CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH STUDY RESULTS
5.10 Students' Perceived Achievement and Satisfaction in the Virtual Classroom
Achievement
Table 17 indicates that all students except one experienced some level of achievement from using the virtual classroom. Over half (16) of the 30 students felt marginal
achievement, while the rest of the students' (13) achievement was moderate to a lot.
Table 17: Feeling of Achievement from the VLE
Options Frequency Count Percent
No 1 3.3
A little bit 16 53.3
Moderately 8 26.7 -
A lot 5 16.7
Total 30 100.0
A node lookup search revealed that students' perceived achievements in the virtual classroom were mainly associated with acquisition of behavioural attitudes such as time management, active involvement, collaboration and self-discipline (responsibility). There was minimal achievement with regards to the subject matter.
Satisfaction
Table 18 shows that the majority of students (76.6%) perceived marginal to moderate satisfaction. Only two students (6.7%) experienced no satisfaction from the virtual classroom, while 5, (16.7%) felt completely satisfied.
Table 18: Students' perceived satisfaction from the VLE
Options Frequency Count Percent
No 2 6.7
A little bit 10 33.3
Moderately 13 43.3
Satisfied 5 16.7
Total 30 100.0
Independent Chi-square tests were conducted to explore any association between frequencies of students who perceived that they had acquired any new ways of learning and their perception of achievement as well as satisfaction in the virtual classroom. The Chi square results could not be reported because the percentage of cells that had expected count less than 5 were 91.7% and 83.3% respectively, indicating that the sample size was too small to report significance.
However, Figure 11 shows that those students who acquired no new ways of learning also perceived no feeling of satisfaction at all. Most of the students (8 out of 15) who acquired many study habits felt moderately satisfied with the virtual classroom.
This group also constituted the highest number of students (3 out of 15) who felt satisfied with virtual online learning.
Figure 11: Students' perception of acquired study habits and satisfaction with virtual online learning.
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No Veryfew Many
VLE Satisfaction
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mModeralely DSalisfied
Did you acquire any new ways of learning (study habits)?
5.11 Students' Opinions on General Aspects Pertinent to Virtual Online Learning
Computer Literacy
Chi-square tests were independently conducted to explore any association between frequencies of students' perceptions between the variables tested below. However, the Chi square test results in all the cases could not be used because the percentage of cells that had expected count less than 5 were above 20%, hence indicating that the sample size was too small to report significance.
• A cross-tabulation without Chi-square test between students' perceived
usefulness of their computer literacy level and acquired behaviour, showed that almost half (12) out of the 25 students who perceived their computer literacy level to be sufficient for their learning in the virtual classroom also acquired many study habits, while 7, (28%) acquired very few and 6, (20%) none.
• A cross-tabulation without Chi-square test between students' perceived
usefulness of their computer literacy level and understanding revealed that 15, (60%) of the 25 students who perceived their computer literacy level to be useful, refuted the virtual classroom's ability to enhance their understanding, while 10, (40%) conceded.
Learning Styles
Table 19 indicates that slightly over half of the students (56.7%) refute the suitability of their learning styles to virtual online learning.
Table 19: Students' perceived suitability of virtual online learning to their learning style
Options Frequency Count Percent
No 17 56.7
rt'es 13 43.3
iTotal 30 100.0
A Chi-square test was conducted to explore any association between frequencies of students who perceived virtual online learning as suited to their learning styles and their
perception of the virtual classroom's usefulness to their understanding. The results indicate a statistically significant Chi-square [x2(2, N=30) =8.167, p=0.004]. The number of "Yes" and "No" respondents in respect to understanding in each "Yes" and "No"
category of learning style aptness are shown in Figure 12. The figure shows that a statistically significantly large proportion of students (14 out of 17) perceived the virtual online learning as neither suited to their learning style nor helpful in enhancing their understanding, and a fairly large number of students (9 out of 13) perceive the contrary.
A Phi-coefficient test yielded a medium value of 0.522, which signified that the
relationship between frequencies of students who perceived that virtual online learning was suited to their learning styles and their perception of the virtual classroom's
usefulness to their understanding was medially strong.
Figure 12: Students' perceived suitability of virtual online learning to their learning style and its helpfulness in enhancing their understanding
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14
12
10
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0 0
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4 VLE help understand
2 mNo
0 ~Yes
No Yes
Did CBL suit your learning style?
Boolean intersection (And) searches showed that students' perceptions of the virtual classroom were consistent with their learning styles. Students who refuted the virtual classroom's suitability to their learning style vehemently expressed their preference for a teacher-centred learning approach with face-to-face communication, citing their
disinterest in computers. A similar pattern was also evident among students who refuted the virtual classroom's superiority over the traditional classroom.
Students' negative perceptions and indifference to virtual online learning was also observable during their execution of learning activities in the virtual classroom, especially among students in the 'Iow' performance group.
A Chi-square test was conducted to explore any association between frequencies of students who perceived that they had acquired new ways of learning and their
perception of the virtual classroom's suitability to their learning style. The Chi square results could not be reported because 50% of the cells had expected count less than 5, suggesting that the sample size was too small to report significance. The results also yielded a minimumexpected count of 2.6 and a high significance value of 0.854, which indicated a trend of greater differences between the two variables.
However, Figure 13 shows that the number of students in the "Many", "Very few" and
"No" categories of acquired learning behaviour among students who refuted virtual online learning as suited to their learning style as well as those who conceded, was relatively the same. The acquisition of learning behaviour therefore seemed
independent of learning style.
Figure 13: Students' perceived suitability of virtual online learning to their learning style and acquired learning behaviour
9
8
7
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C:::::l0 65 ()4
3
2
No
Acquired behaviour
ONo
~Veryfew
~Many Yes
Did CBL suit your learning style?
Active Engagement
A Chi-square test was conducted to explore any association between frequencies of students who perceived active engagement and their perception of the virtual
classroom's usefulness to their understanding. The Chi square results could not be used because 70% of the cells had expected count less than 5, suggesting that the sample size was too small to report significance. The results also yielded a minimum expected count of 0.4 and a high significance value of 0.62.
However, the results of a cross tabulation without Chi-square showed that almost half of the students (14 out of 30) perceived the level of active engagement as moderate, of whom the majority (71.4%) refuted the virtual classroom's ability to enhance
understanding. 9 out the 30 students perceived the level of active engagement as high, while 4 perceived it as very high and the rest (3) as low.
A node lookup search revealed a general perception that virtual on line learning was very engaging and many students referred to it as hard and challenging work. Boolean intersection (And) searches revealed that this experience was most prominent among students who conceded to the virtual classroom's usefulness to their understanding and those in the mediocre performance group, but minimal in both low and high
performance groups.
Differences in Learning at Different Stages
Figure 14 indicates that two thirds of the students (67%) experienced learning differently at different stages of the experimental course, while a third (33%) did not.
Figure 14: Students' opinion on whether they experienced learning differently at different stages of their learning process.
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60
50
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c<llU 40~<ll 0- 30
20
10
0
No Yes
Did you experience learning differently at different stages?
A node lookup search showed that some students perceived learning differently at different stages of their learning. One student stated, "As I progressed with the work, I found that I was getting more confident".
Virtual Learning Problems
A node lookup search revealed that the most pronounced problems perceived by students in the virtual classroom were time inadequacy and restricted access to networked-computers especially since only six computers were networked. A Boolean intersection (And) search revealed that both hostel and home dwelling students equally
experienced the same problems, which observably influenced students' performance and attitude towards the virtual classroom. However, most students in the 'high'
performance group had ample access to networked-computers at home and perceived the allocated time as adequate.