Paradigm Shift to Virtual Learning: A Blessing in Disguise

ABSTRACT

When the whole world was tumbled from the spur of COVID-19, virtual learning gave a strong support and life to the education system and saved students to be deprived from their learnings. In India, since first lockdown in March 2020, teaching and learning process were facilitated by the virtual learning environment. This research is an attempt to find the impact of virtual learning on male and female university students in India. For this research, a self-developed questionnaire was created, validated, and tested for reliability. Four factors of virtual learning were derived comprising virtual learning boons, virtual learning banes, virtual learning and interpersonal challenges, and virtual learning and technological challenges. Data was collected using online questionnaire from 346 respondents segregated into 155 male and 191 female university students. One-way ANOVA is employed to make the comparison and analyze the impact of each virtual learning factors on male and female students. It was also identified whether the students are ready to accept the shift from conventional learning to virtual learning environment. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.