COLLABORATIVE PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH AND VIRTUAL CLASS PARTICIPATION: IMPLICATIONS ON STUDENTS' ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION II

The Covid-19 pandemic awakened the need for virtual classroom in Godfrey Okoye University Enugu, Nigeria. Students continued their lectures uninterrupted despite the shutdown of schools as a result of the outbreak of the pandemic. The creation of an effective learning management system by the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) unit of the University made it easier for students to study from their homes and interact freely with their lecturers online. Lecture attendance was mandatory and roll calls taken. After the compulsory shutdown of schools, the university immediately adopted a blended learning system – physical and virtual. This study establishes how collaborative pedagogical approach enabled the lecturers to sustain students’ active participation in a virtual classroom. The course for the study was EDU 421: Curriculum and Instruction II. Three lecturers handled the course. The lecturers had an intact class of 50 final year Education students in a natural virtual classroom setting. The lecturers taught the students 8 major topics within 14 weeks. Class attendance, assignments, and mid-semester examination were taken seriously, and they made up the continuous assessment of 30%. In the end, there was end of the semester examination of 70%. The summary of the result show that out of the 50 students, 7 got as, 31 got Bs, 6 got Cs, 3 got Ds and 3 got Fs. This study concludes that students’ active participation in class earned them positive learning outcomes. Therefore, the need to engage students fully in a virtual class cannot be overstressed. This is because sustaining students’ interest enhances their academic performance in a virtual classroo