The Availability of Infrastructure to Support Digital Learning in Public Universities During the Post COVID 19 Era in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Kenya supports lifelong learning to create a globally competitive and adaptable workforce to meet the needs of a rapidly industrializing economy, even during pandemics like Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which led to the closure of several schools and colleges. The objective of the study was to determine the availability of infrastructure to support digital learning during the post COVID 19 Era in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study was guided by Classical Liberal Theory of Equal Opportunities. The study targeted selected public universities in Kenya, unit of population being head of department, lecturers and students. The study adopted use of descriptive research design. The study used questionnaire and interview schedule as the tools for data collection. The researcher obtained sample size using Yamane formulae. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version i25. Descriptive statistics included percentages, frequencies, mean mode and standard deviation. Inferential statistic involved the use of correlation and regression analysis. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The study findings revealed that infrastructure has a positive and significant influence on digital learning in public universities during the post COVID 19 Era in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya (β1=0.236, p=0.000). The study concluded that public universities in Uasin Gishu County are not only still faced with challenges on poor network access in some places poses a challenge to the learning process. Also, they still have less skilled personnel in the University hence low implementation of digital learning. The study recommends that Universities Management should train personnel in order to ensure proper and full implementation of digital learning. Further they should ensure that there is proper installation of network and internet to ensure proper digital learning.