Web-Based Learning in Periods of Crisis: Reflections on the Impact of COVID-19

Education systems and its actors are generally responding to quarantine and large-scale shutdown (partial) of cities with a sudden shift to Web-Based Learning. However, given that a pandemic of this nature and scale is novel, there is a knowledge gap as to how teachers and learners should respond to the shift, and what the likely impact and the key considerations should be. This study aims to extrapolate and theorize from the existing knowledgebase about the use of Web-Based Learning, as well as from an expert and practitioner wisdom and experience, to offer high-level guidance for policymakers and education system actors that are forced to make decisions in fast-moving and very challenging circumstances with little guidance or relevant experience. It is an early attempt at theorizing the impact of the pandemic on two key actors (Learners and Teachers) and one interface (Content), all across eight dimensions of learning. The analysis is based on Khan’s (2001) dimension of Web-Based Learning and Anderson’s (2011) Model of Online Learning. Overall, we posit based on experience and practice, that the pandemic has delivered severe shocks to both the demand and supply side of Web-Based Learning, with Leaners, Teachers, and Content all significantly affected. While we hypothesize a general drop in the quality of teaching and learning in the short run, we expect the opposite to be the case in the long run, when the demand and supply side self-correct, albeit guided by strong government and market institutions.