Higher Education in the Time of COVID-19: Challenges Facing Moroccan Undergraduate Students

ICT and Higher Education

The COVID-19 epidemic has imposed radical and sudden shifts in the global higher education community. Millions of students and educators were forced to move their communication, courses, and assessment online, leading to unbearable psychological pressure and unprecedented E-learning challenges. This study aims at exploring the impact of COVID-19 on Moroccan undergraduate students' learning experiences. It specifically addresses the different challenges that have been facing Moroccan undergraduate students who belong to the English department at Cadi Ayyad University. To achieve this objective, the study uses open-ended questions in an unstructured questionnaire to which 169 Moroccan undergraduate students have responded. The findings of this study have revealed that the shift to virtual learning due to COVID-19 closures has presented a number of challenges that have negatively affected students' online learning experiences. Almost all respondents have agreed upon four major challenges: adaptability struggle, lack of communication, lack of motivation, and technical issues. Reflecting on these challenges and others has encouraged Moroccan undergraduate students to question long-standing assumptions and provide some suggestions and learning strategies that can build a better higher education system. Ensuring constant contact, adopting student-centered models, and shifting the focus of education from data transmission to skills acquisition are three major paradigm shifts that are needed for a better post-COVID-19 higher education.

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