Preparing High School Teachers for Teaching STEM Online: Exploration in Senegal

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted more than 1.1 billion (68%) learners worldwide. Schools were partially or fully closed depending on the health restrictions implemented by each government. Online learning was the obvious solution for ensuring education continuity. In developing countries, it was particularly difficult for institutions and instructors to transition to online teaching. Institutions had no infrastructures and practices in place; instructors did not have the required material in digital form and were not trained. The majority of students did not have computers and Internet access. In some cases, electricity was an additional obstacle. Instructors require training not only on mastering tools and practices but also on how to design their courses to adapt to the online format. In particular, they need to be exposed to strategies for interacting with and engaging students. We present our findings related to the obstacles encountered by STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) instructors to transition to online teaching in Senegal. This study is based on a 6-week training for 79 STEM high school instructors. We also explore the potential and shortcomings of leveraging mobile technology for online teaching in this context.