Distance education tutors' technology pedagogical integration during COVID-19 in Ghana: Implications for development education and instructional design

Disruptions to education by the 2019 Global pandemic has amplified development educationists' advocacy for sustainable learner-focused curriculum that addresses cross-cutting themes. Teachers' failure to effectively use digital media for differentiated learning might continue to widen access, gender, and equity gaps in education for distance learners in the Global South. Within development education framework of raising awareness and understanding of impacts of global affairs on education, we argue that teachers' technology pedagogical integration competencies are likely to impact quality curriculum delivery in a full-online environment. On a pedagogical integration self-efficacy questionnaire, we elicited data from 197 distance education tutors on a Likert-type scale that yielded reliability coefficient of .9 and face validity checked by instructional design experts. Descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA were used for the data analysis and the results suggested that distance education tutors were more likely to select video-based digital tools than asynchronous techniques during tutorial sessions. Secondly, Internet access and technology professional development were the leading needs for tutors' instructional delivery during the pandemic. Finally, tutors' technology training and years of teaching experience in facilitating distance education courses were not statistically significant in online pedagogical delivery. We conclude that ICT training amongst distance education tutors remains generic in lieu of digital integration literacy. Recommendations for continuing education, curriculum development, and instructional design are made.