Impact and challenges of online learning application platforms for sustaining teaching and learning during covid-19 lockdown in Nigeria

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges requiring teachers and students to adapt to online teaching and learning, because schools were closed by governments all over the world in order to contain the spread of the virus. However, despite the advantages of continued teaching and learning during the COVID-19 lockdown, learning online is not without its attendant problems. This study sought to investigate the impact and challenges of the online application platforms for sustaining teaching and learning during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data was collected using a structured interview conducted on students of Al-Qalam University Katsina, who participated in the online learning to ascertain the impact and challenges they experienced during the process. The results of the study showed that majority of the participants agreed that online learning platforms help in sustaining lectures during the lockdown, but they prefer the traditional classroom teaching. The study identified some of the challenges for the online learning to include lack of access to fast internet service, ownership of digital devices among students, poor electricity. The study recommends that schools and the government need to invest in ICT since the lack of interest by the students might not be unconnected with the challenges identified by the study. Key words: COVID-19, ICT, Learning, Online, Teaching, Students