Evaluation of Students’ Attitude Towards Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Case Study of ATI Students

Abstract

Today, most educational institutions across the world have implemented online learning system due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As per the government's orders, all educational institutions closed operations from 12 March 2020 in Sri Lanka. Gradually, institutions started transforming to online learning system from face-to-face physical classroom learning system as a temporary solution. Therefore, it is needed to understand how students perceive, think, and react to the newly implemented online learning system. Consequently, it is important to evaluate the opinion of students towards online learning to understand their problems, need, and expectations. This study evaluates the attitude of students towards online learning by distributing questionnaires among the 132 students who are following a Higher National Diploma (HND) (HND) in Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological Education, (SLIATE) at Advanced Technological Institute (ATI)-Dehiwala. The researcher used Krejcie & Morgan’s (1970) table to select the sample size from the population. In addition, this study examined the levels of satisfaction of students towards online learning. The researcher used the cluster sampling method to select the sample of the study. The quantitative research approach has been adopted to collect data from the respondents. The finding of the study reveals that most of the students show a positive attitude towards online learning. It also demonstrates that students are satisfied with the online assessment, content delivery and acquire adequate knowledge and skills. The results of the study also indicate that there is a lack of interaction among the students and with lecturers during online classes. Therefore, it suggests that lecturers should develop strategies to create online classes more interesting. The technical issue was found as the main disadvantage of online learning. Further, decision-makers should focus on the effective solution of technical issues and also provide relevant facilities to the students. Accordingly, implemented an online system of learning that can continue effectively as a temporary solution during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Attitude, COVID-19, Education system, Online learning, Students