The Emerald Handbook of Higher Education in a Post-Covid World: New Approaches and Technologies for Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning paradigms in higher education have been called into question by the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring new approaches, technologies, and resilience. The disruption caused to higher education operations prompted many to raise questions about HEI’s adaptability and readiness to handle major disasters. Focussing particularly on developing countries in Africa and the Global South, The Emerald Handbook of Higher Education in a Post-Covid World emphasizes the urgent need to reform pedagogical models and the importance of recognizing and utilizing digital learning technologies, tools, and the power of the Internet to expand the range of teaching approaches, practices and learning interaction options in an age in which information communication technology and mobile devices have become commonplace in the daily life of students, academic leaders and HE practitioners. The contributors also address the importance of supporting the individual student in learning communities where they are separated by space, and safeguarding their social and emotional wellbeing as they engage and learn through mediated-communication-systems in an era of a fundamentally changed HE environment which will not completely return to previous models. Providing perspectives from contributors across multiple nations and settings, and written in a forthright, yet engaging manner, this volume is essential reading for higher education staff, researchers, and policy makers, to ensure higher education across the world is prepared to offer the best quality teaching and learning in the Covid and Post-Covid world.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: A New Frontier for Higher Education; Byron A. Brown and Alastair Irons Part 1. Fundamental Changes and Transitions in Higher Education Chapter 1. Neoliberalism Crisis and Fundamental Shifts in Africa’s Higher Education Provision in the 21st Century; Byron A. Brown Part 2. Emerging Approaches and Practices in Higher Education Pedagogy Chapter 2. Pedagogical Models of Digital Learning in the United Kingdom: Lessons for Africa; Paula Shaw and Sarah Rawlinson Chapter 3. Teaching Approaches, Social Support and Student Learning in the Non-traditional Classrooms in Higher Education; Byron A. Brown Chapter 4. Gamification: Teaching a Practice-based Subject Virtually for Transformative Impact; David Graham, James Ellerby, and Norman Dinsdale Chapter 5. Reforming Emergency Remote Teaching Through the Evaluation of Practice in Higher Education; Byron A. Brown Chapter 6. Shifts in Pedagogy and Flexible Assessment: Integrating Digital Technology With Good Teaching and Learning Practice; Sam Elkington Chapter 7. Blockchain Technology in Teaching, Learning and Academic Administration as a Long-term Solution to Emergencies in Higher Education; Byron A. Brown Chapter 8. Humanising Pedagogy in Times of the COVID-19 Emergency: Student and Academic Voices in South Africa; Leila Kajee Chapter 9. Student Interaction and Engagement Supported by Blended Learning Tools in Emergency Teaching; Lelokwane Mokgalo, Alice Njoroge, and Mercy Musikavanhu Chapter 10. Cybersecurity in the Digital Classroom: Implications for Emerging Policy, Pedagogy and Practice; Alastair Irons and Tom Crick Chapter 11. Online Safeguarding and Personal Cyber Skills for Students; Andy Phippen and Emma Bond Part 3. Culture and Policy Concerns in a COVID-19 Higher Education World Chapter 12. Policy Gaps and Imperatives for Rebuilding Sustainable African Tertiary Education Systems Disrupted by COVID-19; Theophilus Mooko Chapter 13. Cultural Influences in Online Pedagogy and the Final-ends of African Higher Education; Byron A. Brown and Olivia Nthoi Chapter 14. Summary, Conclusions and Next Steps; Alastair Irons and Byron A. Brown

About the Author :
Professor Byron A. Brown is Professor of Education and Director of Research and Innovation at University of Zululand, Republic of South Africa, and Visiting Scholar at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Formerly Deputy Executive Director for Teaching, Leaning and Research at BAC, Botswana. Professor Alastair Irons is Deputy Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Abertay University, UK, and Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa.

Review :
I find the book to be one anchored in praxis…I think the most powerful aspect of this book is its multi-disciplinarity, and its focus on engaging readers in discussion about reimagining pedagogical practices in what can now be viewed as the ‘New Normal’ in higher education teaching and learning across Africa and the world. An excellent resource for the higher education sector. A sobering read for contemporary audiences who are not just in Africa but in countries engaged in a forever effort to keep the higher education sector afloat amidst the onslaught of the COVID-19 crisis, which incidentally has triggered new discourses about bringing digital technology and education practice into closer alignment.