Assessing attitudes, readiness and motivation of students towards e-learning: A qualitative case study in Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

This paper investigates postgraduate students’ attitudes, preparedness, and willingness to embrace e-learning at three institutes in Uttar Pradesh, India-MJP Rohilkhand University, AMU Aligarh, and IFTM University. The study is based on the growing popularity of e-learning after COVID-19 and the goal of the study is to determine how students regard and use digital learning materials. A qualitative case study methodology was used, involving 45 postgraduate students from various fields through semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was performed in order to reveal the main-patterns of attitude, technological readiness, motivation, and perception of challenge in e-learning. Results show that although for the vast majority of students positive attitude towards e-learning is found because of its flexibility and accessibility, there are still important problems, for example, in technical matters and lack of interaction with professors. Levels of motivation were greater at AMU Aligarh because students valued the reduction in e-learning time, but lower at the two other universities as a result of self-discipline challenges. Technological readiness varied, with students from more rural areas facing greater challenges in accessing reliable internet and devices. The research highlights the importance of better digitalization of infrastructures, dynamic e-learning spaces and selective support in order to maximize student immersion and learning results. Research provides to the wider literature in e-learning an answer to the specific gap in different educational settings in India.