When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 health professions education institutions were suddenly confronted by lockdown imposed on their institutions and programmes. A network was rapidly formed to investigate the nature and impact of ‘emergency remote teaching’ (ERT) and the potential for ‘full online learning’ (FOL) in this crisis situation. The network’s initiator was a health professions educator with a nursing background from the University of Zimbabwe. The network rapidly grew by word of mouth to 18 educators from 14 programmes in nine institutions in six countries, from Uganda to South Africa. The network was interprofessional, including nursing and medical educators – all interested in ERT and FOL, and concerned about how ERT was affecting their students.

Almost immediately the members of the network decided to set about investigating how ERT was affecting teachers, students and administrators, and the progress being made towards implementing FOL. This research work has resulted in publications and conference presentations, and has culminated in the members of the network deciding from their common experience to set up a PACoTEH to promote technology-enhanced health professions education in Africa.

The Consortium continues to meet regularly and is currently in the process of being formally registered as a non-profit organisation.