Students' Perception towards Online Distance Learning(ODL) during COVID-19 Pandemic in Undergraduate Students of Faculty of Health Science

Abstract

The educational system in Malaysia, including schools, colleges, and universities, is based on a traditional system. The outbreak of COVID-19 has an impact on the educational system across the world because it was forced to shut down during pandemics and changed from traditional methods to online and distance learning(ODL) or non-face to face. Due to this nature, COVID-19 tremendously affected the personal interaction of lecturers and students. The absence of traditional classroom teaching and computer-based learning has emerged as the closest replacement for offline teaching and the students' perception and readiness about the online distance learning adopted during the covid -19 pandemic, mainly laboratory-based courses in the Faculty of Health Sciences. In the present study, 265 diploma students of Faculty of Health Science, University Teknologi MARA, Pulau Pinang Branch, Bertam Campus were collected through the online questionnaire from October to November 2020. The findings revealed students' perception of e-learning and how their willingness to accept the e-learning without lab basis in the time of the COVID-19 crisis. E-learning has new emerging to adopted in a pandemic. Many academic institutions were reluctant to change their traditional pedagogical approach. However, they have no choice but to shift entirely to online and distance learning (ODL) because of this pandemic. Our findings will facilitate educational institutions and policymakers to take this ODL better to the next level.