Online Learning Mode During Covid-19 Pandemic: Learner’s Perception Qualitatively in Finance Courses
Chooi-Yi Wei1*, Yoke-Chin Kuah1, Feng-Mei Liew1, Chee-Loong Lee1, Chin-Min Koh1
1 Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 15 May 2021 | Published: 1 June 2021
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the traditional teaching and learning activities to the online activities under new normal. As the implementation of online teaching and learning is unavoidable during the pandemic, the effectiveness of the online classes becomes the concern of the tertiary education stakeholders. In this study, a total of 21 students who are taking the Finance course in a Malaysian private university have been interviewed in the form of online focus group discussion to know their perceptions on the online classes. They were asked the questions that related to their challenges faced, learning process, online assessments etc. The focus group discussions reveal that the internet connection is the major factor that affects the effectiveness of online classes and students need more assistance on the matters that relate to online examination.
Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic, online learning, learner’s perception, Finance course _________________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
The word “new normal” has become a popular term since the outbreak of the Covid-19. New normal requires the community to follow a specific guideline to lower down the transmission rate of Covid-19. The guidelines are as follow: -
1) Avoid crowded places.
2) Avoid close conversation.
3) Avoid confined places.
Thus, maintaining social distancing of at least one metre apart is crucial in practicing this new normal as mentioned by “Ministry of Health Malaysia” (2020). Yet, it is difficult for the education sector to follow the new guideline with the traditional teaching and learning activities in the classroom. As some of the lecture classes have approximate 300 students or more in a confined lecture hall. As a result, universities in Malaysia changed from the traditional teaching and learning activities to online teaching and learning following the guidelines issued by Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi (“Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia”, 2020). Since then, the universities in Malaysia implemented online teaching and learning until December 2020.
This triggered the interest to study the effectiveness of online teaching and learning and targeted finance related courses. As, unlike some other courses (clinical teaching, etc) that are essential to have practical training in the classroom (Rashid et al., 2020), finance related courses cover understanding in theories and calculations are delivered through lecture and tutorial class without any practical class. This sudden changes from traditional teaching and learning to online teaching and learning brings a lot of challenges to the academicians as well as the students. The challenges could be divided into two categories which are hardware and
software. The challenges in terms of hardware are the required facilities to conduct the online class such as a decent computer to support the online class for more than an hour, necessary equipment such as pen tablet to simulate the whiteboard as in the classroom. For the software, some universities adopted Microsoft Teams as its primary platform for online teaching and learning. However, Microsoft Teams only support up to 250 users in the conference. Thus, for large classes the lecturer needs to explore some other options such as using zoom, Facebook live, etc. In addition, during the initial period of online teaching and learning a few numbers of users (staff and students were unable to login to the Microsoft Teams account with their designated email. Apart from the hardware and software, some of the staff and students might also face internet connectivity problems as the bandwidth in their home might be unable to support the conference. With all the challenges, one might question about the effectiveness of online teaching and learning as compared to the traditional method via classroom. This paper discusses the effectiveness of online learning from the perspective of students in the following themes:
1) Challenges faced during online learning.
2) Student perceptions on online learning.
3) Learning mode and teaching method used by the lecturer.
4) Social interaction with the lecturer.
5) Online assessments.
2. Literature Review
Online learning can be categorized into live interaction between the lecturer and students (synchronous mode) and delayed delivery between instructions and receipts (asynchronous mode) involves pre-recorded video, discussion board, etc. Volery and Lord (2000) mentioned that online learning provides resourceful virtual places to the students in which the students are able to engage with the lecturer in real time (synchronous mode) or through discussion board (asynchronous mode). Online learning involves heavy usage of information technology (IT) in terms of hardware and software and it may affect student’s engagement in the online discussion if they do not have sufficient access to the IT equipment (King, 2002). In addition, some lecturers might put too much of their effort in the technology and disregard the learning goals (Twomey, 2004). Thus, it is crucial to ensure the effectiveness of online learning.
A study conducted by Huang (2020) concluded that the online learning could be challenging due to no face-to-face interaction while learning online and this exerts challenge to both lecturers and students. Huang (2020) found out that around 80% of the students pointed out that it is a challenge for them without face-to-face interaction with the teachers. In addition, around 40% of the students mentioned that they do not have a conducive learning environment at home (Huang, 2020). Apart from that, online learning makes it difficult for the students to gain practical knowledge as it requires hands on and demonstration (Huang, 2020; Rameez et al., 2020). In addition, students who lived in rural area might faced the challenges of improper or unstable internet facilities and some students do not have sufficient equipment such as computer, smartphone, etc that is essential to follow the online learning (Rameez et al., 2020;
King, 2002; Welker & Berardino, 2005; Song et al., 2004, Smyth et al. 2012).
Next, Ireland et al. (2009); So (2009) Welker and Berardino (2005) and Song et al. (2004) revealed that the students mentioned that online learning provides them flexibility and convenience as they are able to learn with their own time and any location without travel to the campus. The students believe that the flexibility in online learning is able to discipline them as
they need to plan for their learning. Apart from that, Davey et al. (2019) stated that digital learning is able to create the value of personalization, self-directed learning and co-creation of content. According to the surveys carried out by Rameez et al. there are approximately 65% of the students agreed that online learning helped them to save time and money and also organize themselves.
In the view of learning preferences, 74% of students voiced out that online learning is not as effective as the traditional learning via classroom (Deshmukh et al., 2021). In addition, Rameez et al. (2020) discovered that 41% of the respondents expressed their disappointment in the online learning and the study found that some of the students are motivated in the online learning but lost their motivation after beginning the online class. Huang (2020) highlighted that a stable network is essential for effective and efficient online learning, however the study showed that around 18% of the students do not have a stable network and this issue could be minimized by recording the live classes.
The study conducted by Deshmukh et al. (2021) found that 80% of the respondents felt that the interaction via online learning with the lecturer were lesser as compared to the physical class.
Similarly, 80% of the students could not follow the content taught via online class. Hence, it is important to increase the interaction among the lecturer and students. Welker and Berardino (2005) and Aspend and Helm (2004) uncovered that the learning experience of the students was enhanced if prompt feedback was received by the students and the students might feel anxious and frustrated when the feedback was delayed. Besides, Haslam (2021) reported that students experienced poor mental health due to the feelings of isolation due to uncertainties about their progression and assessment.
On the other hand, Huang (2020) found that around 50% of the respondents were not satisfied with the online examinations due to the issue of fairness in the online exam. As mentioned by Watson (2001), some students will adapt quickly to the online assessment and benefit by creating test-taking strategies according to the new assessment approach. Apart from that, some students might feel anxious in the online exam even if they were prepared before the exam on how to use the online assessment system (Özden et al., 2004). In addition, computers and the familiarity to the assessment tools are the most important factors in the online assessment (Özden et al., 2004).
3. Methodology
Qualitative approach has been employed in this study to examine the undergraduates’
perception on online learning conducted in two consecutives semesters during the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 30 year-three undergraduates from the Finance degree programme in a private university has been approached for participating in the interview session via phone call.
The rationale of selecting year-three undergraduate as the respondents is because most of the major finance courses are offered in the third year of the degree programme.
Upon approaching the respondents individually, a total of 21 out of 30 students expressed their willingness in participating in the interview. The data collection took place in the form of online focus group discussion (FGD). A total of six online FGD sessions has been carried out via the Microsoft Team platform. Each session took approximately the duration of an hour, involving three interviewers as well as three to four interviewees.
Interview questions were designed based on five themes, namely (1) challenges faced by students in their online learning, (2) students’ perception on class conducted and lecturers’
preparedness, (3) teaching method used by lecturers, (4) students’ interaction with lecturers as well as (5) students’ perception on online assessments. The interviewees were asked the questions based on each theme in the rotation basic.
Upon collecting data from the 21 subjects, the data was then typed in the Microsoft Word according to the points given by the interviewees. Based on the data collected, answers given by most of the interviewees are almost similar across the six interview sessions. Qualitative data is considered sufficient to generate the analysis once it reaches the saturation point. Hence, the researchers conclude that the data collected are sufficient to generate the analysis and be able to represent the overall year-three Finance programme undergraduate’s perception on the online learning practices.
4. Results and Discussion
Results
A total of five themes that related to online learning have been explored in this study, namely challenges faced by students in their online learning, (2) students’ perception on class conducted and lecturers’ preparedness, (3) teaching method used by lecturers, (4) students’
interaction with lecturers as well as (5) students’ perception on online assessments. The data collected via the online focus group discussion has been analyzed thematically as follows.
Theme 1: Challenges faced by students in their online learning
The subjects have undergone two consecutive semesters of online learning since the implementation of Movement Control Order (MCO) started from 18th March 2020. The challenges encountered by the students during their online learning have been examined to the sub-themes accordingly. The sub-themes consist of (1) students’ concentration during the online classes, (2) learning environment, (3) learning devices used for online learning, (4) time management, (5) students’ emotional changes, and (6) learning support from people around.
From the first sub-theme, more than 60% of the respondents have expressed their difficulties in paying full attention during the online classes. They have expressed their thoughts as following:
“I cannot concentrate on my study at home due to the disturbances from my family members,
especially my parents.” [M1, M3]
“I cannot wake up in the morning and pay full attention during the morning classes. Most of the time, I will skip the morning class and listen to the pre-recorded videos or live recording from the lecturers or tutors after class.” [M2, M3,F1, F5, F7]
“My concentration can only last for a maximum of 2 hours. It is very easy to distract me from the study if the classes are conducted continuously from morning to noon or evening. [F6]
During the off-campus period, most of the students accessed their online classes in their hometown. Hence, the disturbances from the family members as well as the media devices (for instance mobile phone, radio and television) have distracted their concentration on the online classes. This situation is worsened when the class is conducted in the early morning.
Moving towards the second sub-theme, i.e. learning environment. Some students claimed that they need a suitable learning environment at home for their studies. From another perspective, some students prefer to have asynchronous online learning because they can study at their own sweet time or most productive time, especially during the period that the on-ground learning is difficult or impossible to be conducted. Students can participate in the online classes anywhere and anytime as long as they are provided a computer and internet connection. They responded:
“I can focus on my study because I have my own personal study room at home.”
[M6, F1, F13]
“I will prefer staying at a hostel because there are better facilities provided and the study
environment is suitable.” [M5, F6]
“Most of the time, I did not find home a suitable learning environment for my online classes. I have a few family members who stay together, and I felt that the home environment is not
suitable for online lecture or tutorial classes. [M1, F2]
“ I prefer watching the pre-recorded video rather than the live recording because I can watch
the video anytime that I like”. [F3, F6, F10, M1, M5]
In terms of learning devices used for online learning, the common devices are desktop, laptop or mobile phone. However, their main concern is the matter of internet connection and the malfunction of learning devices. Based on the comments from students, the network connection is the major tool that ensures the online classes run smoothly. Besides, they also perceived that a good learning device enhances the learning process. The majority of participants agreed that:
“I am used to facing frequent internet disconnection issues during the online classes, and it was very hard for me to follow the class if I missed some important message from the lecturer
or tutor.” [M1, M3, M6, F1, F2 F7]
“Some lecturers and tutors also faced slow internet connectivity and caused their voices hard to be heard. There will be a waste of time if they need to repeat on the same topic or sentences.”
[F2, F4]
In terms of time management during the online learning, students mentioned that they are able to manage their learning time and “me-time” well. They explained:
“I can have more time for my personal task when I study at home.” [ F3, F9, F12]
“Online classes can save my time by reducing my daily traveling to campus and time spent on
looking for parking.” [ F2, F4, F6]
“I have more time to focus on my assignment writing.” [M4, M6]
In fact, a strong self-discipline and self-motivation are needed by the students especially when they are alone studying in front of the learning devices. This requires strong determination and well-balanced time management throughout the day. Thus, time management is important for a person to complete the tasks on time without any delay.
When the students were asked about if they encountered any emotional changes during the online learning period, some students responded positively by claiming they feel more relaxing with online learning as compared to the physical classes. Students explained that the lecture and tutorial classes are recorded for the online learning and these recorded videos have eased their revision. They claimed that:
“I find online learning is more relaxing and the best thing of online learning is the recording of lecture and tutorial classes. I can repeat the videos anytime and anywhere.” [M7, F6]
“I have more time with my family members now and our relationship becomes more closer
after starting the online classes.” [M3, M5, F1, F3, F7]
Yet, some students claimed that they have to face the computer 24/7 for online learning as well as to bear the disturbances from family members. All these conditions has indirectly affected their mental health and emotion.They claimed that:
“I feel tired when I have to face the computer from morning until late evening.” [ F9, F12]
“I am always disturbed by my niece and siblings when I am having online classes.” [F4]
Moving on to the next item, students were asked if they obtain any learning support or motivation from the family member or peer. Some students mentioned that they have obtained the support from their parents and peers. In fact, parental and peer support play crucial roles in encouraging students to learn especially during this pandemic era because all the learning is done by students alone at their own place. A few of respondents have
answered in this way:
“My parents will encourage and support me when I study at home.” [M3, M5, F1, F3, F7]
“I will have the revision with my final year project group members online. They always provide
me moral support when I feel down.” [F2. F11]
Yet, some students claimed that they lack support from their family members and feel lonely studying alone. Besides, they also feel disconnected with their long lost-contact peers.
“I feel lonely and lost contact with my friends since online learning is implemented. I felt uncomfortable talking to them via phone or any social media.” [M5, F12, F14]
Theme 2: Student’s perception on class conducted and lecturers’ preparedness
The university management has implemented the practice of pre-recorded video for each lecture class and live-recording video for each lecture and tutorial class. All recorded videos are then uploaded to the university learning management system named “Web-based Learning Environment (WBLE)” platform or Microsoft Teams (MT) platform for students’
reference. More than 80% of the respondents agreed that pre-recorded videos are essential as the videos can be the supplementary to their live-recording video for their revision and study.
They expressed:
“I agreed to have the pre-recorded videos. But I prefer live-recording videos because more explanations are provided by lecturer.” [ F3, F9, F10, M11, F12, F14]
“I prefer live-recording videos as the pre-recorded videos are not useful at all.”
[F1, F2, F9, F10, M11, F12, F14]
In terms of lecturers’ preparedness for the online classes, the majority of the students mentioned all the Finance lecturers were well prepared for their lecture notes and learning devices before the class started. They responded:
“All finance lecturers are well prepared before conducting the class.”
[All respondents except F1, F2, F3, M4]
Just four of them claimed that the lecturer or tutor’s voice was not clear due to poor internet connection:
“Some of the lecturers' or tutors’ voices were not clear or lagging due to poor internet connection. It led to wastage of time for waiting.” [F1, F2, F3, M4]
Theme 3: Teaching Method Used by Lecturers
Respondents were also asked about their preferences of learning mode, i.e. online class or physical class. More than 70% of the respondents prefer online classes as compared to physical classes. These results also indicated that students have adopted the online learning mode since the implementation of emergency remote learning mode started from March 2020 in corresponding to the announcement of movement control order (MCO) in Malaysia.
“I prefer online classes. It saves the time for looking for a car park and online learning can
avoid the issue of class clashing.” [F3, M2]
“I agreed to continue the online classes as one of the advantages of online classes is the availability of pre-recorded videos and live-recording videos. I can repeat them unlimited times
to enhance my understanding.” [F2. F6, F10, F14]
However, there are some students who claim that they prefer physical classes as they could learn better and could focus well on their study.
“I prefer physical classes. I need eye contact with the respective lecturer or tutor.”
[F12, F13]
The last sub-theme of the teaching mode used by lecturers is related to the teaching methods used by lecturers during the online classes. Most of the Finance lecturers used the features embedded in the software to facilitate the teaching process. For instance, the lecturers used the functions of recording, chat box, raise hand, screen sharing etc. in the Microsoft Teams. Some of the lecturers have also employed the white board function as well as the finance emulator when explaining the calculation-related contents. Furthermore, some lecturers have used Kahoot and poll function to interact with students and make the classes more interesting.
“Most of lecturers used the basic features in MT, such as unmute mic, screen sharing and chat room. A few lecturers also used the white board function for the calculation explanation, but the part of white board was unable to be recorded in the view. So I am unable to refer back to
the calculation explanation.” [F1. F2, F3, F6]
“One of the finance lecturers used Kahoot to make us have better understanding on the content.
I really enjoyed it.” [F12]
“Finance lecturers will use a finance emulator for the calculation part, for example, HP
emulator.” [M1]
Theme 4: Students’ Interaction with Lecturers
All respondents mentioned that they approached the lecturers or tutors when having inquiries or doubts that related to their assignment, tutorial questions, and revision. They responded as following:
“I will interact with the lecturer before examination. Sometimes, I will ask for more guidance
for assignments.” [All respondents]
“I will only consult lecturers when facing problems in my revision.” [ F2, F4]
Most of the students interacted with their lecturers via WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, email or Facebook. Based on students, some of the lecturers preferred to have a WhatsApp group with students for the ease of communicating and posting announcements.
“I usually contact my lecturer by using the chat function of Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp.”
[ M2, M3, M4, F1, F2, F4, F6, F9]
“Some of my lecturers created Facebook to keep in touch with us.” [ F5]
“My lecturer needs us to make an appointment via email before meeting them.” [ F8 F12]
Theme 5: Students’ Perception on Online Assessments
In subjects’ university, the physical examination has been replaced by the online assessment since May 2020 due to the imposition of movement control order (MCO). All finance students were given 3 hours to complete their online assessment and the paper was required to submit to the WBLE. 50% of the respondents claimed that they prefer physical examination because there are more direct questions in the physical examination instead of higher order thinking skill (HOTs) questions that are set in online assessment.
“I prefer physical examination because the questions are more direct.”
[M4, M5, M6, F1, F2, F3, F10, F11, F12, F13, F14]
Whereas another 50% of the respondents prefer to have online assessment. Reasons given by them are as following:
“I prefer online assessment because the questions are open-book questions.” [M1, F9]
“I want to have an online assessment because I don't need to memorize a lot of formulas for
the calculation questions.” [ M2, M3, F4, F8]
In terms of the duration given for the online assessment, all students claimed that 3 hours is not sufficient for the examination, instead they perceived that 3.5 hours to 4 hours is more appropriate for the online examination. They responded that:
“The duration of online assessment can be up to 4 hours, because we need to type the answers on Microsoft Word. If most of the examination questions are direct questions, that we can get the answer from lecture slides or tutorial questions, I think 3 hours will be enough for the examination. However, if there are more HOTs questions in the online assessment, then I need more time to search for the information from all possible sources.” [M1]
“I need more time in adjusting the alignment of the word file. Besides, it is also time consuming when I need to scan my handwriting answers and paste them on the Microsoft Word.” [ F2, F7]
“3-hour is not enough for me to complete the online assessment because I need to do a lot of
paraphrasing work.” [ M4, F11, F14]
“I need more time for the calculation part.” [ F8, F9, M5]
Discussion
The findings contribute to understanding the Year 3 Finance program undergraduates' experiences of undertaking online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the old norm, most of them do not have experience with online learning. Their perceptions of the experiences highlight the challenges and solutions of pursuing this drastic change of study.
The study reveals that students experienced several challenges from online learning. One particular challenge was its poor internet connection. Students or lecturers who lived in backward and rural areas did not have proper internet facilities (Rameez et al., 2020). Students may become perturbed and disappointed by poor communication and slow feedback from lecturers (Aspden & Helm, 2004; Smyth et al., 2012; Welker & Berardino, 2005). Participants believed that weak network connection is the central issue in online learning. Therefore, the university has implemented pre-recording video and live recording video for flexible revision.
More than 80% of the respondents agreed that recorded video is essential for their revision and study. This finding is consistent with that of Deshmukh et al. (2021), who found that recorded video played an important role in online teaching.
Participants reported that unlike traditional classroom approaches, they find it difficult to concentrate in online classes. They stay at home in an unsuitable learning environment such as disturbance from family members, media devices such as mobile phones, radio, and television.
In contrast to earlier findings (see McVeigh, 2009; Smyth et al., 2012;Welker and Berardino, 2005), not the everyday life invasive by online classes, but everyday life disturbed online learning. Despite self-motivation and self-discipline, this study revealed that parent and peer- to-peer support played a crucial role in online learning. From the university standpoint, Haslam (2021) purpose builds up an online community to support students' shift from passive recipients of information to active participants, driving the changing discourse around current issues.
In spite of many online learning challenges, this study found more than 70% of the respondents prefer online classes compared to physical classes. This study supports evidence from previous observations that the flexibility fostered a sense of autonomy and valued this online learning approach , for instance the work from Ireland, et al. (2009), Smyth et al.(2012) and Welker and Berardino (2005) . A significant finding that was not reported in previous research was that the Microsoft team's additional functions, namely whiteboard (for calculation explanation), Kahoot, HP emulator, and Polly, can make the class enjoyable. Flexibility and interest are the two significant reasons students prefer online learning rather than psychic class.
Compelling interactivity facilitates active learning environments (Markett et al., 2006;
Muirhead & Juwah, 2003). Social interaction also changes in online learning. The interaction changes from most face-to-face oral communication to most texts-based interaction in virtual.
As usual, participants will approach the lecturers when they encounter doubt in their study.
However, participants utilize social media like WhatsApp and Facebook or formal online channels such as Microsoft team chat and email. Furthermore, online assessment replaced the physical examination. The questions' style shifts from low order thinking to high order thinking. Although the open book and open web are allowed, more than 50% of participants prefer physical examination as there were more direct and predictable questions. Participants claimed that 3.5 hours to 4 hours duration for the online examination is a more reasonable examination time (current time is 3 hours).
5. Limitations and Future Recommendations
In this research, a total of 21 year-three undergraduates who are taking the Finance degree programme from a Malaysian private university were interviewed for their perception on online learning. The online learning was implemented “forcefully” in March 2020 in accordance with the imposition of movement control order (MCO) in Malaysia. Students have been asked questions based on a few perspectives, such as the challenges faced during online learning, teaching method employed by lecturers, their interaction with lecturers etc. Based on the comments and feedback given by students, it provides more insights and ideas to the lectures and university management on the conditions of online learning from students’ point of view.
Nonetheless, this research has its own limitations.First of all, this study focuses only on the students from Finance discipline. Based on the syllabus of the Finance degree programme taken by the interviewees, it shows that most of the subjects cover only the lecture and tutorial classes but the practical or hand-on sessions are not needed. Thus, the results from this study might not be able to give a good overview on the students’ perception who are from the degree programme that rely heavily on the practical class, such as the medical-related or science- related programmes. These programmes need to carry out a lot of lab sessions and face-to-face discussions for the experiments or practice. Obviously, the challenges faced by these groups of students are even more because the physical classes are mostly prohibited during the period of MCO.
Furthermore, the interviewees in this research are mainly year-three students, i.e. the final year students. The final year students have experienced the face-to-face teaching method in university for at least two years. As compared to their juniors, they are more familiar with the learning process as well as the rules and regulations of university. Besides that, they are also having a closer rapport with their lecturers. As a result, they have the ideas from whom they can seek assistance and guidance when facing problems in their study.However, this situation might not apply to those freshmen who are already going for online learning in their first semester or other year-one and year-two students. These groups of students might face more difficulties and feel helpless when they have no clue on the channels that they can seek help from. Thus, the results of this study possibly underestimates the challenges faced by students during their online learning period.
Lastly, the interviewees of this study are the students from private university. Therefore, the results of this study might not be able to represent the conditions of the students from public university. There are differences between the private university and public university in terms
of tuition fees, facilities, government support etc. Not only the challenges faced by private university students and public university students are different, but the conditions of online learning are not the same. These points of view are not taken into consideration in this study.
Based on the limitations mentioned, future researchers are recommended to expand their study to other disciplines, so that the generalized insights on the online learning in university could be provided. Likewise, future researchers are recommended to cover the students from different batches to get more ideas on the students’ perception on online learning as well as the challenges faced by them. Thus, lecturers and university management can take appropriate measures to tackle the problem and make the online learning more effective and efficient.
Lastly, future researchers can do a comparison on the online learning carried out by public and private universities. With this, the universities can learn from each other and improve the online learning which ultimately benefits the students, society, and national development.
6. Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed people’s living habits and emerged the “new normal”.
Under this unavoidable situation, the teaching and learning methods have also undergone a significant change. Online learning has been introduced before the Covid-19 pandemic and it is gradually adopted by the universities. Nonetheless, the outbreak of Covid-19 has speeded up the implementation of online learning in universities around the world because the physical classes are hard to be conducted due to the practice of keeping social distancing. In Malaysia, the traditional teaching and learning activities have been changed to online activities since the first phrase of movement control order (MCO) implemented in March 2020 (“Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia”, 2020).
The online learning in Malaysia has been going on for a period of time and the effectiveness of the online learning is concerned by the stakeholders including the scholars. Thus, this research is conducted to study the students’ perception on the online learning during the Covid- 19 pandemic. A total of 21 Finance-course-students who have experienced online learning for two consecutive semesters were interviewed in the form of online focus group discussion.
During the focus group discussion, the students were asked the questions that related to (1) challenges faced by students in their online learning, (2) students’ perception on class conducted and lecturers’ preparedness, (3) teaching method used by lecturers, (4) students’
interaction with lecturers as well as (5) students’ perception on online assessments.
The result of the focus group discussion has shown the diverse opinions from students, yet some of the ideas are consistent. Most of the students agreed that the bad internet connection is the major challenge that they have faced in the online classes and the unstable network hinders the progress of classes. Furthermore, students tend to have more interaction with the lecturers via social media or online learning platform before the examination. In terms of the examination, the majority of students mentioned that they need longer duration to complete the examination paper, especially those papers with a lot of calculation questions, as compared to the physical examination.
The stakeholders of tertiary education could have better understanding on the conditions of online learning from the perspective of learners through this study. The lecturers and university management are recommended to have more communication with students regarding the examination-related matters, such as the anxiety towards online assessments and the duration given for the online assessments. Besides, the government is suggested to investigate the problem of network service and improve the infrastructure with the aid of relevant parties
because the internet connection is the one of the influential factors to ensure the online classes run smoothly.
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