Accessibility of Digital Higher Education in the Global South

Book excerpt: Accessibility of Digital Higher Education in the Global South, authored by Pfano Mashau and Tshililo Farisani from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, is an academic book that examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education in Africa. The book aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the sustainability of the “new normal” approaches in African universities and institutions of learning as well as government responses to teaching and learning processes during and post pandemic. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 triggered demands for informal, comfortable, and self-designed spaces that go beyond conventional formal classrooms where students can take initiative and demonstrate independence in learning. However, access to digitalized teaching methods remains problematic due to the digital divide among learners and the rural-urban dichotomy. The book invites researchers, academics, and scholars in the Global South to contribute to the narrative to document successes in and improve the higher education sector post pandemic. The book covers a range of themes including the sustainability of digitalized teaching approaches; integrative and interactive teaching and learning theories and practices; government responses to teaching and learning processes; comparative analysis of conventional and digitalized teaching and learning approaches; and equality, diversity, and participation in digitalized teaching and learning platforms, among others.