Challenges of Online Learning in Developing Country under the Impact of the Pandemic Situation- A Case Study of Pakistan

Abstract

On the 30th of January 2020, The WHO proclaimed COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International concern. As a direct response to COVID-19, on the 14th of March 2020, the Pakistani government decided to close all educational institutions and directed Higher educational institutions in Pakistan to begin distance learning (DL) modes and to assist their students online regularly until the COVID-19 crisis is resolved. The objective of this study is to identify the challenges that Pakistani students faced while participating in online learning environments and (1) determine whether or not there are any differences between male and female students and different socioeconomic statuses of the students who faced challenges during online learning; (2) highlighted whether online education is still feasible in Pakistan or not. The research was carried out with their permission and was conducted using an analytical and cross-sectional study. The survey was collected from 550 students through Google forms. The sampling technique used in this study was random sampling. The results of the independent sample t-test indicated that there was a difference between the responses of male and female students regarding challenges encountered in online education. Online learning cannot produce positive results in developing countries like Pakistan, where a large majority of students do not have access to a reliable internet facility due to financial and technical problems. Educational institutions that provide online courses or programs need to incentivize their teaching staff to reimagine traditional lecture-based classes for delivery in an online setting. Keywords: Online Education, KMO and Bartlett's test, t-test, random sampling, COVID-19.