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This paper is available online at http://stdb.hnue.edu.vn
STUDENTS' AWARENESS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN EDUCATION:
ONLINE LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Pham Quang Linh1, Tran Thi Ha2 and Le Thi Ngoc Thuy3,*
1Institute of Ethnology, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences
2Faculty of Primary Education, Hanoi National University of Education
3Institute of Psychology, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences
Abstract. This study is conducted to assess students' awareness of digital transformation in education in the following aspects: the importance and content of digital transformation in education: online learning; advantages and disadvantages of participating in online learning during the covid-19 pandemic. The online quantitative survey method has been applied in this study. The research sample includes 356 students who are students in Hanoi and was selected by random sampling method. Results of this study show that students in Hanoi have a good level of awareness of digital transformation in education, specifically about online learning during the covid-19 pandemic. There are certain advantages and disadvantages that students face when participating in online learning, and a difference between the assessment of pedagogical students and non-pedagogical students, among the 1st year students and the 2nd or 3rd year students.
Keywords: students, digital transformation in education, online learning.
1. Introduction
Around the world, many countries have been implementing national strategies about digital transformation such as the UK, Australia, Denmark, Estonia, etc. Digital transformation content in countries is very wide and diverse but has commonly main contents such as digital government (including online public services, open data), digital economy (digital finance, e- commerce), digital society (education, health care, culture), and digital transformation in key areas (in agriculture, tourism, electricity, transport). In the context of global integration, Vietnam and the system of education and training in Vietnam, in particular, cannot be left out of the popular trend of the world. Besides, digital transformation in education must be done very urgently if each country does not want to miss the opportunity from the 4th Industrial Revolution.
The development of technology 4.0 has changed the educational environment and contributed to the digital transformation process in both educational institutions and the higher education system. Especially, that development has lots of benefits such as: increasing the level of communication between students and teachers in higher education (Youssef, Ben, &
Dahmani, 2008; Comi, Argentin, Gui, Origo, and Pagani, 2017) [1, 2], increasing peer-to-peer interaction between classmates, benefiting students in collaborative learning, working in a group (Bozanta, 2017) [3]. Research by Helena Santos, João Batista, and Rui Pedro Marques (2019) [4]
Received October 11, 2021. Revised December 8, 2021. Accepted December 15, 2021.
Contact Le Thi Ngoc Thuy, e-mail address: lethuytlgdk59a@gmail.com
171 on students of a Portuguese university; research by Phan Thi Ngoc Thanh, Nguyen Ngoc Thong, and Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao (2020) [5] present the fact that students love and find it easy to use information technology and online applications to communicate with their teachers and other learners. They expect much about the use of digital technology in learning, and use IT regularly with a serious attitude and are quite satisfied with digital transformation content such as online classes; management of materials, learning outcomes online. A study by Bozanta (2017) [3] on Turkey’s higher students also presents the results of students' perceptions of easy using technology (software, connection) and it is an important factor that affects students' use of technology for learning purposes.
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted face-to-face learning. When the pandemic has not been completely controlled, online classes are organized by universities/educational organizations. As a result, studies on online classes during the Covid-19 pandemic have attracted many researchers' attention. For online learning, students said that there are some obstacles in implementing online learning such as the stability of internet connection, accessibility of teaching facilities (size of online classrooms, audio, video), and the compatibility of tools for accessing online classrooms (smartphones, laptops, etc.). Among which, accessibility (internet, better classroom-friendly platforms) is a key factor influencing the success of online learning, especially for students who live in rural areas with limited internet connectivity (Agung, Surtikanti, & Quinones, 2020; Safura, 2021;
Le Thi Mai Hoa, 2021; Bui, Nguyen, & Truong, 2021) [6-9] in addition to the factors of limiting the number of participants, limited duration of the lesson (Agarwal & Kaushik 2020) [10]. The benefits that students get from taking online classes are also mentioned in many studies (Bączek et al., 2021;
Agarwal & Kaushik, 2020) [10, 11].
Although there have been many studies on students' awareness of online learning, they were only conducted with students in a certain faculty or school, without regional generalization. The research question is how students in Hanoi city perceive and feel about online learning. What is their assessment of the effectiveness of online learning?
2. Content
2.1. Samples and methods
The survey was conducted online for 20 days (from the 3rd to the 23rd of May 2021). We chose this time to survey at that moment because all universities in Hanoi were organizing online learning due to the influence of the Covid-19 epidemic. The questionnaire was designed on google form, and students received the link via email, zalo, messenger.
The research sample consists of 356 university students in Hanoi, including 40.7% male, 59.3% female; 47.5% are the 1st year students, 52.5% are the 2nd and 3rd year students; 44.4%
are pedagogical students, 55.6% are students of other universities.
The questionnaire consists of 3 parts:
- Part 1: Students’ personal information (gender, school year, school, place of residence) - Part 2: Respondents make choices (yes-no) with issues related to online classes such as Participation in online classes, Feedback, interaction, advantages and disadvantages of participating in online classes.
- Part 3: Respondents rate it on five levels: 1 (Not effective) to 5 (Very effective) in terms of the effectiveness of e-learning; the scale's reliability is 0.78; 1 (Inactive) to 5 (Very active) about their activity in class; 1 (Not interesting) to 5 (Very enjoyable) in terms of how they feel to take an online class, the scale's reliability is 0.83.
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Data are analyzed by statistical software SPSS 22.0, statistical analysis, Chi-square, T-test, Anova tests.
2.2. Results
2.2.1. Respondents' perception of online learning
When asked: “What do you think an online class is?”, nearly 98.5% of students participating in the survey gave the choice: “The online classroom is a remote virtual classroom, in which teachers and students can transmit images, sounds, and lectures through a device network to a server elsewhere”. The results show that students participating in the survey have a correct understanding of online classes. This can also be explained because since 2009, in Vietnam, online training has formed and developed with the introduction of distance learning programs or the assignment of exercises on the data system. Accordingly, students have familiarized themselves with online learning, although this training method is only applied as a supplement (Phan Thi Ngoc Thanh et al., 2020) [5]. However, when the covid-19 epidemic appeared, online teaching and learning were completely implemented in all universities, therefore, students must learn, practice adapting and accept the change of online teaching compared to face-to-face teaching.
The descriptive statistical results in Table 1 below clearly show students' opinions when asked about issues related to online classes.
Table 1. The situation of issues related to online classes of students
Issues in relation to online classes
Choice/option
Yes No
N % N %
Participating in online classes 356 100 0 0
Interactive feedback in classroom 221 62.1 135 37.9
Accessing internet at home 298 83.7 58 16.3
Stable signal strength when learning online 216 60.7 140 39.3 Equipment used
for online learning
Smart phones 146 41.0 0 0
Laptops. tablets 125 35.1 0 0
Desktops 85 24.9 0 0
Statistical results show that 100% of students participating in the survey are taking online classes. When participating in the class, more than 62% of students participate in interactive feedback with the class, more than 83% of students access the internet at home, only 60.7% of students report that the connection signal when studying online is stable. The device most used by students during online learning is smartphones (146 users, accounting for 41%), followed by laptops and tablets (125 users); accounting for 35.1%. It can be seen that, in addition to understanding of online class, the majority of students participating in the survey are taking classes with conditions of network connection, stable strength of connection, and having smart devices to use when learning online. However, there are still shortcomings when 16.3% of students cannot access the network at home, nearly 40% of students do not have a stable connection while studying online. Sharing about this, a student named L.P.A (the 1st year student, N University) said: “When I was in high school, due to the impact of the epidemic, I attended online classes but my family did not have the condition to connect internet, so I often
173 studied at my friend's house. Now, when I’m in university, I study through my cousin's network.
I use my phone but the screen is small and sometimes it's inconvenient to download documents".
Table 2. Students’ assessment about advantages and disadvantages of learning online
Variables Year School/University
1st 2nd and 3rd Pedagogical Others
Advantages of learning online
N % N % p N % N % p
Study at home, without having to move
116 68,6 127 67.9 0.77 109 68.9 133 67.1 0.54
Limit the
spread of
disease
110 65.1 122 65.2 0.95 102 64.5 127 64.6 0.23 Easily record
lessons and re- learn at their own pace
96 58.8 105 56.1 0.12 93 58.8 114 57.6 0.27
Easily access to online
documents
68 40.2 128 68.4 0.05 65 41.1 83 41.9 0.21 Comfortable
surroundings 70 41.4 97 51.8 0.11 68 43.0 85 42.9 0.11 Disadvantages of learning online
Reduce
interaction with lecturers and classmates
69 40.8 135 72.9 0.02 124 78.4 112 56.6 0.02
Conditions of equipments.
connection.
learning space
135 79.9 109 58.3 0.00 88 55.6 105 53.0 0.22
Do not
understand lesson content
136 80.4 93 49.7 0.00
3 92 58.2 113 57.1 0.31 Lack of self-
discipline 142 82.8 95 50.8 0.00
1 94 59.5 119 60.1 0.7 The advantages most chosen by students are being able to study at home, without having to move (68.3%); limiting the spread of disease, do not interrupt learning (65.1%), and easily recording lessons and re-learn at their own pace (56.5%). Particularly for the 2nd and 3rd-year students, “Easy access to online documents” is also a significant advantage from online learning. Regarding difficulties in online learning, the majority of respondents choose reducing interaction with lecturers and classmates (72.8%) and technical problems (69.9%) as the main difficulties. In which, the first-year students face many difficulties in terms of lack of self- discipline (p = 0.001) and do not understand lesson content (p = 0.003), equipment conditions (p < 0.001); while the 2nd and 3rd-year students and pedagogical students choose to reduce interaction with lecturers and classmates (p = 0.02). This can be explained because university
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subjects are often quite new to the 1st year students, and they need time to adapt while the 2nd and 3rd-year students have had a good time for learning and having experience. In addition to the difficulties mentioned in the questionnaire, the students also respond to some troubles about the software platform used by the schools, which limits the number of users to attend the class or time limit for organizing the class to make the lesson interrupted. Through this research result, student management and school teachers need to take measures to support students in the learning process, manage students' self-study time in order to improve the self-discipline of students.
2.2.2. Students’ activities when participating in online classes
Levels of students’ participation in activities in online classes are detailed in Table 3 below:
Table 3. The situation of students’ participation in activities in online classes
Activities General Sex School
Mean Std Male Female p Pedagogical Others p Acquire lecture
knowledge 3.17 0.87 3.01 3.34 0.03 3.33 3.01 0.01
Discuss and exchange when teachers ask questions
2.51 0.92 2.38 2.65 0.02 2.35 2.69 0.07
Participate in
group activities 3.02 0.78 3.12 2.91 0.04 3.42 2.82 0.02
Do the
individual assigment
3.33 0.85 3.34 3.32 0.24 3.32 3.34 0.31
Total 3.00 0.86 2.97 3.05 0.01 3.17 3.15 0.22 From the results presented in Table 3, it can be seen that the level of participation in online classroom activities of university students in Hanoi is quite positive with an average score of 3.00/5. If expressed in percentage points, 4 out of 6 people surveyed were positive (66.7%), 2 people were not. It is worth noting that the results are at both ends: up to 11.8% chose "not positive" but only 3.6% chose "very positive". This result is also quite similar to the findings on a sample of Polish students in the study of Michał Bączek (2021).
It can be seen in Table 3 that the individual assignment activity has the highest average score (3.33/5), the activity of acquiring lecture knowledge has the second-highest score (3.17/5), followed by group activities (3.02/5) and finally discussion and exchange when the teachers ask questions (2.51/5). It seems that towards individual activities in which teachers can directly monitor and evaluate, the students participated more actively than group activities or direct discussions during online lessons.
Research also shows that there was a significant difference between male and female students. In general, female students participated in online classroom activities more actively than male students (p = 0.01). In terms of specific aspects, the activities of acquiring lessons, discussing, and exchanging in class or group activities were more actively performed by female students than male students, only there was similarity in assignment activities. According to Helena Santos (2019), female students are often more hardworking than male students, so female students are also more active when participating in online classroom activities than male students. When comparing students of pedagogical schools with students of other schools, there was no difference in general assessment, but in some specific activities such as: acquiring
175 lecture knowledge, participating in group activities (pedagogical students were more active than students from other universities). Besides, students from other universities were more active in discussions and exchanges when teachers ask questions than pedagogical students. Specifically, according to M.A students (the 3rd year students, University of Pedagogy D) shared, “In fact, in recent years, pedagogical students have become more and more active in both learning and community activities. However, I feel that, compared to students from other universities, pedagogical students are still a bit quieter, gentler, and more afraid to express themselves."
2.2.3. Students' feelings when participating in online classes
A total of 258 (72.4%) students’ online learning is enjoyable. Of these, 70 (19.7%) found it Very enjoyable, 97 (27.2%) found it Quite enjoyable and 91 (25.6%) found it Enjoyable. A total of 98 (27.5%) students found it uninteresting to study online. Of these, 51 (14.3) students found it uninteresting and 47 (13.2%) students felt Very uninteresting (Figure 1). There was no statistically significant difference between responses by sex (p = 0.51), by school (p = 0.63) or by school year (p = 0.46).
Figure 1. Students' feelings when participating in online classes
3. Conclusions
In general, in this survey, the awareness of university students in Hanoi city about online learning is quite good. Students understand online learning and have been taking classes online.
Nearly two-thirds of students participated in interactive feedback with the class, most students got access to the internet at home and had a stable signal, most students used smartphones during online learning.
The choice of home location, less travel, and less risk of disease transmission was found to be the strongest advantages of learning online for students participating in the survey. Regarding difficulties in learning online, the majority of respondents selected “reduced interaction with lecturers and classmates” and “technical problems” as the main difficulties, with differences when compared by academic year and types of schools. Students participating in the survey are quite active in online classroom activities, with differences by gender and school. Nearly three- quarters of students said that they found learning online quite interesting.
00 05 10 15 20 25 30
Rất không thú vị Không thú vị Thú vị Khá thú vị Rất thú vị
Very uninteresting Uninteresting Enjoyable Quite enjoyable Very enjoyable
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