JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all aspects of society worldwide. To combat the pandemic, measures such as wearing of face masks, hand washing/sanitizing, restrictions on movement, and social distancing have been introduced. These measures have significantly disrupted education and particularly health professions education which depends on student-patient contact for clinical competence development. The wide-ranging consequences of the pandemic are immense, and the health professions education institutions in the Sub- Saharan Africa have not been spared.

Objective:

This research aims to describe the preparedness of selected health professions education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa for remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper reports on the research protocol that was developed to achieve this aim.

Methods:

A mixed method design with a case study approach will be used. The ADKAR model of change was selected as the conceptual framework to guide/underpin the study. Eight higher education institutions in six sub-Saharan countries are participating in this study. Data will be collected from whole populations of academic staff, students, and administrators in the undergraduate Medicine and Nursing programmes through electronic surveys. Qualitative and quantitative data from each institution will be analysed as a case study, leading to an inventory of similar cases grouped for comparison. Quantitative data will be analysed for each institution and then compared to determine associations between variables and differences between programs, institutions, or countries.

Results:

The research findings will provide information to Higher Education Institutions especially health professions education programs in Africa regarding the preparedness for remote teaching and learning to influence efforts related to online teaching and learning which is envisaged to become the new normal in the future. The proposed research did not receive any funding and any costs involved were to be borne by individual consortium members at the various institutions. IRB approval was obtained at various times across the participating sites which were free to commence data collection as soon as local IRB was obtained. Data collection was scheduled to begin on October 1st, 2020 and end on February 28th, 2021.

Conclusions:

By the time of submission of this manuscript, data collection was closed with a total of 1,099 participants enrolled. Data analysis had not commenced.