Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences
Volume 16, Issue no. 1, DOI 10.18502/sjms.v16i1.8932
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Editorial

University Staff and Student Protection from
COVID-19: Strategic Measures for Teaching
and Learning in Resource-limited Setting
Mohamed A. M. Ibnouf, FRCSEd, PhD
Publons web of science researcher ID: C-4902-2009

ORCID:
Mohamed A. M. Ibnouf: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8231-9899

So far, COVID-19 has claimed millions of lives [1, 2]. This editorial in Sudan Journal of
Medical Science reflects the strategic measures designed for teaching and learning in
Omdurman Islamic University (OIU) as an example of a high educational institute in a
low-income country to protect the staff and students during the pandemic. However, the
published protocols and guidelines may prove inadequate for combating the disastrous
effects of the fast-spreading new strains of the virus [3].

In addition to high mortalities during the first wave of COVID-19 in Sudan, in March–
June 2020, government universities faced extraordinary challenges in introducing e-
learning in their curricula. This situation was worsened by the unprecedented inflation
in economy, repeated electricity cut-offs, and low-frequency Internet flow.

Several published studies have explored the impact of COVID-19 on university educa-
tion, as well as experiences in e-learning during the pandemic. We searched databases
such as PubMed, Medline, Google, as well as the local social media for relevant data
published between December 1, 2019 and March 12, 2021. According to the published
reports, COVID-19 mortalities rose faster among college communities than in the rest
of the population. Moreover, since the onset of the pandemic, a Times’s survey has
identified 397,000 infections at more than 1,800 colleges and universities in the US.
The cases included >90 deaths of college employees and students [4]. Also, 20 staff
members and 2 students from universities across South Africa were reported to have
died of coronavirus [5]. About 109 deaths occurred among Sudanese medical doctors
and 7 university staff members between January 14, 2020 and March 12, 2021.

We noticed that adherence to COVID-19 prevention measures among the staff and
students were not optimal, despite the fact that transmission is lower with physical
distancing ≥1 m than <1 m and face mask (particularly N95) reduces significantly the
infection rate [6].

How to cite this article: Mohamed A. M. Ibnouf, FRCSEd, PhD (2021) “University Staff and Student Protection from COVID-19: Strategic Measures for
Teaching and Learning in Resource-limited Setting,” Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences, vol. 16, Issue no. 1, pages 1–4. DOI 10.18502/sjms.v16i1.8932 Page 1

Corresponding Author:

Mohamed A. M. Ibnouf;

email: maibnouf@gmail.com

Received 20 March 2021

Accepted 26 March 2021

Published 31 March 2021

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Mohamed A. M.

Ibnouf. This article is

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Editor-in-Chief:

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Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences Mohamed A. M. Ibnouf

During the pandemic, transition to e-learning was considered the best alternative.
During the short advocacy period, the voice of the opponents and the resistant staff
was rather high. Challengers spoke about the unfamiliarity with e- learning, poor facilities
for staff and students, instability of electricity, etc. Hence, to evaluate the training
needs of the OIU staff, a validated, pretested self-administered questionnaire was
sent as a Google form to 1,500 OIU staff members. Separately, two other validated,
pretested self-administered questionnaires were sent as Google forms to the teaching
staff members of the Faculty of Medicine and to the medical students. Data were
analyzed automatically by Google.

The retrieval rate of the questionnaire sent to the members of the university teaching
staff was 740 (49.3%). Of these responders, 358 (48.4%) were capable of using computer
for preparing their lectures. Also, 713 (96.8%) had access to smart phones and comput-
ers with Internet facilities and 643 (86.9%) used e-mails and social media programs.
However, only 295 (39.8%) responders used electronic media to send assignments
and receive responses from their students. About 510 (69%) OIU staff members had
variable experiences in using computers such as preparing a PDF file, but only 9.9%
had experience with a learning management program, particularly Moodle.

The university information technology (IT) center added a bandwidth of 158 Mbps to
broaden and fasten the university Internet speed. The university website was upgraded
to upload all timetables and archives of the educational modules. Training in utilizing
Moodle to ensure an effective e-learning delivery was given. Moodle was chosen
because it is a free learning management system (LMS) source to augment and move
the existing learning environment online.

At the time of writing this editorial, several courses in 5 of the 21 university faculties
were started as blended modules. The students show up for face-to-face training only at
the end of the semester. The exam results revealed good student attainments. However,
in the remaining 16 faculties, routine classical teaching has been resumed.

The compliance of the students and adherence to the preventive measures was rather
low. The anticipated fast-spreading strains of the virus dictated enhancing training for
the rest of the faculties. However, one of the major obstacles is the financial constraints
and resistance of few senior teaching staff members. The resistant staff and those who
have technophobia [7–9] will be assigned for face-to-face training of the students and
to take the responsibility of some administrative jobs.

Because this was a preliminary exploratory survey to assess the training needs of
university students and staff, we accepted the small sample size to fasten the e-learning
program. Face-to-face interaction during teaching and learning is the classical method

DOI 10.18502/sjms.v16i1.8932 Page 2



Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences Mohamed A. M. Ibnouf

that builds confidence between the educator and students. However, in the COVID-19
pandemic, universities are working hard to endure the change in a new norm.

The fast-developing technologies have improved distance communication, telecon-
ferencing, and virtual classrooms to access teaching and training from worldwide
sources. As the pandemic has hit hard the global economy and claimed millions of
lives, transnational collaboration and nongovernmental support spark to give hope to
overcome the challenges. However, with the donors’ fatigue, OIU struggles hard to
train the staff and students to adopt a distant-learning strategy as an alternative to face-
to-face teaching in crowded classrooms in a low-resource setting. All the given reasons
along with the electricity cut-offs and unstable Internet bandwidth slowed the change
and forced the OIU staff and students to incline toward asynchronous e-learning.

University staff and students were reported to develop high psychological distress
that influences their presence and absence [10]. Nevertheless, e-learning is a great
opportunity to enhance the university’s effectiveness and efficiency, however, the
needed infrastructure for e-learning might not be readily found in low- and middle-
income countries (LMIC) [11].

In order to prevent further loss of precious lives, OIU is moving toward blended
learning. This strategy safeguards asynchronous teaching in the theoretical part of the
curricula augmented by social media and telecommunication between students and
staff. Also, it guarantees physical distancing in small student groups during training at
the end of each semester.

References

[1] Ramani, V. K., Shinduja, R., Suresh, K. P., et al. (2020). A study on the global
scenario of COVID-19 related case fatality rate, recovery rate, and prevalence rate
and its implications for India -a record-bases retrospective cohort study. Advances
in Infectious Diseases Journal, vol. 10, pp. 233–248.

[2] Katherine, L. (2020). The link between humidity and COVID-19 caused death. Journal
of Biosciences and Medicines, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 50–55.

[3] Tomezuka, T., Kanatani, Y., and Kawahara, K. (2013). Insufficient preparedness of
primary care practices for pandemic influenza and the effect of a preparedness plan
in Japan: a prefecture-wide plan cross-sectional study. BMC Family Practice, vol. 14,
p. 174.

[4] Ivory, D., Gebeloff, R., and Mervosh, S. Young People Have Less Covid-19 Risk, but
in College Towns Deaths Rose Fast. The New York Times. March 2, 2021.

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Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences Mohamed A. M. Ibnouf

[5] Macupe, B. South African universities record 22 deaths from Covid-19. The Mail &
Guardian. 2020, July 23.

[6] Chu, D. K., Aki, E. A., Duda, S., et al. (2020). Physical distancing, face mask and eye
protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19:
a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet, vol. 395, no. 10242, pp. 1973–1987.

[7] Rajab, N. H., Gazal, A. M., and Alkattan, K. (2020). Challenges to online medical
education during the COVID-10 pandemic. Cureus, vol. 12, no. 7, e8966.

[8] Estrada-Munoz, C., Castillo, D., Vega-Munoz, A., et al. (2020). Teacher technostress
in the Chilean school system. International Journal of Environmental Research and
Public Health, vol. 17, no. 15, p. 5280.

[9] Pietrocola, M., Rodrigues, E., Bercot, F., et al. (2020). Risk society and science
education: lessons from COVID-19 pandemic. Science Education, pp. 1–25.
Retrieved from: https://rdcu.be/cgP7G

[10] Van Der Heltz-cornelis, C. M., Varley, D., Aligar, V. L., et al. (2020). Workplace stress,
presenteeism, absenteeism and resilience amongst university staff and students in
COVID-19 lockdown. Frontiers in Psychiatry, vol. 11, 588803.

[11] Frehywot, S., Vovides, Y., Talib, Z., et al. (2013). E-learning in medical education in
resource constrained low- and middle-income countries. Health, vol. 4, no. 11, p. 4.

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	References