An Investigation of the Educational Challenges During COVID-19: A Case Study of Saudi Students' Experience

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;">The outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has shaken the world, forcing countries to implement a state of emergency, including the education system. Students have been forced to remain in hostels or houses since they cannot get to university campuses. As a result of this predicament, university authorities have no option but to implement an online learning environment. Specifically, Saudi universities have faced numerous difficulties in bringing the online learning systems to continue the educational process. On the other hand, students faced difficulties to cope with such circumstances (complete online learning) without any preparation or backup plan. According to the findings of the literature research, students experienced difficulties that were difficult to overcome. The aim of this study was to determine the challenges that first-year students of the University faced. The present research got a total of 234 valid responses from the participants. The findings indicate that respondents were not fully prepared in this situation in terms of physical, environmental, and psychological readiness, with some variances in viewpoints depending on their gender and age. Respondents expressed concern about the effect of lockdown on their ability to perform well academically. In this study, the researchers found that switching suddenly to an all-online alternative cause significant obstacles for students. It was determined that the present blended learning model, which utilizes online learning to support face-to-face instruction, has encountered a critical challenge when it comes towards replacing it, particularly with underprepared learners.</p>

Factors affecting online learning, stress and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia

“…Consequently, the literature provides diverse factors such as self-efficacy, TP, lack of support, self-managed learning, lack of leadership support, lack of awareness of knowledge, lack of willingness and motivation, internet speed and access and possible interruption. As demonstrated in the previous studies by Maitlo et al (2019); Basuony et al (2021), Edu et al (2021); Le (2022); and Khan et al (2022), these factors remain the significant barriers in transmitting OL to the students in the different contexts. However, there continues to be substantial gaps in the literature.…”

“…During such uncertainty, they did not fully equip themselves with physical, environmental and psychological readiness. The unexpected transfer from classroom teaching to OL has caused momentous difficulties for students (Khan et al , 2022).…”

“…We applied both modes of data collection, namely, physical and online, from the different Saudi Arabian universities due to social distance policy and movement restrictions imposed by Saudi Government authorities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, renowned scholars, such as Alsmadi et al (2021) and Khan et al (2022) have made strong use of the online survey, to measure human behaviour. We used convenience sampling to target the respondents as it is more valuable in times of movement restrictions and infectious diseases (Sumaedi et al , 2020).…”

A Comparative Study on the Impact of Online and Blended Learning

“…Nonetheless, the Saudi Ministry of Education (MOE) recommended the adoption of online instruction and learning processes to continue education safely and securely. Accordingly, above 90% of different educational institutions, including universities, successfully incorporated the online learning model during the first week of face-to-face (FTF) class suspension (Alqurshi, 2020; Ishtiaq Khan et al, 2022). Various online learning platforms and applications, including Blackboard (BB), Zoom, Desire to Learn (D2L), and Webex, were swiftly employed in Saudi institutions.…”

Review of Morel and Spector’s (2022) book “Foundations of Educational Technology: Integrative Approaches and Interdisciplinary Perspectives” Taylor & Francis

“…One vital role of technology is assisting teachers, students, and institutions to enhance the quality of education. [1,2] suggest that educational technology has aided teachers and learners theoretically and pedagogically. Being a teacher and researcher when I saw this book I thought to discover what authors shared about technology in education.…”