Quality and Inequality: Students' Online Learning Experiences Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Under the raging pandemic, all stakeholders in higher education were forced to respond to unexpected educational changes. Universities shut down suddenly, students had no choice but studied online, and faculty members were forced to teach online without adequate preparation. Under these circumstances, students' actual learning experiences and the quality of online education become a major concern worldwide. This study adopts a quantitative approach to investigate Taiwanese students' perceptions of their online learning experiences during the breakout of the pandemic to discuss the challenges as well as the inequality issues in terms of online learning. A total of 517 valid responses were analyzed in this study. There are two major findings. First, nearly half of the respondents deemed online learning to be less effective than the traditional face-to-face mode. Second, students' educational background and family income significantly impact online learning effectiveness. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.