View of AN IMPACT ASSESSMENT STUDY OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN ON LEARNING PROCESS OF STUDENTS IN PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

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ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING

Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal, ISSN NO. 2456-1037 Available Online: www.ajeee.co.in/index.php/AJEEE

Vol. 05, Issue 11,November 2020 IMPACT FACTOR: 2.104 (INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL)

45 AN IMPACT ASSESSMENT STUDY OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN ON

LEARNING PROCESS OF STUDENTS IN PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

Dr. Amar Nath

Asstt. Professor, Dept. of Management,

L. N. Mishra College of Business Management, Muzaffarpur [Bihar]

Keywords: COVID-19, online learning, corona virus, learning process.

1 INTRODUCTION

Corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) was firstly identified in Wuhan city, China in December 2019. Later, International committee on taxonomy of viruses (ICTV) identified Covid-19 as the causative agent of severe respiratory syndrome.Covid-19 outbreak spreads rapidly worldwide, therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced it as pandemic on 12 March 2020.

Several governmental measures, travel restrictions, social distancing, bans on public gatherings, schools and universities closure, business closures, self-isolation, asking people to work from home were taken to counteract the risk of disease spreading. These measures have a negative effect on the health, business and education.

Covid-19 pandemic has affected all levels of the education system. Educational institutions temporarily closed and canceled all campus activities to minimize gatherings and transmission of virus.

However, these measures lead to higher implications in academic activities on both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Almost all the universities and colleges countrywide

have suspended classroom teaching and switched to online teaching.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Many teachers engaged in undergraduate and postgraduate level were interviewed on telephone to receive conceptual clarity over the significance of title of the study. Soft skill trainers were also contacted to understand the average competence of students in communication and handling electronic gazettes in professional manner.

A number of articles on distanse education modalities and its implications were viewed on internet along with reports on digital infrastructure status.

2.1 Objective of the Study

The current study has been carried out to make an emperic assessment of impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the learning process and academic activities of students in professional studies with special reference to upcountry institutions

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Questionnaire Design

An online questionnaire was designed with a brief of aim of the study. The final questionnaire for this study consisted of open and close ended questions concerning respondent's demographic characteristics and their view towards the effect of COVID-19

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ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING

46 pandemic on their studies and the

online learning during the lockdown.

Further, it was attempted to understand which device used to study, time spent per day and preferred application in online learning, common problems encountered in the online learning, and suggestions to improve the online learning.

3.2 Data Collection

Sample size was calculated to be 198 participants. Data collection was done using a spreadsheet linked to the online Google form questionnaire.

Data collection was done during mid August to the first week of September 2020.

Among the participants 48.4%

were males, and 51.6%w ere females.

80.7%, were undergraduate students while postgraduate students comprised about 19.3% About 55.7%

of the participants were residents in a city while 44.3% the participants were residents in rural areas.

3.3 Data Analysis

Descriptive data were presented as counts and percentages to summarize the collected data. To measure the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on the academic performance of the students, a 5-Point Scale was developed and used. Answers were converted into numeric values as follow (greatly affected=5 points;

considerably affected=4 points;

moderately affected =3 points; slightly affected=2 points; not affected=1 point.

3.4 Findings of the Study

The current data showed that 96.7%

participants believed that pandemic

lockdown affected their academic performance with varying degrees.

47.5%, were greatly affected whereas 19.9% were considerably affected.

Further 23.3% moderately affected and 6.0% were slightly affected.

Whereas, only 3.3% of participants reported that lockdown had no effect on their academic performance.

Data showed that the most used device by the participants was the smartphone 89.0% followed by laptop11%.The hours spent for online learning ranged from 3 to 7 hours per day. Zoom 90% had the highest preference followed by Google Meet 7% and Webex3% were moderately used. The advantages of online learning according to the opinion of some students could be summarized as following:

 More convenient and flexible than ordinary classes

 Students have more time to learn and do other activities

 Saves time and provides an opportunity for self-study.

4 CONCLUSION

Under the pandemic conditions, academic institution should provide benefecial teaching formats and innovative ways to support students lacking social networks. Beside the institution should consider means to help students structuring their daily life as well as establishing initiatives to strengthen student's self efficacy belief.

5 RECOMMENDATIONS

The students' recommendations regarding improvement of the online learning were summarized as follows:

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 The institution should provide platforms for online learning with easy access to the study materials with electronic devices with access to internet.

 Improvement of internet speed and providing cheaper or even free internet packages during the pandemic.

 Enhance the interaction between students and teachers.

 Decrease the amount of class work could help reducing students' stress.

 Provide online quizzes and assignments after every lesson to measure the degree of students' understanding.

 Increase the available time to solve the online tests.

REFERENCES

1. WHO. WHO Announces COVID-19 Outbreak a Pandemic. (2020). Available online at:

2. https://www.euro.who.int/en/health- topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus- covid-19/news/news/2020/3/who- announces-covid-19-outbreak-a- pandemic

3. Sahu P. Closure of universities due to Coronavirus Disease 2019. (COVID-19):

impact on education and mental health of students and academic staff.

4. Iyer P, Aziz K, Ojcius DM. Impact of COVID-19 on dental education in the United States. J Dent Educ.

5. Shrivastava SR, Ghorpade AG. OpenEpi:

Open Source Epidemiologic Statistics for Public Health, Version (2013).

6. UNESCO. National Learning Platforms and Tools. (2020). Available online at: https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educ ationresponse/nationalresponses (acces sed June 09, 2020).