Transitioning to Online Teaching and Learning: A Discussion of Barriers Faced by Educators and Students in Higher Education during a Global Pandemic

The Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting interruption of global education systems in more than 195 nations affected almost 1.8 billion students at all education levels. Strict measures including immediate lockdown and social- and self-distancing measures and policies were implemented. This sudden move has had a devastating and direct impact on schools, colleges and higher education institutions (HEIs), which led to closures (Huang et al., 2020), resulting in a 95% move from face-to-face teaching to online teaching and learning (Adnan & Anwar, 2020). This paper highlights some of the early educational barriers resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic by exploring them through Scholssberg et al. (1984) transition theory of 'moving in', 'moving through' and 'moving out' of a situation, which is, in this case, the pandemic.