Abstract:

Anxiety is a common condition in every day to day life. Low levels of anxiety are considered normal, but the problem starts when people have severe anxiety, affecting their abilities to function in whatever they are doing. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about anxiety in people's lives, preventing them from effectively discharging their day-to-day duties. Students in higher education were not spared from this since the universities had to transition to online learning. Students were not sure whether this transition would allow them to complete the academic year successfully. Research shows that students learning to program for the first time have increased anxiety due to its perceived difficulty. This anxiety occurs in a face-to-face learning environment where university resources, lecturers, and student support are readily available. Therefore, it was essential to assess students' anxiety in an online learning environment where access to resources and face-to-face assistance is limited. Using a mixed-method approach, this study aims to understand better commerce students' standpoint regarding learning preferences and anxiety in learning programming during the COVID-19 pandemic. The population for this study was second-year commerce students studying programming for the first time. These students initially studied programming by attending face-to-face lectures and had to switch to online learning due to COVID-19. From the 41 students that responded to the questionnaire, 56% of the students indicated that they feel more anxious learning programming via online learning. Furthermore, 63% indicated they experienced increased anxiety when learning programming online during COVID-19. Reasons for increased anxiety were a lack of face-to-face physical interaction with lecturers, not having practicals in computer laboratory decreased the opportunities to have programming errors corrected and explained immediately, and not receiving help instantly. Students also found recorded interactive lectures and Zoom practical sessions most beneficial when learning programming online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study provides possible ways in which lecturers can improve their teaching to assist students in learning programming online.

Keywords:

COVID-19, online learning, programming, anxiety