In late December 2019, the Covid-19 virus was discovered in Wuhan, China, and then spread to all parts of the world, until a global pandemic was declared on March 11, 2020. In addition to disrupting the health situation in Morocco, the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on all sectors from trade, agriculture, tourism to education, etc.
On March 20, 2020, the Moroccan government forced entire regions of the kingdom into mandatory lockdown due to the rising number of coronavirus cases. National lockdown has forced Moroccan universities to move from face-to-face to online teaching.
The objective of this contribution is to determine the extent to which higher education in Morocco successfully met the challenge of distance learning. In this regard, our research will focus on the analysis of Al Akhawayn University of Ifrane (AUI), as an example of distance learning, in Morocco, during the COVID-19 pandemic. AUI was chosen for the research because it is the only university in Morocco and Africa, to date, to be accredited for online education by the New England Commission for Higher Education (NECHE).
Thus, the research will evaluate the methods used by AUI, including online e-learning platforms (MS Teams, Turnitin.com, Jenzabar, etc.), as well as flipped learning, as a method of academic success in the midst of a health crisis. The research is based on data collected through surveys of a number of AUI students.