The impact of long-term school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to be seen and will be in the months and years to come. While solving the immediate problems that are happening due to COVID-19 sounds pressing, preventing the coronavirus disease from happening again has crucial long-term consequences ^[1][5]. Hence, finding ways to respond to the immediate problems while, at the same time, looking for long-term solutions, are equally critical ^[2][6].

The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption to everyone in the HE sector, but postgraduate students are the most vulnerable cohort ^[3][7]. For example, postgraduate students may face a disastrous fall in income due to COVID-19, and this pandemic may hit hard for many of them who have families and dependents. This may cause not only disruptions to their study and research plans ^[4][8], but also to their mental health ^[5][9]. With regard to postgraduate students, the research shows that family, friends, teachers, and peers provide emotional, technical, and tangible supports ^[6][7][10,11], but they were also sources of stress ^[8][9][10][12,13,14], and particularly for those who struggle to balance the personal–professional boundaries of life. Hence, a humane, supportive, and respectful response from the HE sectors is crucial ^[11][15].

Ph.D. students and their virtual learning, teaching, and assessment have recently become the center of the quality debate following the COVID-19 pandemic ^[12][16]. This is particularly true in universities in Ethiopia, as students, parents, and the public have become increasingly doubtful about virtual learning, and suspicious about the potentials of the technology in serving the learning, teaching, and assessment functions as well as face-to-face learning does ^[13][14][17,18].

2. Perceptions and Experiences of Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Considering the closure of campuses and the endorsement of social distancing as a preventive and precautionary measure against COVID-19, the mode of teaching, learning, and advising of university students has changed from a conventional face-to-face framework to a remote and online one. While those who experienced this changed framework reported remote learning, personal convenience, and accessibility as benefits of the changes, they also expressed some limitations, including instructional inefficiency and difficulty in maintaining academic integrity that matched the effective instructional processes in the face-to-face modality ^[15][19]. Moreover, existing studies on the benefits of COVID-19 indicate that the professors have improved their online teaching skills since the lockdown period, and that online learning was a viable option during the COVID-19 pandemic seasons, with the software and online study materials being used to support online learning ^[16][20]. Regardless of the multiple benefits brought about from online learning to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic crises, most students still prefer in-class learning. This is primarily because they felt that the social aspect and the learning benefits from face-to-face interactions with instructors and peers cannot be fully duplicated in the online learning environment ^[17][18][21,22]. According to their views, this could mean that online learning was less interactive and less beneficial compared with face-to-face classes.

3. The Positive Outcomes of Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Previous research on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the teaching, learning, and advising of postgraduate students points out that the students were satisfied with the teaching that they experienced on specific online platforms for grading systems, assessment options, training workshops, and online technical support ^[19][23]. Study findings also show that participants were highly satisfied with the different features of the online-learning-delivery mechanisms, such as Google Hangouts, Google Classroom, and LMS (Moodle), for course management and assessments ^[20][24]. The significant predictors of student satisfaction with online education among university students during COVID-19 were self-regulated learning, Internet self-efficacy, learner–content interaction, learner–learner interaction, and the number of theoretical courses offered online ^[21][25]. A similar study among postgraduate students in China shows that the students’ satisfaction with online learning platforms was impacted by their computer self-efficacy and the perceived ease of use and usefulness of the platforms, and the observed association between these components was moderated by regional differences ^[22][26]. Empirical evidence shows significant positive correlations between academic achievement, the quality of online classes, workspace conditions, and positive relationships with other students and teachers ^[23][27]. Peer interactions and course design have the most salient impact on students’ attitudes ^[24][28]. Similarly, the teacher performance and perceived benefits of the online course were found to be positive predictors of student satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic ^[25][29]. Hence, the online learning experience is a useful option during emergency conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. Opportunities and Challenges of Online Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an opportunity to introduce digital learning ^[26][30]. Many individuals and universities took advantage of innovation and implemented alternative education systems and assessment strategies ^[27][31]. For most HEIs around the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the speed of digitalization, digital ways of conducting academic and research experiences, and new ways of learning, teaching, and advising students in universities worldwide ^[28][32]. In developing-country contexts, such as Pakistan, the transition to online learning has encountered several adversities. For example, it is reported that online learning brought about technical issues and intensified inequalities in the desired results, where a vast majority of students did not have access to the Internet ^[29][33]. As the same authors note, the lack of face-to-face interaction with the instructor, response time, and absence of traditional classroom socialization were the other critical issues highlighted by postgraduate students. On top of this, most postgraduate students raised concerns regarding: the absence of institutional support and the poor quality of online instruction, which led to unsuitable study environments; the unavailability of electricity; and connectivity issues ^[30][34]. There are numerous challenges encountered at the personal and institutional levels when making efforts to cope. For example, a study among postgraduate students in China shows that Chinese university students felt that online learning was stressful and affected their health and social lives ^[22][26]. Moreover, another study investigating the impacts of COVID-19 on students’ learning identified that that e-learning was satisfactory in acquiring knowledge but was not effective in terms of clinical and technical skills ^[19][23]. Postgraduate students and academic or research staff members have similar views regarding the challenges and opportunities of COVID-19 ^[31][35]. Similarly, at the institutional level, the reported challenges to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic include communication, student assessment, the use of technology tools, the online experience, and pandemic-related anxiety issues ^[28][32]. One of the main challenges of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in the global HE space has been how to optimize the online learning design to ensure that it is fully realized ^[32][36]. Despite these challenges, most of the students and academic or research members believed that the COVID-19 pandemic boosted their confidence in the effectiveness of online learning in HE ^[33][37]. Furthermore, the e-learning satisfaction levels were better among students in developed countries compared with those in developing countries ^[19][23].