Shifting from Open Distance learning to Open Distance eLearning in South Africa: geography education students’ concerns

Digital technology is increasingly adopted and integrated in the delivery of education, specifically in higher education institutions globally. This integration presents many opportunities, but challenges also arise. This research explores the concerns of geography education students regarding the transition from Open Distance Learning (ODL) to Open Distance eLearning (ODeL) in a South African higher education institution. This paper adopted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explore how geography education students perceive the shift from ODL to ODeL and share the challenges they are experiencing arising from this transition. Semi-structured interviews were used in this qualitative research paper to elicit data. Findings reveal that frequent power outages, unreliable network connectivity, and high data costs, among other challenges, affect students. From the findings, these challenges identified by the participants severely affect their learning as they often prevent them from accessing the learning platforms used by the institution. This impacts their ability to reach their academic goals. This calls for higher education institutions and relevant stakeholders to address infrastructure barriers and review data allocation policies to better support student learning. This paper particularly provides recommendations to better increase access to education for students in ODeL institutions.