COVID-19 response: students’ readiness for shifting classes online

Abstract

Purpose Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led education institutions to move all face-to-face (F2F) courses online across the globe. The purpose of this study was to investigate Indian students’ perception of readiness for this sudden shift and at the same time, report a possible approach of good institutional governance to respond to such an unprecedented crisis. Design/methodology/approach This study followed a mixed approach combining both quantitative (e.g. survey) and qualitative (e.g. interview) methods. A survey was distributed among 100 purposively selected students out of which 50 were college students and 50 were from secondary schools following heterogeneous purposive sampling techniques. In total, 30 participants were interviewed as per a set interview protocol. Data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially based on several demographic differences. Findings Findings revealed that students were neither satisfied nor ready for this sudden shift toward online education rather they felt fear, uncertainties, and several challenges owing to a deep digital divide to adapt to this unprecedented shift. They were found absorbed in memories of F2F mode before the COVID outbreak and take this online shift as a temporary adjustment owing to respond to the pandemic finding no possible alternate. Originality/value This study contributes and extends corporate governance literature by offering new evidence of perception differences between the company and customers as well. Education providers often assume that students desire online courses for their convenience and believe it equivalent to or better than F2F courses. This study challenges these managerial perceptions by examining students’ studies empirically and the findings will help regulators and policymakers to change accordingly.

Experiencing e-assessment during COVID-19: an analysis of Indian students' perception

“…Impacts of e-assessment were found influencing students differently according to their gender, academic level, stream of study and economic condition. Boys were found having better perception than girls, postgraduates were found having better perception than graduate students, students of science and law streams of studies were found having better perception than the students of social science and humanities, and students from stronger economic background had better perception than students of lower economic background which agree with the findings of NSS (2018), and Kundu and Bej (2021) supporting deep digital divide and an unequal distribution of e-resources among different social strata.…”

“…It is obvious that the COVID pandemic has a far-fetching effect on the global academic arena as well as in India (Kundu and Bej, 2021), and this investigation also endorses the authors' claims that COVID was instrumental in bringing positive changes among academics to accept e-learning and e-assessment. The COVID compulsions were really effective in making online education productive with an instant result.…”

“…In the meantime, the COVID pandemic outbreak and eventual country-wide lockdown since 16th March 2020 have pushed millions of students out of institutional education (Sanyal, 2020) and despite having a deep digital divide (NSS, 2018) have brought online learning and assessment to vast popularity. COVID, a threat to the conventional idea of classroom education, is an awaking call to all concerned that online learning is the only option left during pandemic devastation and it has inspired corporates, governments and policymakers to resort to having alternative backup emergency management plans by reducing the digital divide to deliver education online during periods of school closures (Kundu and Bej, 2021). Most of the schools, colleges and universities are in touch with their students over WhatsApp or email, are conducting classes HEED on platforms such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.…”

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Distance Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19 Global Crisis: UAE Educators’ Perspectives

“…Our findings are also in line with other studies (Kundu & Bej, 2021) where it was confirmed that online educational process resulted in less engagement from students as well as fear perception associated with the online shift. In fact, the preference was to use a hybrid approach that combines both face-to-face with online based education especially for freshman students as well as programs with hands-on components.…”

“…Mittal et al (2021) presented a theoretical model based on a time-series to analyze several factors about of the adoption of online teaching at the time of the outbreak of COVID-19. Kundu and Bej (2021) studied the Indian students' perception of being ready for the sudden shift to online education. Authors also reported guidelines for institutional governance to respond to such situation.…”