Comparative analysis of Student's live online learning readiness during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the higher education sector

Abstract

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, many countries are facing a dramatic situation in terms of the global economy and human social activities, including education. The shutdown of schools is affecting many students around the world, with face-to-face classes suspended. Many countries facing the disastrous situation imposed class suspension at an early stage of the coronavirus outbreak, and Asia was one of the earliest regions to implement live online learning. Despite previous research on online teaching and learning, students' readiness to participate in the real-time online learning implemented during the coronavirus outbreak is not yet well understood. This study explored several key factors in the research framework related to learning motivation, learning readiness and student's self-efficacy in participating in live online learning during the coronavirus outbreak, taking into account gender differences and differences among sub-degree (SD), undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students. Technology readiness was used instead of conventional online/internet self-efficacy to determine students' live online learning readiness. The hypothetical model was validated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results revealed no statistically significant differences between males and females. On the other hand, the mean scores for PG students were higher than for UG and SD students based on the post hoc test. We argue that during the coronavirus outbreak, gender differences were reduced because students are forced to learn more initiatively. We also suggest that students studying at a higher education degree level may have higher expectations of their academic achievement and were significantly different in their online learning readiness. This study has important implications for educators in implementing live online learning, particularly for the design of teaching contexts for students from different educational levels. More virtual activities should be considered to enhance the motivation for students undertaking lower-level degrees, and encouragement of student-to-student interactions can be considered.

The rapid transition from campus to online teaching – how are students’ perception of learning experiences affected?

“…Another is to use or adapt an existing instrument (e.g. Baber 2020; Cinar, Ekici, and Demir 2021;Tang et al 2021). These two approaches are common when breaking new ground in research, but require a certain level of prior knowledge to be feasible and credible.…”

Innovation Diffusion Impact on Students’ Online Platform Participation

“…The findings suggested that humans will adopt technology because it is relevant. Nowadays, the pandemic has caused teachers and students to apply technology in education, which is the most convenient delivery method (Scherer, Howard, Tondeur, & Siddiq, 2021;Hofer, Nistor, & Scheibenzuber, 2021;Tang et al, 2021). Conversely, technological adoption in education creates more challenges for the users to apply advanced technology in their practice, as confirmed by Parisot (1995).…”

“…Participation can also be defined as taking part and joining in a dialogue for engaged and active learning. Observably, online platforms have become crucial for many people, including students (Jamalpur, Kafila, Chythanya, & Kumar, 2021;Jogezai et al, 2021& Tang et al, 2021. Students fall under three distinct groups of online platform participation: active participants, lurkers (those who read messages but do not post messages), and those who do not participate (Selma, 2005).…”

“…Student participation is an essential element for active and engaged learning (Tang et al, 2021). Furthermore, the benefits of student engagement in higher education settings have been emphasised by several reports (Weaver & Qi, 2005;Hofer, Nistor, & Scheibenzuber, 2021).…”

“…The second attribute is complexity, which is "the degree of innovation considered relatively difficult to understand and use" (Rogers, 2003).) Technological innovation might create challenges for teachers, changing the teaching methods to integrate technological innovation into teaching, causing different complexities (Parisot, 1995), particularly during the pandemic (Scherer, Howard, Tondeur, & Siddiq, 2021;Jogezai et al, 2021;Tang et al, 2021). Martin (2003) added that user-friendly hardware and software could successfully provide course materials.…”