Perception of Online Learning among Undergraduate Nursing Students in selected College, Puducherry, India
Hemavathi. P1, Rajam. R2, Ramya. M2, Reena. K. J2, Sindhuja. M2, Sumathy. P2, Suvathy. M2
1Asst. Professor, Department of Community Health Nursing,
College of Nursing, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India.
2PBBSC Nursing, College of Nursing, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India.
*Corresponding Author E-mail: breezehema@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
Background: Online learning meets the educational need of the present generation students worldwide. The teaching learning process over online makes students more comfortable and paves way to listen at international speakers. Objectives and Methodology: The Descriptive cross sectional research design was adopted to assess the level of Perception on Online Learning among Undergraduate Nursing Students. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select 200 participants from selected Professional College, Puducherry. The data was collected for a period of one week with the help of Google form using five-point rating scale. Google form link was created and shared with the students in WhatsApp group. Results: Overall Perception of online learning shows that 63.0% participants perceived online learning as moderately favorable, 31.5% perceived as unfavorable and 5.5% perceived as favorable. Further domain wise results found that participants perceived subject matter in online learning, benefits of online learning and Feasibility of online learning as moderately favorable (62.5%, 57.5% and 50.0% respectively). About 59.0% and 50.0% perceived teacher and student interaction in online learning and online evaluation as unfavorable respectively. Conclusion: Undergraduate Nursing students perceived online learning as moderately favorable.
KEYWORDS: Perception, Online learning and Undergraduate Nursing students.
INTRODUCTION:
Online learning is an approach to design, develop, deliver and evaluate education by using electronic facilities. Online learning environment allows educators and students to exchange ideas and information, work together on projects, from anywhere in the world using online communication modes. The technology is associated with content readily accessible on a computer. The content may be on the web or internet they simply installed in the computer hard disk1.
Online learning is electronically supported learning through the internet for teacher and student interaction and the distribution of the class materials.
Online learning commonly referred by people as computer-based training, web-based training, internet-based training, e-learning, m-learning, computer aided distance education. Online classes due to lockdown has been an essential part of student’s life to continue their education2.
Online education is not a new phenomenon. University of London first started correspondence and distance learning educational programs in the mid of 1800s. This mode of education learning was dependent on the postal service. In 1873 the first official correspondence education program was established in Boston; Massachusetts knows as the “society to encourage home studies”.3
Online learning meets the needs of an ever growing the students in the remote area. This method of learning is preferred in higher education than the students attending regular classroom teaching. Online learning provides an excellent method of teaching allowing for accessibility to instruction at anytime from anywhere. Learners find the online environment at their convenient way. The ability to access a class from any computer with internet access makes the learners to learn at their convenient way in their own environment4.
Online learning improves the speed and accessibility of education worldwide and learners attend the classes from the comfort of their own homes and turn anywhere with internet access and electricity into a classroom. It is rich learning environment with more flexibility than normal classroom learning.4 Online education helps to access work easily and quickly. It is a multifaceted instructional system with increased flexibility of time. Students tend to be successful as most programs are well supported through orientation for online learning.5
Worldwide about 1.2 billion children were out of the school as a result of covid-19 pandemic. Educationist with the support information technologist found a new way to provide continuous learning experience to all the level of students globally. Results in evolution of newer application and usage of existing information technology widely. Online learning increased learning interest of the student’s and become a substitute for classroom teaching when time demand. Researchers found that online learning increased retention of information and take less time to.6
The development of online education is made it possible for students with busy lives and limited flexibility to obtain a quality education over the internet. Current generation students are now opting for online class. They find the traditional classroom modality restrictive, inflexible and impractical. In this age of technological advancement, educational institutions are now providing effective classroom teaching over the internet. This shift in pedagogical medium is forcing academic institutions to rethink the method of teaching strategies.3
Higher education institutions increasingly embrace online education and the number of students enrolled in distance programs continues to increase the number of colleges and universities throughout the United States. Many institutions, universities and organization are working on strategic plan to implement online education.7
There are infinite numbers of ways to teach and learn outside of traditional classrooms and away from college campuses. It’s a rich learning environment with much more flexible than a traditional classroom. When used to its full potential, online education has been shown to be more effective than pure face-to-face instruction2.
The web-based education provides classes worldwide via internet connection and made it possible for students with busy life and limited flexibility to obtain a quality education worldwide. The traditional education has many advantages, online learning has its own drawbacks, even though flexibility in learning makes many students to take online education to get their degree. Colleges and universities are now practicing efficiencies of web-based education and rapidly implementing online classes to meet student need worldwide4.
Teaching the nursing subject over the internet is challenging task for both teacher and learner. Nursing being a profession dealing with patient care Nursing students ideas, opinion and understanding about the online class is need to be addressed. This will help to improve the outcome of online learning in Nursing. Hence the researchers are interested to assess the perception of online learning among Undergraduate Nursing students.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Research design and Study population:
Quantitative approach with descriptive cross sectional research design was adopted to assess the level of Perception on Online Learning among Undergraduate Nursing Students with online learning experience at least for past one year.
Study setting and sampling procedure:
The present study was conducted in Puducherry District, Puducherry. Assuming 42.3% are compatible with the way of online learning, 7% precision, 95% confidence level the required sample size is 191 rounded to 200 samples. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select 200 Undergraduate Nursing students representing the subgroup strata of year of the programme and gender. Boys and girls from each class were proportionality selected by using the formula of
Sample Size
–––––––––––––– × Strata Size
Population Size
Table 1: Sample selection procedure
|
Strata |
Population size |
Boys |
Girls |
Total sample |
||
|
Strata |
Sample |
Strata |
Sample |
|||
|
B.Sc – I Year |
60 |
10 |
8 |
50 |
42 |
50 |
|
B.Sc – II Year |
60 |
14 |
11 |
46 |
39 |
50 |
|
B.Sc – III Year |
60 |
11 |
9 |
49 |
41 |
50 |
|
B.Sc – IV Year |
60 |
4 |
3 |
56 |
47 |
50 |
|
Total |
240 |
39 |
31 |
201 |
169 |
200 |
Ethical considerations:
The study was conducted after approval of Institutional Research Committee and formal permission was obtained from Principal to conduct study. The informed consent was obtained from study participants after explaining the study purpose and parents’ consent was taken for minors.
Tools and techniques for data collection:
The tool consists of two sections.
Section A: Demographic variables includes age, gender, educational status of the student, educational status of the father and mother, monthly family income, residence and average duration spent in online class/day. Perception on online learning was collected by using
Section B: Self –administered 5-point rating scale was used to assess the perception on online learning. It consists of 5 domains with 6 statements in each. Domains includes Subject matter in online learning, Teacher and Student interaction in online learning, Students’ perception on online evaluation, Perceived benefits of online learning and Feasibility of online learning. It consists of 5 domains with 6 statements in each. Total 30 statements. Minimum score was 01 and maximum score was 05 for each item. Total score range from 30 to 150. Scoring was given as follows.
Table 2: Scoring Procedure
|
Scoring interpretation |
Percentage |
Nature of Perception |
|
0-75 |
0-50 |
Unfavorable |
|
76-112 |
50.1-75 |
Moderately favorable |
|
113-150 |
75.1-100 |
Favorable |
Data collection Methods:
The data was collected for the period of one week in April 2021 with the help of Google form using five-point rating scale. Google form link was created and shared with the students in Whatsapp group. End of the each day, the researcher checked the response received in Google sheet. The data were entered in data sheet and analyzed with SPSS 20.0.
RESULTS:
Demographic Variables:
It shows that 53.0% were in the age group of 19-20 years, 84.0% were females, 27.5% UG Nursing student’s mothers had completed Intermediate or post high school certificate education, 29.5% UG Nursing student’s fathers had completed High school certificate education, 47% were having monthly income of Rs. 10,000-30,000, 56.5% were from urban and 52.0% were had spends 3-4 hours per day in online class.
Perception of Online learning:
Figure No. 1: Perception of Online learning among Undergraduate Nursing students
Overall Perception on online learning shows that 63.5% Undergraduate Nursing students perceived online learning as moderately favorable, 31.5% of them perceived online learning as unfavorable and 5.0% perceived online learning as favorable. (Figure no. 1)
Domains wise Perception on Online Learning:
Table No. 3: Domains wise Perception on Online Learning among Undergraduate Nursing Students n=200
|
Sl. No. |
Domain |
Level of Perception on online learning |
|||||
|
Unfavorable |
Moderate favorable |
Favorable |
|||||
|
F |
% |
F |
% |
F |
% |
||
|
1. |
Subject matter in online learning |
42 |
21.0 |
125 |
62.5 |
33 |
16.5 |
|
2. |
Teacher and student interaction in online learning |
100 |
50.0 |
84 |
42.0 |
16 |
8.0 |
|
3. |
Students perception on online evaluation |
118 |
59.0 |
75 |
37.5 |
7 |
3.5 |
|
4. |
Perceived benefits of online learning |
57 |
28.5 |
115 |
57.5 |
28 |
14.0 |
|
5. |
Feasibility of online learning |
84 |
42.0 |
100 |
50.0 |
16 |
8.0 |
It shows that 62.5% UG Nursing students perceived subject matter in online learning as moderately favorable, 50.0% perceived teacher and student interaction through online learning as unfavorable, 59.0% perceived online evaluation as unfavorable, 57.5% perceived benefits of online learning as moderately favorable, 50.0% perceived feasibility of online learning as moderately favorable. (Table no. 3).
Statistically significant association was observed between level of perception with age and education status of the UG Nursing students at p<0.05. (Table No. 4)
DISCUSSION:
The objective of this study was to assess the level of Perception on Online Learning among Undergraduate Nursing Students. Most of the UG students (53.0%) were in the age group of 19-20 years, highest (84.0%) percentage of them were females and half of study participants spent 3-4 hours per day in online class.
Association between level of perception and Demographic Variables:
Table No. 4: Association between level of perception on online learning with selected demographic variables of UG Nursing students. n=200
|
Sl. No. |
Demographic variable |
Total |
Perception level |
Fisher’s Exact |
P value |
|||||
|
Unfavorable |
Moderately favorable |
Favorable |
||||||||
|
N |
% |
N |
% |
N |
% |
|||||
|
1. |
Age in years |
|||||||||
|
a. 17-18 years |
47 |
8 |
17 |
35 |
74.5 |
4 |
8.5 |
18.198 |
.011* |
|
|
b. 19-20 years |
105 |
30 |
28.6 |
69 |
65.7 |
6 |
5.7 |
|||
|
c. 20 and above |
48 |
25 |
52.2 |
22 |
45.8 |
1 |
2 |
|||
|
2. |
Gender |
|||||||||
|
a. Male |
32 |
13 |
40.7 |
17 |
53.1 |
2 |
6.2 |
1.855 |
.414 |
|
|
b. Female |
168 |
50 |
29.8 |
109 |
64.9 |
9 |
5.3 |
|||
|
3. |
Education status of the student |
|||||||||
|
a. I year |
50 |
8 |
16 |
35 |
70 |
7 |
14 |
16.443 |
0.007* |
|
|
b. II year |
50 |
18 |
36 |
30 |
60 |
2 |
4 |
|||
|
c. III year |
50 |
14 |
28 |
35 |
70 |
1 |
2 |
|||
|
d. IV year |
50 |
23 |
46 |
26 |
52 |
1 |
2 |
|||
|
4. |
Average duration spent in online class/day |
|||||||||
|
a. Less than 3 |
19 |
4 |
21 |
14 |
74 |
1 |
5 |
5.869 |
.186 |
|
|
b. 3-4 hours |
104 |
31 |
30 |
70 |
67.2 |
3 |
2.8 |
|||
|
c. More than 4 hrs |
77 |
28 |
36.3 |
42 |
54.6 |
7 |
9.1 |
|||
|
5. |
Education status of the mother |
|||||||||
|
a. Professionals |
21 |
6 |
28.5 |
13 |
62 |
2 |
9.5 |
10.818 |
.476 |
|
|
b. Graduate or PG |
33 |
9 |
27.2 |
23 |
69.7 |
1 |
3.1 |
|||
|
c. Intermediate or post high school certificate |
55 |
17 |
31 |
34 |
62 |
4 |
7 |
|||
|
d. High school certificate |
54 |
17 |
31.4 |
34 |
63 |
3 |
5.6 |
|||
|
e. Middle school certificate |
17 |
10 |
58.9 |
7 |
41.1 |
0 |
0 |
|||
|
f. Primary school certificate |
12 |
1 |
8.3 |
10 |
83.4 |
1 |
8.3 |
|||
|
g. No formal education |
8 |
3 |
37.5 |
5 |
62.5 |
0 |
0 |
|||
|
6. |
Education status of the Father |
10.225 |
.565 |
|||||||
|
a. Professionals |
12 |
2 |
16.7 |
9 |
75 |
1 |
8.3 |
|||
|
b. Graduate or PG |
44 |
16 |
36.3 |
26 |
59.2 |
2 |
4.5 |
|||
|
c. Intermediate or post high school certificate |
46 |
12 |
26 |
30 |
65.3 |
4 |
8.7 |
|||
|
d. High school certificate |
59 |
16 |
27.1 |
40 |
67.8 |
3 |
5.1 |
|||
|
e. Middle school certificate |
24 |
12 |
50 |
12 |
50 |
0 |
0 |
|||
|
f. Primary school certificate |
13 |
5 |
38.4 |
7 |
53.9 |
1 |
7.7 |
|||
|
g. No formal education |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
100 |
0 |
0 |
|||
|
7. |
Monthly family income in Rupees |
|||||||||
|
a. Below 10,000 |
58 |
15 |
25.8 |
39 |
67.2 |
4 |
7 |
3.440 |
.487 |
|
|
b. 10,000-30,000 |
94 |
34 |
36.1 |
54 |
57.4 |
6 |
6.5 |
|||
|
c. Above 30,000 |
48 |
14 |
29.1 |
33 |
69 |
1 |
2.9 |
|||
|
8. |
Residence |
|||||||||
|
a. Urban |
113 |
38 |
34 |
70 |
62 |
5 |
4 |
1.005 |
.634 |
|
|
b. Rural |
87 |
25 |
29 |
56 |
64 |
6 |
7 |
|
|
|
*Statistically significant (p<0.05)
Most of UG Nursing students (63.0%) perceived online learning as moderately favorable and it was also found that UG Nursing students had moderately favorable and unfavorable perception towards various domains of online learning. Study results were partially supported by Baczek et al., (2021) reported in their study on Students’ Perception of Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Polish Medical Students that 73% of them enjoyed online learning, advantages of online learning were, 69% said the ability to stay at home, 69% mentioned continuous access to online materials, 64% reported learning at your own pace and 54% enjoyed comfortable surroundings. Disadvantage reported were, 70% said lack of interactions with patients and 54% mentioned technical problems with IT equipment.8
Overall Perception on online learning shows that 63.5% Undergraduate Nursing students perceived online learning as moderately favorable, 31.5% of them perceived online learning as unfavorable and 5.5% perceived online learning as favorable. Study results were contradictory to the report observed by Khan, M.A (2020) who concluded that the preferences of students for e-learning as it provides them much freedom to connect with their teachers, classmates and use study materials at their own time and comfort. The easy access of study resources are found to be one of the major reasons for the students for e-learning. The study concludes that e-learning aids in easy access of information in turn leads to positive perception on online learning among the students.9 Controversial to this results Makata Ngozi. E.10 conducted cross-sectional study on student’s perception of the utilization of teaching methods by nurse educators in nursing education among 328 students in 11 randomly selected institutions in southeast Nigeria. Reported that most of the nurse educators perceived that students age and preference to be kept in minddifferent reasons. This results concludes nursing students acquire skills through formal instruction and practical experiences.
Statistically significant association found between level of perception on online learning and age, educational status of the UG Nursing student at p<0.05. Hence research hypothesis was accepted. Kalaimathi A.G et.al, found statistically significant association between perceived barriers of online teaching among Nursing faculty and selected demographic variables such as gender, qualification, designation (p<0.001)11 Joslin John at.al assessed the perception of academic and clinical learning environment among 120 nursing students found significant association between perception of teaching/ learning environment and year of study.12
The result revealed that the overall perception of online learning was moderately favorable among Undergraduate Nursing students. Since Nursing is a practical oriented profession, in teaching learning process online learning mode was perceived as moderately favorable by UG Nursing students.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST:
The authors have no conflicts of interest regarding this investigation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
1. Dr.K.Ravichandran, Assistant Professor, Biostatiics, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Science, Puducherry
2. Dr.M. Navaneetha, Professor and Head, Department of Community Health Nursing, College of Nursing, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry
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Received on 25.04.2024 Revised on 18.07.2024 Accepted on 07.09.2024 Published on 16.12.2024 Available online on December 31, 2024 Int. J. Nursing Education and Research. 2024;12(4):253-257. DOI: 10.52711/2454-2660.2024.00053 ©A and V Publications All right reserved
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