The interviewee added:

*I want them to read my notes on the portal. They need to buy data bundles to access the Internet. How much is the mobile data plan per day? Can a student have money to spend on data? Can we afford that? As a university or country, we are challenged. What are we doing to help the situation? We have heard about provincial resource centres to alleviate or meet half the challenges we are meeting on VLEs. There is nothing. I think there is a lack of support in the area of VLEs. For our population, it is missing, and it is very difficult for us to help our students. For example, regardless of the size of the class, only a quarter can complete the assignment online while the rest prefer to submit hardcopies or wait until they return to campus and have access to the Internet or Wi-Fi to complete the assignment(s). That makes it very difficult for me to mark assignments on time and prepare for exams at the same time. So, the reality of what we think we can achieve with VLEs is different from what is on the ground. The reality is that most of our students cannot access learning materials on their online portals due to the cost implications that characterise online teaching and learning.*

The relevance of VLEs is also hampered by a lack of financial support from the government in the form of student grants and sponsorships in HEIs for them to learn online. This further points to the fact that Education 5.0 during COVID-19 remains largely unattainable. This agrees with [17]'s projection that African governments still find it difficult to commit resources towards the evolving models of education. Interviewee 1 also admitted all this disaster is being experienced because the government of Zimbabwe imposed VLEs upon educational institutions. However, it was not like CUT was totally taking a new route.

*I would want to say, yes it was prescribed, but it does not mean that the school or the department was looking totally in a different direction from that. As a school or department, we were also looking at using the VLEs for teaching. In fact, we have been using VLEs in the past. But, where we are now speaking of these things being prescribed to us is when we were asked to speed up the use of VLEs. Before the coming of COVID 19 and Education 5.0, we were using VLEs. We were not following the 80 percent to 90 percent proportion that is now followed. In the past, we would use VLEs to distribute the notes and assignments and some of the general discussions with students. However, we reserved the demonstrations and serious lectures for in-person encounters. When VLEs came, we found ourselves in*  *Relevance of New Higher Education Approaches in Zimbabwe's 'Second Republic' DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99934*

*a situation where we were told to do most of the things or everything through VLEs. That's where we end up talking about this thing being prescribed for us.*

In the teaching and learning processes, the feasibility of the government's statement on the adoption of Education 5.0 was tantamount to the infiltration of VLEs. Further, Interviewee 3 lamented the disgust that came after the outbreak of COVID-19 with the imposition of VLEs and Education 5.0. Interviewee 3 also said that both students and lecturers lack ICT skills, therefore it is difficult to regularise VLEs at HEIs quickly.

*The two exist; they may be oil and water in the sense that if you want somebody to be practically sound in terms of skills, then there is the issue of online learning. It is not feasible; somebody has to be there simulating, and that does not always work. Somebody has to be there face-to-face with learners. Yes, there are aspects that we can say with VLEs can be possible, but for some, life is very difficult; it doesn't work.*

Zimbabwe still has issues with nationwide Internet access. Students travel long distances to study at local HEIs. These areas have few or no Internet-access facilities installed, nor do they have the electronic gadgets needed to run VLEs. Distance education demands that colleges and universities be technologically rich. The inaccessibility of digital resources makes VLEs irrelevant in the education sector. However, to further guide the overhaul of virtual higher education teaching and learning, the issue emerged as one of the major challenges that impinged upon Education 5.0 after the outbreak of COVID-19.

### **6. VLE support systems**

The interviewees also lamented how VLEs can support the practical constituents of Education 5.0. They all held that the government is not concerned with issues of research on the viability of VLEs in Education 5.0 exercises in the country.

In different interview sessions, Interviewees 1 and 2 were worried about the absence of proper research on the inclusion of Education 5.0 and VLEs. Interviewee 1 observed:

*In terms of support, I don't think we are serious as a country. We are not creating a conducive environment for us to use VLEs. What we are doing is pretending that things are moving when they are not. You need to do research so that you don't produce substandard students at the end. From the... VLEs lectures conducted so far, learners have grasped or learnt nothing at all. And we insist we want VLEs without having evaluated the VLE lecture experiences so far. We should have evaluated how students who participated in such online classes grasped both the theoretical and practical teaching virtually. Then we could see how effective it is and move.*

#### Interviewee 1 added:

*So, we need to make concerted efforts where the institution, the ministry, and the government look at things objectively. Yes, we are rushing to say they must cover all the learning virtually. But we are flogging a dead horse. With VLEs, we are finding it foolhardy to make learning a continuous process. Learning must be continuous, but my experience with VLEs is that it's continuous academic coaching with little* 

*or no effective learning taking place. This is because we do not have adequate resources to support our VLEs. Look at the practical subjects.*

*How are VLEs supporting the practical component? Yet, these are the courses that help us make the products that are going to emphasise innovation and industrialisation. What skills have we given them online? What have we done to impart the skills? Even if we go through our VLEs, what is there to impart skills or support skills acquisition? There is nothing. What you get is the theory or methodological component. We have a skills deficiency and that deficiency will kill innovation and industrialisation.*

From the evidence gathered, the MHTESTD opted to go it alone in deciding how Education 5.0 should be executed virtually in HEIs. Lecturers from different local HEIs should have been taken for exchange programmes on how Education 5.0 and VLEs can be attached. That has been pertinent in countries like Malaysia, Germany, and China. This would have gone a long way in equipping higher education and training educators with the VLE skills needed to make them able to teach online effectively and efficiently, particularly for Education 5.0. Notably, the modernisation of the university curriculum in Malaysia has been characterised by the inclusion of a variety of projects and technologies for it to be a success. Unlike in Zimbabwe, as stated by Interviewee 1, Malaysian local and international industry groups were invited to give webinars, seminars, and workshops to academic practitioners so that they would turn out to be technologically and industrially compliant [20].

*The interviewee argued that research is key when it comes to the need to merge VLEs with teaching, research, community service, innovation and industrialisation. When it comes to VLEs, there was supposed to be enough research in terms of the person who is going to deliver and the person who is going to receive via these platforms to be all equipped. At the same time, whatever we are going to use as a medium for communication, is it effective enough so that whatever we want to do succeeds? So, the issue of VLEs at a localised level may work, especially for a few well-resourced people. At the moment, there are many hitches.*

#### Interviewee 3 said:

*I admit, we still have challenges. Of course, as we prepare our module outlines, lecturers are encouraged to design them so that students are guided on the activities that they need to do to build on their skills, particularly hands-on skills. But, the challenge is that the nature of some of the modules is such that as the student is taught new skills and given an instruction, a syntax of how an operation is done is also given. The gist of teaching when it comes to practical skills is in allowing the student to do an operation while the lecturer or demonstrator watches.*

*In the process, lecturers will identify in which areas the student is doing it correctly and in which areas the student is doing it incorrectly, and then they will re-demonstrate again and again. It is not something that can be done through a syntactic manual, and it allows the students to perfect their skills without the regular intervention of the demonstrator. The situation requires the demonstrator to spot where the student is struggling or failing. Also, some skills require high mental engagement and psychomotor skills from the student.*

#### Interviewee 3 further noted that:

*Relevance of New Higher Education Approaches in Zimbabwe's 'Second Republic' DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99934*

*Of course, some lecturers have tried to demonstrate using films, sometimes borrowing films from YouTube here and there. Some lecturers have tried to upload films that they have made. But, still, they will not be able to do it the way it will be done in face-to-face interactions between students and lecturers.*

From the preceding statements, it appears that online and offline-assisted teaching and training have a long way to go in Zimbabwe. The interviewee mentions the need to virtually give students skills that will help them innovate and industrialise in the future. Interviewee 1 stated:

*Our students were exposed to these (VLEs) before COVID 19, and we were interacting with them all the time on WhatsApp. To give them notes, to give them assignments, and that's part and parcel of the VLEs … If you look at this new thing now, we are saying more than 75% of the time they are learning online. I think we need to look into the challenges as universities. What are the challenges our students are facing? Are they really benefiting from VLEs? How many of them are benefiting? To what extent? This is because, in the current situation, we have seen so many challenges in online teaching and learning.*

*So, let me answer the how part of it. We have incorporated the VLEs at our university. Besides, we use their personal emails. Why personal, individualised instructions? Some students may not be able to grasp what I have given via the university portal, and they may want to interact with me on a different platform. We go ahead and do that. One other student may not be able to access his or her university portal but may check his or her email. That can also complement our use of social media.... Looking at our resource constraints as students and lecturers, we all know that at times we cannot get the Internet or Wi-Fi. But, when you get it, then you can use any platform that is easier for you or more accessible to you.*

Currently, VLEs are not effective and efficient for the purpose of Education 5.0 teaching and learning at CUT. However, 20% of interviewees contended that there was no difference between face-to-face teaching and online teaching. Whether you teach face to face or online, it makes no huge difference to the content that you teach. "I teach the same content in both instances," argued Interviewee 1. This implies some lecturers have no problems when it comes to conducting both online practical and theoretical lectures. In this instance, VLEs are not entirely a threat in the DCAD at CUT.
