Issues and Challenges of e-learning, and Performances of Students During the Covid-19 Pandemic at the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences & Technology, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Education systems were interrupted during the last twenty months as conventional teaching was impracticable with Covid-19 pandemic. To overcome this global challenge, “e-learning” was exponentially grown in the education sector. However, Sri Lanka is still at its initial stage adapting to this transition. Similar to most other universities, the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences & Technology had not been completely prepared for this sudden transition. Hence, e-learning has evolved gradually while confronting various issues and challenges. The present study was designed to investigate those issues and challenges that impede the quality of e-learning. A survey was conducted using two different close ended structured questionnaires, which were circulated among students and academic staff using Google forms. In addition, results of students in the most recent two semesters were analysed to determine the influence of e-learning on pass marks of subjects. Students prefer morning hours from 8.00-12.00 noon for online lectures for a maximum of two hours per lecture, which totally matches to the teacher’s choice. Headaches, blurred vision and dry eyes were associated with prolonged screen time for more than two hours were recorded as the most common causes. Furthermore, continuous usage of electronic devices caused failures in their devices due to heating. Even though video conferencing allows live interaction between students and teachers, the majority of students avoid this option due to internet interruption, and high data usage. However, a major challenge of online teaching was the lower responses of students, where their responses or active participation in discussions were almost zero for certain courses. There was no significant negative impact of e-learning on pass marks of subjects. Although students prefer both online and conventional teaching, teachers are not satisfied with e-learning. These findings would help to solve issues in e-learning as well as to improve the quality of e-learning of the faculty.