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This research aims to examine the leisure reading habits of students during the COVID-19 lockdown period (N = 156). The study identified that most of the students have the habit of reading newspapers, and they preferred to read literary works in the areas of novel, story and poem. The majority of students enjoy reading books. Students are regularly reading books to update themselves, and they have a regular habit of reading books other than textbooks. Moreover, the study result proves that doing a part time job, time spent in the SNS, and playing mobile/online games are substantially curtailed the students' reading habits.
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This study explores First Year Engineering students' perceptions towards online speaking assessment amidst COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure that the education process remained uninterrupted during the pandemic, schools and higher learning institutions were forced to shift to full time remote teaching and learning which has indirectly impacted assessment and evaluation of all courses. This study aims to examine first year engineering students' views on their experience having online speaking assessment amidst covid-19 pandemic. Investigating students' perceptions as the end user towards online assessment is highly crucial to determine the effectiveness of teaching and learning. A quantitative method of study was conducted with questionnaire derived from Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was adopted to collect responses from 163 undergraduate Diploma engineering students doing their first semester in Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Malaysia. The key findings indicated that the students were well receptive of online speaking assessment and were fully ready to have online speaking assessment in the future. The study also discovered that students' perceived self-efficacy towards online speaking assessment was low and there was significant difference in perceptions between students from rural and students from urban area on online speaking assessment. This study is important to higher learning institutions to serve as a guide in making planning related to implementation of online speaking assessment during the pandemic. This research is also significant for its contribution towards language teaching practices in higher learning institution and will be helpful for the educators to identify ways to enhance students' online assessment experience for an effective teaching and learning. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.
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COVID-19 turned many organizations' long-term wish lists into essential needs overnight. Therefore, innovative learning factors became an integral part of digital transformation that includes learning, learning to learn, which helps students develop a growth mindset belief system about their abilities. Therefore, the successful application of innovative learning depends on the students' readiness toward learning in a new norm. The aim is to collect expert-based judgments and often use them to identify consensus. The application of Delphi techniques in the digital transformation is to discuss the processes of the results. The findings of this research are summarized using systematic reviews of Delphi techniques and examined from a methodological perspective. Five systematic reviews of Delphi techniques from higher learning institutions were conducted and thoroughly analysed. Data were gathered from five experts. They are all associated with the sphere of education, with professors in statistical and research design relating to digital and innovative services, as well as academic associated fields. Much research on innovative or digital transformations have been published, but this study aims to develop consensus by using a series of questionnaires distributed in multiple iterations to collect data from a panel of selected experts. The Delphi results have confirmed indicators that can be successfully used as a benchmarking for digital transformation integration toward innovative education. Hence, several revisions to the Delphi technique have now been established. This method for evaluating instruments relies on human judgment to provide proof of the reliability of the content being evaluated. Ultimately, after three rounds of Delphi methodologies, the consensus was reached. Apart from that, it is also necessary to explain what specific criteria are used to evaluate the quality of their implementation and reporting. This model is believed to be a future reference for institutions of higher learning education to help understand and appreciate the design thinking approach and the ICT aspects when assessing the readiness for innovative learning. Based on the results, it is obvious that further research is needed to shed light on the methodological approaches and modifications of Delphi techniques. © 2022 Science Press. All rights reserved.
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The campus closure and lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic which took place in 2020 had resulted in the adoption of virtual learning in higher learning institutions in Malaysia. The implementation of fully online learning approaches required both learners and educators to adapt to online assessment methods. In line with this, the shift from physical and written tests to online tests had a significant impact on teaching and learning in the virtual classroom. This paper presents students' preferences for online assessment platforms and types of assessment questions. This study also explores the impact of online assessment towards students' performance during virtual learning. Data was collected through an online questionnaire distributed to students from Multimedia University (MMU), Malaysia. This study found that students preferred closed-ended questions design and Google Classroom as the platform of online assessment. This study also revealed that students' academic performance improved during online learning. The findings of this study will be useful to academics and educators in designing effective online assessments if online learning continues after the pandemic. It also provides a framework for future research into the perceptions of online assessment among educators and academics. © 2022 IEEE.
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This review paper examines the potential for online learning in COVID-19 and the path forward for establishing Higher Educations Institution (HEI). The critical topics identified included online learning during COVID-19, shifted to online delivery, strategy to enhance the HEI system, post-COVID-19 implication, and the plan forward. The different database searches identified keywords such as online learning during COVID-19;shifted to online delivery, strategy to enhance higher learning educational system;administration strategy;emergency distance/online education;post-COVID-19 implication, pandemic, endemic, and the plan of higher learning institutions on online learning were searched. The various repository identified more than 100 articles, of which 83 full-text articles were assessed covered in this paper. online learning has started in the early ‘90s, it still needs to be improved and embedded with effective instructional design (ID) to optimize the knowledge transferred. Moreover, the emergency changes during the COVID-19 force everyone to fully utilise technology effectively so learning would not be disrupted. Thus, some issues emerged from the literature: the internet bandwidth connection, the ineffective ID;inexperience of lecturers to adopt online learning;information disparity;and the complicated situation at home. The way forward suggests actions like online teaching arrangement;inexperience of lecturers to develop effective instructional design;the information disparity and the home complexity should be dispatched to ensure the online learning in HEI can benefit all. Hence knowledge can reach everyone effectively, even during the post-pandemic. The findings of this paper allow to assume that post-COVID-19 it might be worth reconsidering the format of online learning mechanisms and shift from conventional face-to-face learning to blended or even distance learning. Additionally, suggestions for further research of online education in tertiary institutions are also addressed. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The current pandemic has triggered emergency remote teaching (ERT) to be implemented by higher education institutions globally. This unprecedented circumstance caused serious dissonance between students' learning experience and overall satisfaction. Hence, this research aims to determine the factors influencing their satisfaction with ERT implemented by higher learning institutions in Penang, especially among undergraduate students. Based on the underpinning unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), the four vital influencing factors identified in this study include the usefulness of online materials, network stability, the usability of e-learning platforms, and peer interactions. A total of 504 responses were analyzed using SPSS software. Results indicate that the use of online materials and the usability of e-learning platforms were critical determinants of satisfaction with ERT among undergraduate students. At the same time, internet stability and peer interactions have no significant influence. This current study concludes with relevant implications and recommendations for higher learning institutions to consider to thrive in this changing education landscape. © 2022, Southeast Asian Association for Institutional Research. All rights reserved.
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Online assessment is the key issue of studying online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Often, online assessments are understood as the mirror to face-to-face learning assessments. In fact, online assessment should start from the premise that all interactive learning strategies are assessment strategies, and as such should be considered for their value in measuring the experiences of students and instructors. This study used the phenomenological method of qualitative research through in-depth interviews with 14 college students and 6 instructors. Based on this, it explored the perception of online assessment in Macao higher learning institutions from the complementary perspectives of college students and instructors, and constructed a theoretical model. The main research findings are that after the assessment shifted from offline to online, some new features appeared, and corresponding changes in form and function occurred. Formally, online assessment is manifested as single subjectivity and flexible diversity, which leads to the assessment dilemma of lack of constructive alignment. At the same time, the functions of assessment have also been extended and even alienated. So the effect of online assessment is not satisfactory. The recommendations for the development of the technological environment and the changes of formative and summative assessment are also discussed in this paper. In terms of the technological environment, efforts need to be made to provide more authentic online learning experiences with synchronous feedback and flexible interaction. In order to help develop a holistic person with online learning, which is the ultimate goal of learning, corresponding criterion-referenced assessment and functions of assessment should be improved accordingly to promote student learning while considering students' recognition and facilitate the co-construction of knowledge between instructors and students. In addition, future research can focus on the development of the readiness of assessment technology, as well as the form and purpose of assessment. Overall, this study provides a more comprehensive understanding of online learning and assessment from the dual perspectives of instructors and students, which could help further studies in this field. © 2022 ACM.
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The aim of this paper is to provide a critical examination on the impact of Covid-19 on teaching and learning in higher learning institutions in South Africa. There have been few studies on the phenomenon which mostly focused particularly on the impact of Covid-19 on teaching and learning in higher learning institutions. As a result, there is a dearth of scholarly work on the impact of Covid-19 primarily on the adoption of online learning as the sole learning strategy adopted during the stringent restrictions of the national lockdown. This paper, therefore, makes a contribution on the impact of Covid-19 on the adoption of online learning. A major finding in the paper is that, although the online teaching and learning strategy has brought convenience and flexibility for both university staff and students, it has its own disadvantages particularly for poor students. The paper conclude that the move to online learning has created an opportunity to learn from exceptional situations and could be of a positive benefit to most students to accord with the inventions of the technological landscape. The paper recommends that online learning should not be dropped-off should Covid-19 disperse rather, be assimilated with face-to-face learning in all spaces of higher learning.
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Most institutions and organizations nowadays have been taking responsibility in reducing their carbon footprint (CF) to curtail the global warming impact to at least 20–25% reduction by 2030. Universities and higher learning institutions are starting to invest in becoming greener and carbon-free. Current COVID19 communicable disease has swayed the routine and concurrently influenced regular trends of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions throughout the world. This study explored the possible GHG emissions (calculated as CO2e) from internal campus commute and purchased electricity consumption from the year 2018–2020 at Universiti Malaysia Perlis main campus to analyze the influence of COVID19 pandemic on its CO2e emission. The average amount of CO2e emitted during pre-COVID19 period (n = 26) was 1,518.8 tCO2e/year while during COVID19 period, it was 1,071.5 tCO2e/year (n = 10), marked as 29.5% reduction. Due to completeness and quality of data for contracted bus (monitoring period of years 2018, 2019 and 2020 as 12 months, 12 months, and 2 months, respectively), year 2019 was determined as the appropriate baseline year for setting the CO2e reduction target due to COVID19 pandemic precedented year. In comparison to pre-COVID19 pandemic, almost 95%/year and 7%/year reductions of CO2e were recorded for both Scope 1 and Scope 2, respectively. Comparing Scope 1 and 2, it was obviously observed that the purchased electricity consumption (Scope 2) was the predominant contributor to GHG emission at UniMAP campus by 78% despite of current pandemic influence and its reduction was indistinct (7%/year reduction). Thus, the reduction target in future should be venturing in energy savings and energy auditing in addition to carbon offsetting. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.