Abstract:
Education is one of the sectors which mostly effected due to the current
pandemic situation. In this context, online learning contributed a lot for
students to continue their education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was
to determine the impact of online learning activities on satisfaction of the
students. An explorative factor analysis was done in order to discuss the
students’ perception on online learning. To identify the factor solutions for the
set of 24 observed variables, the data was gathered through an online survey
using 165 respondents who follow a particular course module which randomly
selected out of the course modules offered by the department of Mathematics,
University of Ruhuna. This online questionnaire was initially distributed to all
the students who registered for the course module. According to the results,
there were 87.5% students who satisfied with online learning. Using the factor
analysis, 24 observed variables have been reduced to six independent factors;
quality of the lecturer, attitude of the student, method of online assessments,
online learning resources, learning environment and enthusiasm of the
students. In this analysis, principal component extraction method and varimax
rotating method were used to identify the above factors. According to the
Bartlett’s Test (p-value = 0.000<0.005) it was confirmed that the original
variables are correlated and the factor analysis is useful with data. The validity
of factor analysis was determined using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO)
statistics with a value of 0.761 (> 0.6). Identified six independent factors
would be important to have more satisfaction of online courses and by
focusing on these identified factors, teacher can change the method of teaching
where necessary, to offer a better online learning environment for students.
Overall results indicated in this study would be helpful to take useful decisions
in future implementation of online teaching and learning process.
