Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic only provided a short window of time to prepare and maintain the learning environment. In multiple countries, governments instructed various education facilities to halt their routines, and switch from traditional education of classroom teaching to online teaching. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of this switch to online teaching and learning in a university in China. A survey was conducted among 269 international clinical medicine students at the School of Basic Medicine, Dali University to analyze the effectiveness of online learning during the spread of COVID-19 using seven variables of investigation (1) is responsive to individual learning requirements, (2) efficient communication as in real class, (3) enhance the participant’s communication skills with instructor and other students, (4) fosters the participant’s involvement and interaction, (5) instructor’s effectively handled the class time and pace, (6) organization and preparation of the class, and (7) the course delivery according to the outlined syllabus . A statistically significant difference was observed for all seven variables of investigation. The value of χ² were significant (0.021, 0.005, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.005 and 0.02 respectively) at P≤0.05. However, for preference of online class in place of traditional classroom teaching, the result showed an insignificant value for χ² of 0.140 at P≤0.05. Online learning is equally effective, and probably more effective in the current pandemic situation, when compared to traditional in class learning.

1. Introduction

In the last five decades, we have seen a huge change and advancement in the world of education and learning. These changes and advancements have brought a huge wave of growth worldwide in the provision of education at all levels. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents a huge challenge to the education system worldwide, which national education systems have never faced before. This COVID-19 pandemic has disturbed the lives of the students in various aspects, depending not only on their level and course of study, but also on the point they have reached in their program ¹. Various institutions, along with teachers and students, have found new avenues to repair the damage caused and to continue their learning process in digital formats.

Online education provides one such avenue by creating new opportunities for students, faculty, regulators of education, and educational institutions ². Since the emergence of the internet, it has become an important medium of communication, as well as a research tool for learning and information ³. Online learning refers to the use of internet technologies to deliver a broad array of solutions that enhances knowledge and performance ⁴.

Online learning has recently become one of the fast-moving trend and aims to provide a configurable infrastructure that has integrated learning material, tool and services into a single solution to create and deliver training including educational content quickly, effectively, and economically ⁵. There are Various comparisons that are made to find out the difference in effectiveness with the traditional face-to-face education and distance and online education. Meanwhile, the internet along with the development of information technologies have also revitalized the exchange of information and training worldwide ⁶. E-learning is “an approach to teaching and learning, representing all or part of the educational model applied, that is based on the use of electronic media and devices as tools for improving access to training and communication and interaction and that facilitates the adoption of new ways of understanding and developing learning” ⁷. It is also mentioned that it does not only differ from traditional learning in the medium by which learning is delivered, but it also effects the teaching and learning approaches used ⁸.

The use of interactive mobile media, such as smart-phones, tablets and laptops, by college students is rapidly increasing because these media are portable and instantly accessible ⁹. Moreover, several education applications/software have recently become available ^{10, 11}. Picciano stated that “learning success requires students to have the opportunity to ask questions, give feedback along with [sharing] their personal views” ¹². Moore et al further state that “interaction and feedback are essential factors to predict the success of learning” ¹³. This view is also supported by Alonso and Hardless, who believe that interaction and feedback are important factors that influence student’s long-term satisfaction ¹⁴. However, in both developing and non-developing countries, network connectivity and bandwidth availability are the key obstacles to the effective delivery of online E-Learning ⁶.

This study aims as to determine the effectiveness of online learning since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in a university setting in China

2. Methods

This is a survey-based study that was conducted using the online application Wen Juan Xing (问卷星) from September 2020 to Novemeber 2020. The participants included a total of 269 international students (136 male students and 133 female students), who were studying clinical medicine major at the School of Basic Medicine at Dali University (Dali, China) from the class of 2018 and 2019.

The participants of the survey where the students from School of basic medicine, at Dali University. All the students were allowed to participate in the survey during the duration of study only ones. The criteria for participation was based on the basic demographic information which is given in the Table 1. If the participant fulfills the requirement was allowed to participate. All the question in the survey was compulsory to be filled. Incomplete data or information did not allow the survey to be submitted in the app.

A survey questionnaire as designed taking elements from the online student satisfaction survey (The College at Brockport, State University of New York) and online learning-students perception survey (Division of Undergraduate Education/ Office of Information Technology).

The survey comprised of two sections: (1) participant demographics (grade, gender, age, country, current living place, college level, current way of learning, difficulty in online learning, application used for online classes, academic supplemental support); (2) prime variables of interest.

The prime variables of interest in this study to investigate the effectiveness of the online compared to face-to-face education included the following seven variables: (1) is responsive to individual learning requirements, (2) efficient communication as in real class, (3) enhance the participant’s communication skills with instructor and other students, (4) fosters the participant’s involvement and interaction, (5) instructor’s effectively handled the class time and pace, (6) organization and preparation of the class, and (7) the course delivery according to the outlined syllabus, on the basis of following 5 scales which include: Is or may be considerably more efficient, Is or may be slightly more efficient, Is also efficient, Is or somewhat less efficient, Is or a lot less efficient.

Besides the 7 prime variable we also investigated the willingness of the students for the online study through the following variable: student acceptance: Would you take the online class again which was determined on the following aspects-absolutely, as it may be, only in case necessary and no.

3. Result

The data analysis was done using SPSS software 23.0.

A total of 269 students participated in the survey. Table 1 provides information about participant demographics.

Table 2 contains the results for the prime variables of interest from the survey.

The participants’ response for the variable “meets individual learning needs”, showed that for the 2018 class, 19 participants thought it to be somewhat more effective, with a maximum of 41 reporting it to be equally effective; while for the 2019 class 19 participants stated it to be somewhat more effective and 46 stated it to be much more effective. The result yielded <0.05 level of significance and is interpreted as highly significant. This implies that there is a significant difference in the response between the class of 2018 and 2019.

There was a <0.05 level of significance between the two grades of 2018 and 2019 for responses about this variable. In total, 34 participants of class 2018 stated it to be equally effective, while 47 participants in class 2019 said it was much more effective. This result suggested that online communication is better than the real class setting.

An equal number of 42 as maximum response of the participants in two grades of 2018 and 2019, but the answer to the response be the equal effectiveness in 2018 and much more effective for 2019 grades respectively. The difference in response when talking about the students and instructors communication for the two class groups it was statistically significant (P<0.05).

The difference in response between the two class groups for this variable was statistically significant (P<0.05). In total, 42 participants from class 2018 responded that online learning for this variable was equally effective whereas for class 2019, 47 participants stated that it was much more effective.

There was also a statistically significant difference for responses between the two class groups for this variable (P<0.05). Again, 42 participants from class 2018 responded that online learning for this variable was equally effective whereas, and 47 participants from class 2019 said it was much more effective.

For variable the class was organized and well prepared, 59 participants from class 2018 and 41 from class 2019 both stated that the online class was equally effective. There was also a statistically significant difference for responses between the two class groups for this variable (P<0.05).

In total 64 participants in class 2018 and 39 participants in class 2019 both stated that the online class was equally effective for this variable. There was also a statistically significant difference for responses between the two class groups for this variable (P<0.05).

For this aspect it presents a difference in response with a highest number of response of 55 and 68 in grades 2018 and 2019 respectively which shows a highest number of students accept the online class only if required and not definitely. The result yielded is more than 0.05 level of significance and is interpreted as non-significant. This implies that there is no significant acceptance by the students to take online classes in future.

4. Discussion

Various universities, and schools around worldwide have continued to operate through the COVID-19 pandemic, providing students with a variety of courses, which have time and place flexibility to help the students to continue their learning process and to keep on track. Institutions, teachers, and students will continue their search for flexible ways to repair the damage caused by COVID-19 interruptions to learning. Sir John Daniel quoted “that institutions versed in distance learning often start the process of course construction by designing the student assessments that will be part of it.”

In a study by Stern (2004), it was stated that when comparing the same course delivered online and face-to-face. There are various conclusions are for both teachers and students; for students, their own learning style, desire and motivation contributes to their success, whereas the instructor or teacher needs to design and monitor the course to ensure that all students participate, keeping student time management and organization paramount ¹⁵. In our study the efficiency level of the instructor for class management and organization was significant (P≤0.05), when we asked participants about the student learning style and instructor’s management and organizational skills. This showed that the instructor was able to provide similar organization and as in the offline teaching which can facilitate the teaching environment.

In a previous study, Paderanga (2014) mentioned that utilizing special cameras, viewing monitors, and microphones at each location, means that faculty and students are able to interact with each other at distant sites as easily as those located at their home campus or traditional classroom teaching environment. Students can receive instruction and information on any topic, which allow them to exchange information and ask questions from other participating sites ¹⁶. We found a significant result (χ²= 0.000; P≤0.05) favoring that online classes do increase the sense of communication of students with their instructor and fellow students.

Video conferencing can be used as part of online teaching through various applications and software, including Voov Tencent, Dingtalk, Rain classroom, We-Chat and many more, which improves communication skills, and presentation skills among students. Instead of just reading textbooks and other printed materials, video conferencing allows the teachers and instructors to bring the outside world into the classroom in a very real way. The current study demonstrates that Rain classroom (45.72%) and We-Chat (36.06%) are the most accepted modes for online learning.

There are certain studies that have also stated that online education allows the students opportunity to relate with their peers and develop social communication skills, which results in higher self-esteem that would have not been possible in a regular classroom. We found significant results for online learning that showed that there was effective communication and student participation and interaction as in real class settings, suggesting that online teaching can be equally (χ²= 0.005; P≤0.05) or much more effective (χ²= 0.000; P≤0.05) from real time class settings.

Various platforms have been introduced for e-learning, including We-Chat, which offers texts, pictures, voice message, and videos that can be shared on a public account and open platforms. Students can access these resources anytime and anywhere, thereby providing students with great learning autonomy [20]. Peters ¹⁸ has described the following principal considerations to be taken into account when designing e-learning delivery:

1. The urgency of the learning need.

2. The need for knowledge acquisition.

3. The mobility of the learning setting.

4. The interactivity of the learning process.

5. The situatedness of the instructional activities.

6. The integration of instructional content.

Rain classroom is a wisdom teaching tool based on We-Chat public platform and power-point. Teachers can issue tasks, test questions and Power-point Presentation (PPT) in Rain Classroom. Students can sign in, vote, accept tasks and give questions and feedback to unintelligible PPT ¹⁴. While a majority of students stated that there was no real difference in their learning when comparing a class session online vs. an in-class session, some students did acknowledge a difference in terms of community and peer interaction within the two settings ¹⁹.

In our study, student need had high statistical significance (χ²= 0.021; P≤0.05), showing that online classes are very effective and meet individual student’s needs, making it more or equally effective related to regular class room teaching.

From the above statistical analysis, we can state that there is significant positive feedback for online teaching provided to these students during the COVID-19 outbreak, and most students found these online classes either equally effective or a more effective way of learning compared with regular classroom teaching. As a final remark, all seven prime interventional variables proved to be significant and are of practical importance in success of online teaching, but when it comes to the willingness of students to complete an online class in comparison to regular classroom teaching this is still less acceptable (χ²= 0.140; P>0.05). It also suggests that the students accept online teaching and learning but only when required, and not as a part of regular teaching.

After analyzing the questionnaire’s result, we conclude that the online learning is helpful and have a positive feedback from students. Students are able to learn and improve their communication skills and interaction with the peers. But when it comes to have online class on regular basis the students acceptance does not favor their response and goes with online teaching only when required such as this special condition of COVID-19 pandemic.

5. Conclusion

Using the Internet as a tool for education can improve the quality of education and also promote a student’s critical and analytical thinking ability. It even promotes cooperative work and team building and solving problems. We describe a positive response of students when it comes to online teaching. From our results, we found that online education not only promotes learning but also increases the sense of communication, peer-to-peer interaction and collaborative work, along with enhancing the teacher’s ability to organize and deliver the outlined syllabus, making the class environment as in a real face-to-face teaching environment.

In conclusion, during special circumstances when traditional teaching has to be suspended or has to be shifted to some other means of education, students do support online mode of teaching and learning, which can be modified and changed for the various shortcomings, as per the needs of the students. But it also shows that online teaching and learning is able to meet the individual needs of students and also promotes students participation and interaction.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Acknowledgements

This survey was financially supported by the Innovation Team of Neurobiology of Dali University (ZKLX2019108) and from Li Yunqing expert workstation of Yunnan Province (No.202005AF150014).

References