Struggling with Digital Pandemic: Students’ Narratives about Adapting to Online Learning at Home during the COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

With the ongoing catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world seems to have come to a standstill. Daily living routines, work, and schools predominantly launched into a state of confusion, and people across the globe excessively find ways to cope with their experiences of this traumatic disaster. Concerning schools, the pandemic has dramatically challenged the education system with teaching and learning processes managed remotely, utilising online platforms. This paper explores university students’ perception of online learning, specifically during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, to uncover how they respond to this ‘new normal’ digital mode of teaching and learning and how they seek to regain control over the sudden shift in their lives. Through interviews with students from Universiti Darussalam (UBD) and Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali UNISSA, this original article reveals students’ transformative behaviours during online learning, and institutional supports that contribute to the shaping of students' online learning experiences in Brunei.

OLJ September 2023 27(3)

“…Studying at home, which is supposed to be a place of relaxation and rest, students have to make extra effort to maintain a working status (Kay, 2020). Students feel that home is a private and comfortable space in which obligations and work should be excluded (Karim, 2021). To study productively, they have to resist distractions from family members and issues.…”