The Acceptance of E-Learning Among ESL Primary School Students During Covid-19

Khairah Nuraishah Haleman,Hamidah Yamat

doi:10.32996/jeltal.2021.3.1.2

Abstract

The past years have seen a strong focus in Malaysia on the increase of infusion of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in educational institutions to stimulate innovations and strengthen global economic competitiveness. The integration of ICT has transformed the Malaysian education system by reshaping the landscape of education, from teacher-centred to learner-centred education. However, the COVID-19 crisis has changed the landscape of the education system drastically. The educators have turned their focus on online learning as an alternative means to replace the face-to-face classroom. Therefore, this paper focuses on the investigation on the perception towards e-learning among ESL primary school students. This study also determined the level of acceptance towards e-learning. A set of questionnaires was distributed via Google Form to 100 upper primary students in Sibu, Sarawak. The results revealed that the perception towards e-learning was positive, and the level of e-learning acceptance among ESL primary school students was high due to its features of e-learning, such as flexibility, user-friendliness, and the students’ attitude towards using as well as the intention to use in the future. It was recommended that teachers should utilize student-friendly digital tools to deliver their teaching and learning materials so that the students, especially at the primary level find it easy and enjoy learning English via e-learning.

Highlights

1 When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic (WHO, 2020) on 11th March 2020, governments all around the world, including China, Japan, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia, enforced total lockdown or partial lockdown to curb the spread of the virus
The results revealed that the perception towards e-learning was positive, and the level of e-learning acceptance among ESL primary school students was high due to its features of e-learning, such as flexibility, user-friendliness, and the students’ attitude towards using as well as the intention to use in the future
To answer the second research question, the items were computed into four variables: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude towards using and behavioural intention to use

Summary

Introduction

1 When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic (WHO, 2020) on 11th March 2020, governments all around the world, including China, Japan, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia, enforced total lockdown or partial lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant impacts in many sectors, including education, leading to schools and universities' total closure, which has affected more than 5 million students in Malaysia (Harian Metro, 2020). To deal with schools and universities' closure, educators have embarked on online learning as a replacement to ensure lessons continue. Li and Lalani (2020) reported a significant rise in online learning, whereby teaching was conducted remotely via digital tools such as Google Classroom due to the closure of schools and universities worldwide. Most educators have adopted and utilized electronic teaching modes from virtual conferencing via Zoom and Google Meet, sharing teaching and learning materials via WhatsApp, Telegram, and Google Suites such as Google Classroom, Google Drive, Google Forms, and Google Slides

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