Abstract:

Since the debut of online learning in the early 1990’s, it has flourished and has its shares of supporters and practitioners. Despite this, online learning has also had its drawbacks and challenges, that come from the technical, as well as psychological aspects of the users. This paper addresses the challenges faced by education providers, faculties, instructors and students during this trying time of COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on one public higher learning institution in Malaysia, taking just respondents of one academic programme as the subject of data collection and analysis. Adopting a quantitative approach to research, an online survey was distributed to student respondents, and findings reveal that, despite being in existence for more than 25 years, some students were not comfortable learning 100 percent online, and some were reluctant because of factors, including accessibility to learning materials and learning preferences. What can be discerned from this short research is that in spite of findings of some scholars, which claimed online learning can assist students learn better; the real test of online learning is when education providers must go fully online, there are various challenges that await, mainly for both the students and instructors. Further, it would be another test too to prepare for teaching and learning after COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

Accessibility, COVID-19 pandemic, learning preferences, online learning.