View of STUDENTS’ ACCEPTANCE AND READINESS TOWARDS DISTANCE LEARNING DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

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International Journal of Education and Pedagogy (IJEAP) eISSN: 2682-8464 [Vol. 2 No. 4 December 2020]

Journal website: http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijeap

STUDENTS’ ACCEPTANCE AND READINESS TOWARDS DISTANCE LEARNING DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Irda Syahira Khair Anwar^1*, Norliana Omar², Noor Saatila Mohd Isa³and Siti Marlia Shamsudin⁴

1 2 3 4 Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perak Branch, Tapah Campus, MALAYSIA

*Corresponding author: irdas360@uitm.edu.my

Article Information:

Article history:

Received date : 1 November 2020 Revised date : 26 November 2020 Accepted date : 29 November 2020 Published date : 4 December 2020

To cite this document:

Khair Anwar, I., Omar, N., Mohd Isa, N.,

& Shamsudin, S. (2020). STUDENTS’

ACCEPTANCE AND READINESS TOWARDS DISTANCE LEARNING DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

International Journal Of Education And Pedagogy, 2(4), 39-50.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected all the business activities throughout the world but it has changed the education landscape worldwide as well. A survey was conducted to get direct responses from Malaysian public university’s students on the needs of unanticipated Open and Distance Learning (ODL) before the online classes begin. The main focus of the study is to examine the students’ acceptance and readiness for online learning. Furthermore, it is to identify the challenges faced by the students as well as to recognise the best platform for lecturers to reach them. This is due to absence of students during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period and probably experiencing different internet access in their respected area. Based on the findings, most of the respondents were ready to participate actively during the online classes. The students preferred social platform such as Whatsapps as one of the medium for interacting with their lecturers. Many of the respondents suggested the use of Google Classroom application as the preferred online tool for teaching and learning. Their preferences were designed by the level of internet connectivity at their place. This study envisages to contribute towards the body of knowledge for educators to understand the needs of their students before the online classes take place and to suggest the educators on the best approach for starting off their online classes in the wake of the novel Coronavirus pandemic.

Keywords: distance learning, pandemic, university, education, COVID-19.

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1. Introduction

Malaysia experienced a spike in Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) cases when localised cluster began to emerge in March 2020. As a result, Malaysia was reported as having the largest cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Southeast Asia within few weeks (Straits Times, 2020). In response to the climb in local cases nationwide, the Prime Minister of Malaysia has announced that Malaysia would implement the Movement Control Order (MCO) starting from 18 March 2020. This MCO was a preventive measure taken by the Government to prohibit any mass assembly and movement across the country. Following to this order, all schools, vocational training centres and universities were closed temporarily for 14 days in order to reduce the rapid spread of the infection.

On 25 March 2020, the Government extended the MCO further until 14 April 2020 as the number of positive cases remained relatively high (Elengoe, 2020). In Malaysia, several public and private universities had decided to shift the traditional face-to-face classes to an online approach when the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that the number of COVID-19 active cases would grow tremendously and peak in mid-April. For instance, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) which is one of the largest universities in Malaysia shifted their classes to Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode with effect from 13 April 2020 until end of the semester for all its campuses nationwide (Karim, 2020). According to Ghosh, Nath,Agarwal and Nath (2012), the concept of ODL education arises from a situation where the learners and the teachers cannot be in the same classroom due to the geographical distance or due to other factors but still offering flexible learning opportunities to individuals and groups of learners. Meanwhile, Pop (n.d.) stated that the distance learning is always understood and used as a synonym with online learning. The different wording is due to the fact that distance learning was initially introduced to attract students from all over the world to join online learning classes.

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), educational institutions in 185 countries were closed on 1 April 2020 , signalling that the emergence of COVID-19 had affected the education system worldwide (Bisht, Jasola & Bisht, 2020). With this pandemic situation distracting classes and on-campus activities, the only option available for students to resume learning is by going online (Sani, 2020). Therefore, this research is conducted to discover whether students are ready and fit enough for online classes or not. Since the condition is uncertain and the pandemic might prolong to an uncertain time, it is believed that the ideal solution would be to opt for teaching and learning via online as it is more safe and sustainable.

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The shift to full online learning serves as a contingency plan to cater for the MCO period until it is safe to go back to campus again. Although online or distance learning is progressively practiced in most of Malaysian educational institutions as a medium of delivery course information, the question of how well do the students accept and are ready for the online distance learning as the new learning platform has not been widely explored. This current study seeks to investigate the students’ acceptance and readiness towards distance learning experienced by the Malaysian university students. The following research questions are addressed in this study:

1) Do the students accept and are ready for the open and distance learning (ODL) classes?

2) Is there any challenge(s) faced by the students in terms of internet connectivity during this pandemic?

3) What is the best online platformfor lecturers to reach the students during this ODL?

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. A review of important and current research within the literature concerning students’ acceptance and students’ readiness for online learning or ODL is presented in Section 2. The research methodology is discussed in Section 3. Meanwhile, Section 4 presents the detailed outputs from the survey, followed by a discussion of the results.

Finally, the conclusion drawn and the scope for further research are included in the last section.

2. Literature Review

Online learning has existed since 19^th century (Martin, Stamper & Flowers, 2020) and has been growing rapidly when the computer and internet was introduced in the late 20^th century, thus transformed the traditional teaching method to digital platform. , There have been growing number of studies conducted on online learning in the following circumstances:

2.1 Students’ Acceptance on Online / Distance Learning

Students’ acceptance is defined by Dillon and Morris (1996) as “the demonstrable willingness within a user group to employ information technology for the tasks it is designed to support”.

Students who have approachable attitude and positive perception towards technology as well as having all the facilities to continue their online education may accept online learning mode voluntarily (Riaz, Riaz, & Hussain, 2011), since it is much more flexible and easy to use. Amir et al. (2020) revealed that majority of first-year students of Universitas of Indonesia preferred and accepted online / distance learning compared to their seniors. Students agreed that online / distance learning was appropriate for lectures and examination, whereas they preferred classroom learning particularly for group discussion. This is due to the drawbacks of distance learning which have caused learning dissatisfaction among the learners.. Meanwhile, Kim, Liew and Bonk (2005) found that 70% of the students responded online learning experience as satisfied and rewarding, 16% perceived that online learning is hard and challenging and 14% considered online learning as a new experience and unique compared to learning in traditional classroom. On the other hand, Qunfei, Abdullah and Mustapha (2020) highlighted that online learning weakened students’

motivation, and some students encountered difficulties in adaptation, low learning enthusiasm and learning exhaustion, which resulted low level of acceptance and poor learning outcomes.

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In Malaysian perspectives, Abdul Rahman et al. (2020) indicated that majority of the students in higher education prefer traditional learning methods more effectively than online learning. The acceptance level towards traditional learning method are great and their level of acceptance towards online learning method are satisfying. In this study, combination of both learning methods are recommended in order to attract the students’ attention as well as to retain their focus on the learning subject . Ling and Moi (2007) indicated that the professional students who are pursuing professional accounting and secretarial courses in Malaysia have strong acceptance of e-learning which typically refer as online learning as they demonstrated positive attitudes towards e-learning.

The respondents also perceived that e-learning was easy to use and was useful in enhancing their academic performance. Considering the above arguments, it is important to understand students’

acceptance of online / distance learning as part of their learning mode so that improvement can be made by the academic instructors and policymakers in the future. In order to examine the students’

readiness towards online learning, many previous studies adopted the Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS). The scale consists of 18 Likert-type items and measured by using computer/Internet self-efficacy, self-directed learning, motivation of learning, online communication self-efficacy and learner control (Hung, Chou, Chen & Own, 2010; Martin, Stamper & Flowers, 2020; Chung, Noor & Mathew, 2020).

2.2 Motivations for Online Learning

Due to the advancement of information technology, online / distance learning has received considerable attention from previous researchers due to its flexibility (Zembylas et al., 2008; Liang

& Chen, 2012) and cost-effective way. In many countries, there are many colleges and universities offering online programs to cater the need of the students as online learning is known to be much more convenient. Online learning also able to help students to develop virtual teaming skills (Kim, et al., 2005). Moreover, Kumari, Hemalatha, Ali, and Naresh (2020) found that online learning has positive impact towards the performance of the students as video lectures are found to be more interesting and engaging compared to the chalk and talk method.. With online learning, undergraduate students are able to participate actively in the discussion forum, while the weak student can watch the lecture videos repeatedly to gain knowledge.

2.3 Challenges for Online Learning

Chung, Noor and Mathew (2020) pointed out that many students perceived studying online as a challenging task due to several constraints such as poor connectivity, limited broadband data, no personal computer, different online learning method adopted by lecturer and lack of technical skill.

In addition, they also found that more than 52% of the students preferred face to face learning compared to online learning due to poor connectivity either in campus or at home. Arulogun, Akande, Akindele, and Badmus (2020) also revealed that 38.2% of the students perceived that power supply is a major challenge in online learning as they live in the region that does not have stable power supply and 35.8% complained about the cost of the internet data bundles as different network providers charge different rates. In addition, 39.3% agreed that the availability of the Internet and network signal also caused problem to the online learning.

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Adnan and Anwar (2020) stated that online learning cannot produce favourable results in underdeveloped countries, where majority of students had low level of acceptance since they are incapable to access the internet connection due to technical problem as well as monetary issues to obtain better networking services. Higher education students perceived that lack of face-to-face interaction with the instructors, response time and absence of traditional classroom socialization were among some other issues that need to be considered through online learning. They perceived that online learning only have little impact and felt that they needed more guidance and time to adapt with the learning. To sum up, sustaining students’ enthusiasm and getting them engaged in each online interaction would also be a challenge beyond the novelty period of having online classes (Sani,2020).

3. Research Methodology

This research adopted an online survey for data collection by circulating the Google Forms to a sample of 152 students from Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perak Branch.

Thus, the total number of students of Faculty of Accountancy was considered as the population for this study. Convenient sampling method was used for this study since the method is known to be incredibly prompt, uncomplicated and economical. In many cases, the respondents are readily approachable to be part of the sample. As for this research, the researchers approached their students from various classes as the potential respondents for the survey. After a week, the online survey was closed and the researchers run the data to be analysed further.

The total respondents for this questionnaire was 117 students which represents a response rate of 76.9%. This survey reflects the perceptions of Accounting students regarding their acceptance and readiness towards embarking in ODL classes, how they access to the Internet including Internet connectivity level, appropriate devices for online learning and the best online platform for ODL to take place. Since the researchers used a survey generated from Google Forms, thus issues such as incomplete answers can be avoided. The descriptive analysis was also easily generated from the online survey.

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4. Results and Discussion

In this section, the basic descriptive analysis is used to present the students’ responses for different questions. Total respondents who took part in this survey were 117 students from Faculty of Accountancy, UiTM Perak, Tapah Campus. Out of the total respondents, 90.6% of them agreed that they have internet access at their current location. Figure 1 shows that majority of the respondents (94%) were staying at home when the survey was conducted. Only 6% of the total respondents opted to stay back in campus probably due to the examination or to have online classes as they may not have good internet access back home. None of the students was being hospitalized during the survey period. Majority of them were at home as this survey was distributed during the first phase of MCO period. The students were allowed to attend online classes from their respective hometowns.

Figure 1: Students’ Location

Figure 2 shows that respondents were mostly (64.1%) using mobile data via their smartphone to get access to the Internet at their respected place. As we know, mobile Internet may provide Internet on the go for the students as current lifestyle is showing that teenagers as well as adults cannot live without their mobile phone. Through mobile data network, respondents can quickly connect to the Internet at any location with useable speed as long as it has good signal and coverage. Mobile Internet is usually preferred by people who are on the move and need to perform quick online tasks. Only few of them opted to connect to the Internet by using free wireless networking or known as the public WiFi (18.8%), and the rest preferred internet broadband either portable or fixed wireless broadband (17.1%). A fixed wireless broadband is usually used at home by the family as this connection serves for a permanent and dedicated Internet connection for regular works and online activities.

Figure 2: Internet Access

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Moreover, the study identified that 65.8% of the respondents were having unstable Internet connection. This could lead to several problems while undergoing virtual classes, for instance, a glitch during online group presentations, taking a long time to submit assignments or connection error while they are sitting for online tests or exams. According to Sani (2020), the delivery of lectures could also be affected if unstable network access occurred as it could disrupt live lectures.

Only 31.6% of them were having a strong or steady Internet connection. As the pandemic crisis is still on the rise, majority of us live in a time where people are working from home and students are enduring their ODL classes. Therefore, a strong Internet connection is a must for them and seems to be crucial in the time of ODL.

Figure 3: Level of Internet Connectivity

Based on the descriptive analysis, 90.6% of the total respondents agreed that they have suitable devices to be used for their online classes which were about to start after this survey was conducted.

In order to ensure success in the implementation of ODL, it is important to ensure that students have suitable devices for their e-learning process. Moving to online learning mode removes students from their friends, campus life and community. However, if the students have suitable devices, it would ease their learning process.

Following to the previous question, Figure 4 shows that laptop or personal computer (51.3%) appeared to be the most popular device for students to engage in their distance learning classes as compared to mobile phone or tablet. This finding is similar to other studies where researchers have compared devices of choice for online learning in higher education in the past (Namuddu and Watts, 2020). Mobile phone was rated second which shows the percentage of 36.8 as this study predicted that the reliance on mobile phone is lower compared to laptop. According to the respondents, the reason for this is because the use of phone only served for convenience purposes.

Another reason to support this finding is due to the students who are from low-income category who might not have the accessibility towards other devices except for mobile phone.

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There is a vast growth of digital learning resources available on the Internet such as Google Classrooms, Whatsapp, Zoom, Skype, YouTube, Telegram, Padlet, Webex, Google Meet as well as the university’s learning management system (LMS) platform. . Most of these platforms allow the instructors to provide an engaging educational experience through videos, images, text, audio, and PDF files. These online learning platforms however, must be carefully designated by the lecturer or instructor in order to ensure all students have equal access and opportunity to join their virtual classes by considering students’ limitations. Therefore, the students were asked to choose the best online platform as per their convenience. Figure 5 presents the preferred platform amongst students to embark in the ODL. It shows that 31.6% of the respondents mostly preferred to use Whatsapp for two-way communication between instructors and students. Meanwhile, 30.8% of them preferred to use Google Classroom for dissemination of teaching materials. Their options were anticipated by the level of their Internet connectivity in their area as discussed earlier.

Figure 5: Preferred Platform for ODL

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Although this survey was conducted before the ODL is being implemented, yet 73.5% of the respondents were ready to participate actively in the online classes as shown in Figure 6. This ODL provides greater flexibility for students to work at their own pace and review works as needed.

This also ties in with the fact that students can access their course material at the times that work best for them, which is important for students who may have irregular schedules since they were mostly at home. As reported by Karim (2020), some students preferred for more flexibility regarding online class timetable as they need to help with the house chores or work to help parents gain extra income as their family were really affected by the MCO.

Figure 6: Students’ Readiness for Open and Distance Learning (ODL)

Finally, the survey provided an open-ended question asking the respondents about their opinion on the upcoming open and distance learning (ODL) classes. This type of question allowed researchers to see things from the users’ perspective in getting in-depth feedbacks regarding ODL.

Based on Table 1, majority of the respondents (52%) were concerned about online learning platforms where they suggested few such as Facebook Live, Whatsapp, Google Classroom and also Telegram. The remaining 30% of them suggested for lecture notes to be given before the start of ODL since they have left their textbook at the college/hostel. About 9% of the respondents raised concern regarding the Internet connectivity since stable Internet access is crucial during the implementation of ODL. Meanwhile, 9% of the respondents mentioned on the delivery of knowledge as the students have their own preferred learning styles. Based on the findings, the respondents preferred to hear the voice of their instructors or lecturers since they can comprehend the knowledge better.

Table 1: Opinions / Suggestions on ODL

Frequency Percentage

Platforms 11 52%

Learning Styles 2 9%

Internet Connectivity 2 9%

Teaching Materials 6 30%

21 100%

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5. Conclusion

Due to the spiralling number of COVID-19 cases in the country, all universities in Malaysia have activated the open and distance learning mode and postponed all out-of-campus activities. The shift from traditional face-to-face classes towards online learning classes is to ensure continuity of education for students as well as to ensure the safety of students and staff. This is important as universities are the key points of social gathering. This study was done right before the ODL took place in order to discover the acceptance of the students on this new mode of learning as well as to identify their readiness in terms of Internet connectivity and as a suitable device for the ODL.

The result has shown that majority of the students accepted online learning and they were ready for their ODL classes. Most of them had also been equipped with a personal computer or laptop for the purpose of online learning. Besides, due to an average internet connection at their place, majority of the students preferred platforms with low data applications such as Whatsapp and Google Classroom. As this research was done during pre-ODL period, therefore the impact of ODL towards students’ performance may not be visible. Thus, future research could be done by studying the impact of ODL towards students’ performance during post-ODL.

6. Acknowledgment

First of all, our most thankful appreciation is for Allah SWT for giving us the opportunity, strength and will to complete this paper. Next, we would like to thanks our respondents, since without their participation, this paper would not be a reality. Our warmest thanks also go to our Faculty, as without the support from the faculty, it would be difficult for us to complete this paper.

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