Online Learning Challenges and Students’ Preference on Mode of Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic
Norbaiti Tukiman1*, Ahmad Khudzairi Khalid1, Munirah Onn2, Ng Set Foong1, Muhammad Afief Mohd Amran3
1 Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kampus Pasir Gudang, Malaysia
2 Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kampus Pasir Gudang, Malaysia
3 Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kampus Pasir Gudang, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 15 October 2020 | Published: 15 November 2020
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Abstract: The outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the year of 2020 has forced many people in the world to opt for a different lifestyle, a new way of work as well as an alternative way to learn. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face class is the most common learning method. However, online learning has become a popular choice after the movement control order is enforced. In this paper, a study is done to investigate the students’
preference on mode of learning and the challenges faced by students during COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative method was used and a set of questionnaires by Google form have been distributed to the students in UiTM Johor Kampus Pasir Gudang. The result shows that most of the students fairly or neutrally agree using online learning in the tertiary education.
Students felt that bad coverage on internet facility is one of the challenges faced by them during online learning. The result of this paper can help tertiary education institutions to decide the suitable mode of learning for students in future.
Keywords: Online learning, face-to-face learning, COVID-19
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1. Introduction
In the lights of recent events, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is viewed as the biggest worldwide emergency and it had created an impact on the financial and social catastrophe around the globe. On 18 March 2020, Malaysia started the practice of movement control and as a result, the educational organizations are closed temporarily. Millions of pupils, educators, academics, and professional staff have been severely affected by the situation. Subsequently, a discourse has taken place investigating elements such as surrounding downturn, depression and descending financial measurements as a preoccupation (Mangan, Gramano, & Kullmann, 2020). As electronic communication becomes increasingly common in the 20th century, flexible learning became the primary platform during this pandemic as universities practised compromising learning chances such as teaching using virtual mode, online activities and discussions (Kemp, Nenagh, & Rachel, 2014). It is stated in Claude et al. (2018) that flexible learning could be beneficial for the pupils to gain access and flexibility with regard to at least one of the following aspects such as of time, place, learning style and pace, subject matter, learning path or evaluation are taken into consideration.
An ongoing debate has been going on for decades among scholars regarding which mode of education is dominant. A few scholars argue that online is dominant and some could agree that online is less efficient than traditional face-to-face curriculum (Alsaaty, 2016).
Therefore, in this research, a study on the students’ preference on mode of learning was done among Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) students. This research identified the students’
preference on mode of learning and the challenges during COVID-19 pandemic. The result of this paper can help tertiary education institutions to decide the suitable mode of learning for students in future.
2. Literature Review
Currently, most university students in Malaysia are still practising face-to-face (F2F) instruction. Most educators chose the F2F mode but this could be perceived as an ultimatum for the educators as the inability to fully exhibit caring behaviours receptive to students’
needs. Research endorses the presumption of an authentic bond between an educator and his pupils (Baig, 2011). As Malaysia is a developing country, students in the rural area are facing several issues such as poor internet connection, lack of technical device, poor technological infrastructure and unconducive study environment at home. A study by Tamargo (2010) discovered that the instructions in F2F classroom could be seen as an obstructing environment for pupils and its structure can be pressurizing and daunting. However, F2F instruction could also enhance a better lecturer-student engagement. It plays a role as an efficient medium to induce traits such as foreboding as students are able to interact with their peers and lecturers (Tamargo, 2010). According to the Malaysian New Straits Times recent research, students who are used to being in a physical face-to-face environment might find it difficult and awkward to adapt at first but it is something students can get used to. On the contrary, online learning in rural and lower socioeconomic areas could be a compelling issue if the lecturers lacked in successfully implementing a meaningful learning experience through online delivery and methodologies where the fulfilment of the online program will be jeopardized.
Many educational institutions and universities implemented an online learning mode due to current pandemic Covid-19. According to Abdul Rabu (2018) and Al Bahrani et al. (2015), the educational sector is one of the sectors that widely use communication platforms and indicators as well as online interaction approaches. Online interaction approaches are a very interesting learning because it is equipped with digital resources. This learning concept is known as e-Learning. e-Learning is defined as an online learning platform which relies on training and technical-based tuition whereas an Online Learning Environment (OLE) is a set of teaching and learning devices aimed to strengthen a student's academic experience by incorporating computer and the internet as primary parts of the schooling process (Alsaaty, 2016). Diversity of applications, systems and even platform causes many educators to intensify e-Learning. The rise of e-learning has efficiently fostered the practice of students being in charge of their own attainment of knowledge (Ituma, 2011). Moreover, e-learning promotes the usage of interactive features that stimulate the motivation of undergraduate students for a meaningful learning experience to take place (Garza, Alejandro, Blythe, & Fite, 2014). This type of learning plays a role as a virtual environment for the students to participate and engage with one another through numerous activities like computer interactive game and etc. (Mahat et al. 2018). These activities promote aspects such as audio- visual interaction and inquiry within a diverse range of subjects. It serves as a proficient medium that offers students and teachers the chance to interact with each other. Therefore, student’s acceptance of e-learning should also be emphasized because each student has a
specific reason for the use of e-learning (Shafie, 2020). This is also stated by Samir Abou El- Seoud et al. (2014) that educational institutions including higher education institutions need to ensure smooth access to these virtual courses for e-learning to recognize the significance of e-learning.
3. Methodology
This study uses quantitative method where the respondents consist of a total of 41 students from various faculties which are Faculty of Business Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and Faculty of Chemical Engineering in UiTM Johor Kampus Pasir Gudang. This study used simple random sampling and the instrument used to collect the data was questionnaire. The questionnaire contained 15 questions and there were 3 sections namely demographic profile, students’ preference on mode of learning and the challenges during COVID-19. Different question types such as ranking, yes-no listing and category were used in the questionnaire.
The questionnaires were distributed into the group social media platform. Respondents who get the questionnaires need to fill up all the questions in the form by using their electronic devices such as smart phone, tablet, laptop or computer. The questionnaires were made by Google form. The questionnaires in the electronic version is easier for the respondents to answer the questions. The questionnaires will be randomly answered by students who open the Google form as the form was distributed in the group social media platform.
4. Discussion
In this survey, there are 61% of male respondents and the rest are female respondents. The respondents are students from diploma level study. The age of respondents are between 18 – 24 years old. The students from all faculties and all semester (part 1 to part 6) are involved in this survey.
In order to investigate the students’ preference on mode of learning, four questions are designed in this survey. The first question asked the opinion whether online learning is better than face-to-face learning. The result is shown in Figure 1. The highest percentage of respondents have neutral opinion and the percentage is 36.6%. The second highest percentage of respondents disagreed on this opinion and the percentage is 24.4%. There are 14.6% of the students strongly disagree with this opinion. Students who strongly agree with this opinion consist of the third highest percentage with 19.5% while there are 4.9% of respondents agreed with this opinion. It shows that there are more students who oppose that online learning is better than face-to-face learning.
Figure 1: Students’ opinion whether online learning is better than face to face learning.
The second question is about the understanding of the online lectures. Figure 2 shows the result.
Figure 2: Students’ understanding of the online lectures.
Based on the Figure 2, the percentage of students who answered they sometimes understood the online lectures is the highest and the percentage is 63.4%. There are 19.5% of students who could not understand online lectures. The percentage of students who answered they can understand online lectures is the lowest and the percentage is 17.1%. It shows that most of the students could not fully understand during the online lectures. Only 17.1% of students fully understood when the lectures were delivered online. The percentage of students who did not understand is higher than the students who fully understood the lectures.
The third question is about the opinion of whether online assignments and online presentation are easier than the assignments and presentation in the face-to-face mode. The result is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Students’ opinion of whether online assignments and online presentation are easier.
From the Figure 3, there are more students disagreed that online assignments and online presentation are easier than the assignments and presentation in the face-to-face mode. The percentage of students who answered “no” is 65.9% and this percentage is higher than those who answered “yes” (34.1%). It shows that the students are having difficulties in completing the online assignments and performing online presentation. It could be due to the inefficient communication with the groupmates or classmates because most of the students stay in different locations and different states. The level of internet coverage is different in different locations in Malaysia. Based on the survey, most of the students are having medium internet coverage. Online presentation was done using video conferencing applications such as Google Meet. These video conferencing applications require very good internet connection in
order to have a smooth presentation. Due to issue of internet connectivity and speed, most students were finding online presentation is disadvantage for those who do not have very good internet connection.
The forth question is about the opinion on whether online learning should replace face-to- face learning permanently. The result is displayed in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Students’ opinion about whether online learning should replace face-to-face learning permanently
The results show that most students have neutral opinion. There are 34.1% of students fall into this category. There are 24.4% strongly agreed while 9.8% agreed that online learning should replace face-to-face learning permanently. On the other hand, 17.1% are strongly disagree and 14.6% disagreed on this opinion. The result shows that there is about one third of the students supported that online learning should replace face-to-face learning permanently. There is about one third of students who opposed it. There is also almost one third of students who have neutral opinion. Therefore, there is no single mode of learning clearly dominates in the students’ preference of mode of learning.
In order to investigate the online learning challenges faced by students during COVID-19 pandemic, three questions are designed in this survey. The first question is about how often students face problem when attending online classes. The result is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Students experienced problem when attending online classes
Figure 5 shows that the percentage of students who sometimes faced a problem when attending online classes is the highest, that is 53.7%. The percentage of students who always faced problems when attending online classes is 22%. There are only 24.4% of students who did not have problem when attending online classes. Therefore, there is only about a quarter of students who can attend online classes with adequate facility and without disturbance.
The second question asked about the challenges faced by the students during online learning.
Figure 6 shows the result.
Figure 6: Challenges faced by the students during online learning
The result shows that most of the students (43.9%) overslept and this is the challenge for them in online learning. There are 31.7% of students answered that bad internet coverage is the challenge. The rest of the challenges include having problems with their devices and not knowing the time table. The result shows that there are about half of the students opined that the challenges are due to the internet facility and electronic devices. There are about another half of the students agreed that personal discipline is the challenge during online learning.
The third question surveyed on the internet coverage in the area where the students stay. The result is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Internet coverage in the area where the students stay.
Five options are given about the internet coverage in the area where the students stay. The options are: very strong, strong, medium, poor and very poor. From Figure 7, it shows that majority of the students have medium internet coverage in their area of stay and the percentage of this category is the highest, that is 46.3%. There are 2.4% of students who have very poor internet coverage while 9.8% of students have poor internet coverage in the area where they stay. The result shows that there are students who do not have good internet facility to follow the online learning effectively.
5. Conclusion
The purpose of this study is to investigate the students’ preference on mode of learning and the challenges during COVID-19 pandemic. The survey shows that there are more students who are in negative opinion that online learning is better than face-to-face learning. Majority
of students could sometimes understand the online lectures. There are more students disagreed that online assignments and online presentation are easier than the assignments and presentation in the face-to-face mode. It could be due to poor internet connectivity and speed, most students were finding online presentation is disadvantage for those who do not have very good internet connection. Most students prefer face-to-face learning as they can understand quickly when lecturer deliver the teaching while discussion can be happened freely in face-to-face learning. Sometimes, students love to learn together with their classmates. On the opinion of whether online learning should replace face-to-face learning permanently, there are about equal percentage of students who support it and who oppose it.
Regarding the online learning challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is only about a quarter of students who can attend online classes with adequate facility and without disturbance. The challenges faced by the students include overslept, bad internet coverage, problems with their devices and not knowing the time table. These challenges can be categorized as the internet facility, electronic devices and self-discipline. The result of the survey shows that majority of the students have medium internet coverage in their area of stay and there are students who do not have good internet facility to follow the online learning effectively. Weather is also a factor that can cause the internet connectivity to be disturbed.
As the conclusion, students need more time to adapt to online learning because some students are still trying to explore the new technology and techniques use in online learning process.
Therefore, a mixture of the mode of learning could be one of the options for the higher learning institution to be considered in future.
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