Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Participation: Demographic and Motivation Variables of LG120 Students; The Relationship

Abstract

In the midst of Covid-19 outbreak, students of all institution levels around the globe are enforced to embark on a new page in teaching and learning; Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in ensuring their continuous learning process. Likewise in Malaysia, since the enforcement of Movement Control Order (MCO), students from all over the country including LG120 students in Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Johor (UiTMCJ) are among the learners who are facing various ODL challenges such as bad internet connection, poor performance learning devices, inappropriate learning environment, and other related issues. Despite all the challenges, majority of the students have shown excellent commitment in attending ODL classes. Nevertheless, the lecturers are facing one of the most cliché class challenges; students’ participation. The issue is getting more critical as the students are only visible and monitored virtually by the lecturers. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship between UiTMCJ LG120 students’ demographic (gender, number of semesters, residential area) and motivation variables with their participation in ODL classes. This study made use of a mixed-method approach where a set of questionnaires were distributed to 107 LG120 students (Semester 1,2,3) for the quantitative data, and an interview session with 10 of the students that were randomly selected for data triangulation. The findings are expected to assist lecturers in their ODL lesson plan and student’s participation monitoring process as students’ participation and demographic variables showed an insignificant result except for number of semesters. Meanwhile, it was also found that students’ participation was highly motivated by three main themes namely accessibility, lecturers’ creativity and platforms used in ODL classes.