to connect using any of the given platforms from a prescribed list that worked for them. The platforms’ attendance tracking systems were used to gather data. The findings revealed that using multiple online platforms lowered the challenges associated with lack of access to high-end technological tools and resources. Most of the registered pre-service teachers attended an average 60% of the live classes and 50% of the students strongly agreed that they had followed the recorded sessions. Multiple platforms afford pre-service teachers a choice on what works better for them based on the technology to which they have access to and with which they are familiar.