Academic Scholars Perception of Online Education Initiatives in Somalia

This paper examines the Perception of the academic community in Somalia on implementation of online
teaching and learning methods during the covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic created a significant challenge
for the universities in Somalia. The paper implements a modified version of the open, online, flexible and
technology enhanced (OOFAT) methodology with three main categories: content delivery, flexibility impact
and platform adaptation. The data has been collected through online questionnaires and interviews involving
70 university educators in Somalia. The study found that instructors who had low degree of content delivery
online with flexibility applications weakened the process of teaching and learning. In addition, the study
suggested that the instructors lacked adequate knowledge on basic ICT literacy and showed a higher level of
barrier of adaptation on online learning and teaching tools. The author argues that the higher education
intuitions responsibility to build the capacity of academic staff regarding ICT literacy and provide a scholarly
communication platform to enhance their knowledge and technology awareness and exposure.