COVID-19’s Short-Term Implications, Challenges on Tertiary Institutions and Willingness to Adopt E-Learning: Insight from Tompi Seleka College of Agriculture, South Africa

COVID-19 is a contagious disease that originated from Wuhan City, China. Today, it has spread to over two hundred countries in the world leading to a total or partial lockdown in most countries, including South Africa. Consequently, the lockdown has negatively impacted every functional aspect of humanity, including education. While studies abound on its medical, social, and psychological implications, there is a dearth of research on its implications on education, the challenges and uncertainties experienced by the students, particularly in South Africa’s tertiary institutions. These uncertainties triggered institutions to find alternative means and approaches to continue learning; thus, online teaching is considered a sui generis method. Therefore, this study is aimed at exploring the challenges faced by students at Tompi Seleka Colleges of Agriculture during the lockdown and further explores their willingness to adopt E-learning as their new method of teaching and learning. The study adopted a quantitative design whereby principal component analysis and binary logistics regression model were used to estimate the challenges and the influencing factors to adopting E-learning. Students were found to be facing various challenges during the COVID-19 lockdown, ranging from the uncertainty about the future of their studies, adjusting from their traditional way of teaching and learning to self-study and E-learning. The finding showed that 37% of the students are willing to adopt E-learning. The study recommends that the significant challenges and determinants should be put into consideration for effective adoption of E-learning in tertiary institutions in the college, and South Africa at large.