Prospects and limitations of e-learning application in private tertiary institutions amidst COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria

E-learning has numerous potentials to spur education development in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It impacts positively on the educational process, unlike the physical chalkboard in the classrooms. The outbreak and fast spread of the COVID-19 led to the closed down of schools. Efforts to revamp education due to prolong lockdown made the government enforce e-learning in tertiary institutions across the country. It is however worthy to know that these directives did not make much change as a result of poor infrastructure and networking. Hence, this study investigated compliance with e-learning during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown by the instructors in the private tertiary institutions in Nigeria vis-à-vis their socio-economic factors and limitations encountered. A systematic sampling technique was adopted to select 180 respondents from the staff list. A validated questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-economic variables (SEV), compliance (ϒ) to e-learning, and limitations (Ls) while multiple linear regression model (R) was used to test the interaction between the compliance and limitations. Results show that age (β = 0.351), educational attainment (β = 0.843) and teaching experience (β = 0.169) influence e-learning compliance at p < 0.05. It was also found that 67.3% compliance with e-learning took place in the Universities compared to 59.1% in the Polytechnics and 52.8% in the Colleges of Education. Regression shows that constraints affected the level of compliance (R 2 = 0.73). The study concludes that constraints are major obstacles to the compliance and prospects of e-learning in the Private Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.