THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 AND VIRTUAL LEARNING ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
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SECOND CHAPTER
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
Recent years have witnessed an increase in studies examining students’ perceptions and expectations around e-learning. The “National Center for Education Statistics” has lately revealed the increasing demand for e-learning due to its rising popularity.
According to a number of studies, the majority of students enrolled in online courses are satisfied with the form of instruction. However, research reveals that learners’ views are influenced by a variety of factors.
Important determinants of students’ embrace of technology include age, gender, prior knowledge of computer literacy, and learning styles. There is an abundance of literature discussing the theories of “technology acceptance” in order to examine students’ perceptions.
Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom all contribute to country-specific research in the specified field. These surveys demonstrate that the majority of students have their own internet-enabled devices, such as laptops and mobile phones.
They use these digital devices to communicate via formal and informal networking channels such as e-mail, blogging, etc. This study is based on the knowledge, expectations, and perceptions of students regarding e-learning.
Consultation of pertinent literature is conducted to identify potential responses, particularly in the area of user perception of innovation. The “Theory of Diffusion of Innovations” is currently one of the most relevant theories used to study the uptake of technology in higher education.
According to Roger, the impression of innovation by people has a significant impact on their adoption of it. The perception of relative advantage, the degree to which the innovation is perceived to be superior to the compared product, compatibility, consistency with the current value structure, past behavior and experience of innovation recipients, and the degree of complexities associated with comprehending and employing innovation.
According to the “Technology Acceptance Model,” the two most influential determinants of technology acceptance are perceived utility and perceived usability. The study examined the links between course structure/organization, learner interaction, student engagement, and instructor presence and their effects on student satisfaction and perceived learning in online learning settings.
This study found a substantial correlation between course format and student perceptions of learning. In addition, the results revealed that student contact had no statistically significant effect on student satisfaction, although teacher presence has a statistically significant effect on perceived student learning.
However, the research suggested that learner engagement had a major effect on the perception of student learning. Moreover, the research revealed that instructor presence influences student satisfaction.
Student engagement partially moderated the relationship between instructor presence and student satisfaction. Furthermore, student engagement fully moderated the effect of both instructor presence and learner interaction on student perceptions of learning.
Online education is still in its infancy, and it is constantly evolving due to the rapid advancement of technology. All online educators must make more efforts to blend pedagogy and technology in order to improve student learning.
Online discourse as a communication activity could be very beneficial to students or learners in the current online learning environment by providing a space for information exchange and stimulating deeper thought, but only if educators understand how it would function and how students learn in the online environment.
This survey-based research study assessed students’ perceptions of several online course participation tactics. Learner-to-instructor interaction tactics appeared to be the most valued of the three student engagement categories.
In the learner-to-learner category, the most beneficial engagement strategies were rated as icebreaker/introduction discussions and working collaboratively with online communication tools. In the learner-to-instructor category, the most beneficial engagement strategies were rated as sending regular announcements or email reminders and providing grading rubrics for all assignments.
Thus, we may conclude that student interaction increases student pleasure, boosts student motivation to learn, diminishes the feeling of isolation, and improves student performance in the online learning environment.
The study’s findings have significance for online instructors, instructional designers, and administrators seeking to increase student participation in online courses. This study was done to evaluate students’ perceptions of academic stress during current online education and the emotional intelligence-based coping techniques they employ.
Male and female students exhibited significant variations in their fear of academic failure in the online and at home environments, according to the study’s findings. Many of them have begun engaging in various creative pursuits and enrolling in online courses that help them acquire new technological abilities.
Thus, by utilizing emotional intelligence and removing themselves from boredom and sad thoughts, students attempted to cope with the negative impacts of the current epidemic in this new online education environment.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) have had a substantial impact on adult education. This study attempts to analyze the impact of MOOCs on higher education systems. According to this study, the vast majority of university teachers believe that MOOCs have a direct effect on enhancing educational outcomes.
In addition, study findings indicate that MOOCs have a direct influence on the improvement of students’ learning skills. Thus, we may infer that MOOC is a suitable platform for training entrepreneurs, since it provides tools for collaborative student learning and improves individuals’ affective essential entrepreneurial qualities, such as opportunity recognition and assistance acquisition.
This study analyzed the amount of participant satisfaction with MOOCs offered by Swayam, Coursera, FutureLearn, and Edx. On the basis of four characteristics, namely course delivery, course content, course assessment, and course support, the satisfaction with MOOCs has been evaluated.
Participants got information from the course, and 65 percent of them favored Swayam and Coursera MOOC portals, according to the qualitative data. The aggregate data indicated that participants were more satisfied with the MOOC than disappointed.
Thus, MOOC providers should place a greater emphasis on developing excellent course content, ensuring the timely and flawless delivery of lectures, and incorporating the proper information from the course content into acceptable course assessments.
Thus, participant satisfaction can be obtained, and they can be motivated to enroll in more courses after completing the current one.
Environments for Virtual Learning in Higher Education
Digital Educational Environments
Virtual learning environments have been related with formal education and teacher-student relationships. Internet-supported virtual learning environments are becoming increasingly popular among educational institutions, students, and professors.
The idea of virtual learning environment (VLE) could be regarded dynamic due to the ongoing evolution of digital technologies, its characteristics and potential, and the significance of such settings in the learning processes.
A growing number of universities, institutions, and businesses are using web-based educational systems not just to include web technology into their courses, but also to supplement their traditional face-to-face courses.
These systems collect a vast amount of data that is useful for analyzing course content and student usage. Through the activities they permit, learning environments based on the utilization of technology and digital resources serve as mediators in the learning process.
This is because they facilitate interaction and interrelation within a continuous communication process, thereby enhancing the construction and reconstruction of knowledge and meanings, as well as the formation of habits and attitudes within a common framework shared by all those involved in the educational process.
Utilizing VLEs in each setting necessitates an understanding of their primary characteristics and capabilities. Learning environments and contexts are dynamic and complex ideas that emerge from the digital society’s new educational theories and practices.
According to Morais, Alves, and Miranda, the most significant potential of virtual learning environments is the availability of a set of tools designed to support the production and distribution of information, communication, and the evaluation of the teaching and learning process.
Considering the highlighted characteristics, the concept of virtual learning environment encompasses a number of dimensions. The most pertinent ones are virtual space, time, resources, and strategy. VLEs give institutions with access to vast volumes of information, the capacity to manage it, and the ability to provide it to their members with a guarantee of its quality and validity.
VLEs become venues for the testing, promotion, and support of new highly planned and directed teaching and learning methodologies due to their capabilities and features. It is advisable to observe a constant dynamism in the usage of the resources and in the changes that occur around them, as this will allow them to be viewed as a background for the development of learning processes.
From a pedagogical standpoint, the VLEs employed in educational institutions foster innovation and promote progress. However, their primary focus is on the creation and delivery of information. Through the online distribution of content, messages, and announcements, as well as online collaboration via discussion forums and chats, these environments often imitate traditional teaching.
Web 2.0’s capabilities and the evolution of network technologies have come to alleviate some of the VLE’s restrictions and permit the creation of new interaction and learning spaces. This requires educators and researchers to consider student-centered instructional strategies.
Virtual learning environments permit learning based on the elements present in the learning environment, on a continuous scale extending from the elements stated in the environment to the elements emerging from use.
74% of teachers believe that VLEs are a very useful tool for improving teaching; 71% of teachers believe that VLEs are a very useful tool for improving students’ learning; 99% of institutions use a VLE; 85% of teachers use the VLE; 56% of teachers use it daily; 83% of students use the VLE; and 56% say they use it in all or most course units.
Morais, Alves, and Miranda came to the conclusion that resources (supporting the course unit), notices, messages, the students’ register, and summaries are the VLE tools that are most valued by over 90 percent of teachers.
Accessibility, user-friendliness, integration with the virtual learning environment, and PDF download are the aspects of digital resources that are highly valued by educators, according to the same authors. In addition, the most valued components of the use of ICT in the course units that teachers teach were the availability and accessibility of digital materials, the time savings, and the enhancement of student communication.
THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 AND VIRTUAL LEARNING ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
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