Saudi University Students’ Perceptions towards Virtual Education During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Language Learning via Blackboard

Abstract

Following the spread of COVID-19, many parts of the world have fully shifted to virtual education. Issues regarding students' readiness for this mode of education have been the main concerns in countries where students are not used to virtual classes. This article presents a case study that investigated the perceptions of Saudi university students towards learning via Blackboard, during the unusual mode of delivering education caused by Covid-19. The aim was to identify the merits and challenges of online learning in order to understand the students' learning experiences during the pandemic period and suggest practical solutions. The participants were 25 university students majoring in the English language at the bachelor of arts level. The instructor (the author) taught them classes on morphology. Based on an analysis of the students' learning logs, the students preferred the asynchronous environment to the synchronous one due to its flexibility. However, unlike research findings identified in relevant studies on virtual education for language learning, the present study reveals that virtual education is not always appealing for students. This study is one of the few studies that compare the synchronous and asynchronous aspects of BB in the Arabian contexts. It is hoped that this study will help university authorities to set out more practical educational plans in the case of emergencies. Also, this study will inform the practices of university instructors and designers of professional development courses in the near future.

Exploring the Experiences of Postgraduate Students in the Field of Special Education with Remote Online Teaching Amid COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Study

“…This study also agrees with Paudel (2020), who found that online learning reduced the cost and time required to travel to institutions. Students in this study were discovered to prefer synchronous over asynchronous modes of delivery, a finding similar to that of other studies (Alnofaie, 2020;Bao, 2020;Mishra et al, 2020;Zgheib et al, 2019). The benefit mentioned in this study for this delivery learning mode included reduced virtual isolation for online learners (Akarasriworn & Ku, 2013).…”

“…Mukhtar and Mukhtar (2020) found that the majority of students had access to reliable Internet services at their homes and that they were satisfied with the transition to online learning. Another study by Alnofaie (2020) found that language students prefer the asynchronous mode of delivering classes versus the synchronous mode due to flexibility.…”

Examining Saudi Students’ Perceptions on the Use of the Blackboard Platform during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The majority of the students reported that Blackboard helps to get course content, helps to do tasks & assignments, and helps to obtain the study material as Word, PDF, PowerPoint, audio, and video files. This result is consistent with Alokluk (2018) and Al-Nofaie (2020), who reported that most of the students are comfortable with things like getting materials, doing searches, and downloading files. However, some students reported problems downloading the course content, and uploading homework and assignments.…”

Devices and Platforms Used in Emergency Remote Learning and Teaching During Covid19: A Case of English Major Students in Saudi Arabia

“…All these universities had taken up mainly Blackboard® as the primary learning management system (LMS), if only one, at the time of closure of HEIs in Saudi Arabia (Aljuhney & Murray, 2016;Al-Nofaie, 2020). All this wherewithal, namely technological and organizational resources, has mitigated the swift switchover to Emergency Remote Learning (ERL), although some obstacles, particularly the bandwidth issues and the Internet speed, especially in remote areas, and availability of laptops and tablets to students (AlHazizi, 2020), have occurred in the way.…”