Student’s perspectives, satisfaction and experiences with online and classroom learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings and implications on blended learning

Abstract

Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted classroom-based learning, necessitating the adoption of online learning in most universities. However, there has been a lack of information on university students’ perspectives regarding online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assessed the perspectives, satisfaction and experiences with online and classroom learning among human health students at the University of Zambia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 737 students at the University of Zambia from October 2022 to April 2023. Data were analysed using Stata version 16.1. Results: Of the 737 participants, 51.6% were female and 56.5% agreed that blended learning should continue even after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, 78.4% of the students believed that group discussions were more suitable in the classroom than online learning. Most students (67.1%) disagreed that they preferred online learning to classroom learning. Furthermore, 77.6% of the students disagreed that online learning gave more satisfaction than classroom learning. Conclusions: This study found that most students recommended the continuation of blended learning after the pandemic. However, they believed that follow-up tutorials and assessments were better undertaken in physical classrooms than online learning. These findings are important in sensitising stakeholders in the education sector and governments to consider blended learning as a teaching strategy in the future. There is a need to develop and implement curricula that offer blended learning to students as well as ensure the students have the necessary facilities and equipment to support such learning.

Comparison of blended learning and traditional lecture method on learning outcomes in the evidence-based medicine course: a comparative study

“…Question 3 was “How do you think the content of the class is interesting?”, the non-statistical significance of the results may be due to the selection of the basic content of evidence-based medicine in the teaching content. Natheless, in the total score of learning satisfaction blended learning group is significantly higher than traditional learning group, indicated that the blended learning methods can attain higher learning satisfaction, which is consistent with previous studies [ 26 , 27 ]. Furthermore, blended learning group obtained significantly higher satisfaction on teaching design, classroom interaction, teaching environment set, which indicated that blended learning was superior in student-centered teaching, and can make students become the main body of classroom implementation and improve student’s classroom participation and learning effect.…”