COVID-19 PANDEMIC: AN OUTLINE OF DIGITAL LEARNING TOOLS FOR CREATING TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTENTS

There is currently little or no literature on COVID-19 in relation to educational studies especially in the area of continuous teaching and learning activities. The only literature available is directly related to medical studies. This is not because education is not directly affected by the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic but rather because studies in education rarely incorporate effects of disease on the effective provision of education to learners across the globe. The paper focused on the digital learning tools for creating teaching and learning contents at COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The prime target of the researchers is to outlinethe digital learning tools as it is useful for creating teaching and learning contents for teachers at all level of education. There are many free and paid online digital learning tools available for creating teaching and learning content, such tools include: schoology; Google classroom; Edmodo; Moddle; Grockit; ePals and a lot but just to mention but few. The aforementioned tools were free for some extent, but teachers/tutors and students have to use internet for using these tools for long teaching and learning purpose. Some of the benefits of digital learning tools include the following; to reduce time and cost, issue of any pandemic or lockdown and maintaining social distance to minimize the spread of the disease more especially during pandemic. The paper therefore suggested that there is need for insights regarding the use of digital learning tools and teachers/tutors and students alike should consider digital learning tools for creating and continuous teaching and learning activities. The paper also recommended among others that educational stakeholders in Nigeria should provide training for teachers on how to use various digital learning tools in creating teaching and learning contents.


INTRODUCTION
In December 2019, a virus of uncertain origin (coronavirus-19)had been identified in Hubei Province China called Wuhan which was first confirmed by China's World Health Organization (WHO) State Offices.The Novel coronavirus-2019 (2019-nCoV or COVID-19) is by far the most dangerous coronavirus ever identified for the third time in the three decades capable of infecting not only the animals but also the humans all over the world. Nearly over1,163,434 deaths have been recorded as a result of 2019-nCoV outbreak worldwide. The pandemicity of 2019-nCoVhas dramatically surpassed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that were discovered so far in 2003 and 2012 respectively. Thus, the WHO has declared the 2019-nCoV as Public Health Emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020 and pandemic on 11 March(WHO, 2020)and thus affecting certainly every sector of human life including Education.Currently, over 120 countries including Nigeria were reported to have more than 43,766,712 confirmed cases and 1,163,459 deaths as a result of2019-nCoV outbreakas of 3:58pm CET, 28 October 2020. The WHO is functioning around the clock, day and night to interpret evidence, give guidance, organize with collaborators,and expand resources and handles teams of specialists to minimize the spread of the virus.
Similarly, National health specialists including state authorities are undertaking multiple measures, such as working from home, social distancing, quarantining in case of symptoms; improving health institutions to manage the infection; and request everyone to stay at home (Bedford, Enria, Giesecke, Heymann, Ihekweazu, Kobinger & Ungchusak, 2020). Across several nations, measures to limit the spread of the 2019-nCoV between older and adolescent population have contributed to the extensive closing of schools and other educational establishments (Krienger, 2020;Linney, 2020). Since around March 25, nearly over one hundred and fifty countries had temporarily closed schools and establishments (Muhammad, Amiya, Shafiqul & Ikram, 2020).
The 2019-nCoV pandemic has caused the largest disruption of education in the history of the world, having already had a near universal impact on learners and teachers around the world, from pre-primary to secondary schools, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, universities, adult learning, and skills development establishments and bymid of 2020, 94% of learners worldwide were affected by the 2019-nCoV pandemic, representing 1.58 billion children and youth, from pre-primary to higher education in 200 countries (United Nation, 2020).Despitethis great challenges presented by 2019-nCoV,the situation has also offered the opportunity to rethink the overall purpose, role, content and delivery of education in the long term, and prepare education systems to deal with current and future crises through comprehensive and inter-sectorial approaches and by tapping into collective experience and practices from around the world (UNESCO, 2020;Kim, 2020). On similar vein, Enoidem, Aniedi and Comfort (2020) assert that 2019-nCoV pandemic has brought about a drastic change in classroom and it is best for education sector to think about newer teaching and learning techniques based on digital learning tools and technologies.They further explained that the inclusion of digital learning in the classroom can vary from simply using tablets instead of paper to using elaborate software programs and equipment. A digital learning strategy may include any of or a combination of any of the Adaptive learning; Badging and Gamification; Blended learning; Classroom technologies; E-textbooks; Online learning (or e-learning); Open educational resources (OER); Technology-enhance teaching and learning; Visual reality and Augmented reality.
Moreover, before the 2019-nCoV pandemic, the world was already facing formidable challenges in fulfilling the promise of education as a basic fundamental human right. "Despite the near universal enrolment at schools in most countries, an extraordinary number of children more than 250 million were out of school, and nearly 800 million adults were illiterate" (United Nation, 2020). The 2019-nCoV pandemic has interrupted conventional schooling with nationwide school closures in most countries of the world. While the educational communities in the developed nations have made concerted efforts to maintain learning continuity during this period of pandemic, children and students have had to rely more on their own resources to continue learning remotely through the internet, television or radio. Teachers also had to adapt to new pedagogical concepts and modes of delivery of teaching, for which they may not have been trained.
The 2019-nCoV pandemic has also had a severe impact on education as schoolswere shut downand countries closed down their borders in response to the lockdown measures. Althoughin developed countries using digital learning tools were alreadyreplaced face-to-face lectures with e-learning, therefore, the effects of the pandemic was minimal. More succinctly, the 2019-nCoV pandemichas raises questions about the value offered by education sector which includes networking and social opportunities as well as educational contentto remain relevant, reinvent the learning environments so that digitalization expands and complements student-teacher and other relationships (Andreas, 2020).As a result of the pandemic, digital learning is now on the forefront in replacing traditional education methods whereby the teachers and students interact in the classroom and have physical contact with each other (Enoidem, et al., 2020).
Digital learning tools refer to any program, application package or technology that can be assessed through the use of internet connection and enhance teacher's ability to present information and a leaner's ability to access that information (Jennifer, 2020).Digital learning is any type of learning that is accompanied by technology or by instructional practice that makes effective use of technology. It encompasses the application of a wide spectrum of practice which includes banded and visual learning.Digital learning is sometimes confused with online learning or e-learning, digital learning encompasses the aforementioned concept (Wikipedia, 2020). Digital learning is learning facilitated by technology that gives students some element of control over time, path, and or place. Since digital learning is far more interactive and memorable than voluminous textbooks or one side lectures, it provides better context, a greater sense of perspective and more engaging activities than traditional education method.

Digital LearningTools for Teachers to Create Teaching and Learning Contents
For teachers to successfully change from traditional classroom toe-teaching/learning environment, the following are compiled list of some of the technology tools to create digital learning contents to include some that are becoming increasingly popular and widely used that should be part of any teachertechnology tools arsenal this year whether for their own personal use or as education aids in the classroom, however, certain tools that need to be put in place

User
What you can do with Classroom Teachers  Start a video meeting.  Create and manage classes, assignments, and grades online without paper.  Add materials to your assignments, such as YouTube videos, a Google Forms survey, and other items from Google Drive.  Give direct, real-time feedback.  Use the class stream to post announcements and engage students in question-driven discussions.  Invite parents and guardians to sign up for email summaries with a student's upcoming or missing work.
Students  Track classwork and submit assignments.  Check originality, feedback, and grades.  Share resources and interact in the class stream or by email.
Parent/Guardians  Get an email summary of your student's work.  Review announcements and activities.
Administrators  Protect data and set permissions for your users.  Set up classes and rosters.  Add or remove students and teachers from classes.  Get 24/7 support.
Source: https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6020279?hl=en&authuser=0 The following are steps in creating and using Google classroom 1. Open a web browser and go to www.classroom.google.com The teacher will have to sign in with Google Application for education account. 2. On the welcome screen, click the plus (+) sign at the top and choose create class 3. Type the class name and section in the create class dialogue box. 4. Clicks create, after these procedures a class has been successfully created.

Moodle:
Community-driven and globally-supported open learning platform. It is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other e-learning projects in schools, universities, workplace and other sectors (Costello, 2013). With customizable management features it is used to create private websites with online courses for educators and trainers to achieve learning goals (Gavin cited in Enoidem et al., 2020). Moodle allows for extending and tailoring learning environments using community-sourced plugins. As an e-learning tool moodle has a wide range of standard and innovative features such as a calendar and a grade book (Jordan, 2013). Moodle is a leading virtual learning environment and can be used in many types of environment such as education, training and development and in business settings. Application of Moodle Digital Learning Tool 6. Manga-High: offer teachers a wealth of resources for game-based learning in mathematics. 7. Fun-Brain: if you are looking for wealth of resources for educational games, look no further Fun-Brain. On it, teachers can take advantage of fun tool for math and reading. 8. Edu-Creation: is an amazing online tool for the iPad that lets teacher (or students) create video-based lesson that teach a given topic. Perfect for studying or getting students to show off their knowledge. 9. Animoto: makes it simple to create video-based lesson or presentation for the classroom and to share them with students or anyone else. 10. Socrative: available for computers, mobile device and tablets, this students' response system engages students through game and exercise on any device they have on hand. Even better, teachers can easily assess students' progress and track grades. 11. Knewton: adaptive learning has been a hot topic in recent months, and with Knewton it is something that any teacher can assess and use. The site personalizes online learning contents for each student according to his or her needs. 12. Kerpoof: on kerpoof, students can become creative with their learning with games, interactive activities, drawing tools and more that are both fun and educational. 13. Study Sync: with a digital library, weekly writing assignments, online writing and peer reviews, common core assignments, and multimedia lessons can be made available. This site is a fully-featured tool for teaching and learning that can be a big help in the classroom. 14. Carrot Sticks: on this site, teachers can take advantage of a wide range of math learning games, giving students practice while they have fun.

CONCLUSION
Digital learning platform has come to stay especially during COVID-19 pandemic which the entire world is affected in one way or the other. Education sector in Nigeria has to provide training for teachers on how to use various tools in creating digital learning. The teachers will not just wake up to start using these tools without prior training or knowledge. As such, there is need for teacher training. The teachers on their part seeing the trend in teaching which has shifted from traditional to digital method of teaching should utilize various learning tools that could make teaching and learning possible amidst any pandemic.

RECOMMENDATION
The following recommendations were made: 1 Government at all levels should train teachers to acquire knowledge on how to use various digital learning tools for creating teaching and learning content. 2 Parents should provide their children with necessary items such as items to include but not limited to laptop, smart phone among others that would encourage them to study and learn online. 3 Government through its agencies should focus on how to create avenue for teachers and students to interact and learn outside the traditional classroom. 4 Government through its agencies should make provision for constant electricity supply to avoid disruption during teaching and learning online.