Online Education Experiences During Pandemic for School Students of Chhattisgarh

Sneha Sharma^*
*Correspondence: Sneha Sharma, Department of Extension and Communication, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, India, Tel: 8602086747, Email:

Keywords

Online learning • School students • COVID-19 pandemic • Online learning experience by students

Introduction

In the year 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic affected India leading to Nation wide lockdown in an attempt to curb its spread. The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted education in a variety of institutions and colleges, especially schools. In many countries, including India, the usual face to face classes had to be suspended to ensure the safety of students as well as teachers. To reduce the impact of lockdown, all the educational institutions had to find a different approach to continue teaching students [1]. With the help of technology and no other choice than an emergency shift to virtual learning, educational institutions shifted to online learning. Which also created several arguments, related to digital infrastructure, digital divide, digital literacy, technical and pedagogic skills of teachers, digital content, and etc. Online meeting applications, such as Zoom, Google Hangouts Meet, Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Team, WebEx Meet, etc. experienced drastically increased user growth. 6.7 million downloads were recorded on the online meeting application until the first week of March 2020. E-learning is the use of digital media to accommodate the learning process in class. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, elearning was a parallel medium that only toiled as an addition to the learning process in the classroom [2]. However, due to the increase in active cases of COVID-19, e-learning has become a need to resume providing the educational process, on the other hand, protecting university stakeholders such as students, teachers and other working staff, from the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this research will highlight the online learning experience of students in the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of challenges and opportunities [3].

Emergence of coronavirus

On December 8, 2019, cases with pneumonia like symptoms with unknown etiology were reported in Wuhan, China. From the admitted patients, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention identified the novel coronavirus on January 7, 2020.

The Coronavirus (COVID) is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses varying from the common cold to acute respiratory tract infection. The austerity of the virus may be visible as pneumonia, acute respiratory syndrome, and even death [4].

On January 9^th, the first death caused by SARS-CoV-2 was reported in China. Later on January 13^th, the first positive case of Coronavirus was identified outside China in Thailand. WHO reported 282 laboratory confirmed cases and 6 deaths in its situation report-1 on January 20^th. Further on January 30, WHO declared the SARSCoV- 2 outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern. In the Philippines, the first death was reported by SARSCoV- 2 outside China on Feb 2. On Feb 11, diseases caused by SARS-CoV-2 was named COVID-19 which exactly after a month on march 11 was announced as a Pandemic by WHO [5].

Meanwhile, WHO had declared COVID-19 a public health emergency on January 30, 2020, the same day when India detected its first case of covid. India went into a complete lockdown for ten weeks. On June 8, 2020, India started unlocking while still keeping shut places with high containment zones [6]. According to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Government of India, the official cases of covid were over 585,000, and deaths were more than 17,500. By August 16, 2020, in WHO's situation report-209, globally 21,294,845 and 761,770 deaths were reported. India was the world's fourth most impacted country, still the recovery rate was comparatively better than other countries and the death rates were relatively low [7].

Many countries imposed immediate lockdowns to control the spread of the virus.

To fight back the novel coronavirus following were suggested by WHO:

• Distance of 1.8 metres between yourself and others

• Compulsory wearing a mask while being around people

• Maintaining constant hygiene and using sanitisers

• Avoid being in crowded places and no public gatherings

Due to lockdown, the effect on the education sector was adverse, irrespective of gender, class and race. The traditional way of schooling was interrupted due to increasing covid cases and lockdown because of which, the world shifted to online learning. The students and teachers started examining the online/e-classes platforms to complete their designated academic curriculums in the stipulated time structure in line with the academic calendar. These prompt and swift efforts had certainly caused a degree of inconvenience, but they also did bring in the new paradigms of educational innovations using digital interventions. And to continue learning remotely, they had to take help from the Internet, television and available sources [8].

Teachers had to adapt a whole new teaching technique which was new to them as well. To catch up with online learning they had to train themselves on how to use the device and access the internet properly. Learners from marginalised areas who did not have access to proper internet and smartphones to connect faced challenges the most and even lacked behind from their usual pace [9].

The Indian government also announced the lockdown and closing of educational institutions as a legitimate solution to implement social distancing within populations. The education system of the country was largely affected, especially students from rural areas [10]. The Indian education system is mostly dominated by classroom study, the newly encountered scenario made the functioning of the educational institutions go very challenging. All the educational activities were kept on hold due to the pandemic.

Online education

Online education can be defined as a process of gaining skills and knowledge through electronic devices like computers, mobiles, laptops, etc with the use of the internet. Online education makes it attainable for teachers/tutors or mentors to reach all the students more flexibly and teach them the relevant skills more efficiently. The students who cannot attend traditional regular face to face classes can n also learn anything from anywhere using the internet through online learning [11]. Online learning can be termed as a tool that can make the teaching-learning process more entered towards students, more innovative, and even more adaptable. Online learning is defined as “learning experiences in synchronous or asynchronous environments using different devices (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, etc.) with internet access [12]. In these environments, students can be anywhere (independent) to learn and interact with instructors and other students”. Online education is a great source of education as it is available 24/7 for students to access. With the incredible invention of devices (such as laptops, smartphones, tablets etc), technology and the availability of the internet, it has become more manageable for students to learn anything from anywhere at any time. This kind of learning affability is not possible to be achieved during traditional classroom learning [13]. Online education involves audio, text, video, animations, chats with tutors or mentors, and virtual instructions that is given by the teachers to the students. There are many internet platforms and applications through which the teachers and students can get connected. Some of them are google meet, WhatsApp, zoom, etc. By using these platforms, the teachers can connect to a large number of students at a time [14-18].

Online learning platforms: There are various numbers of service providers and technology platforms available during pandemic. Many of the new ones also developed over the one and half years. Some of the widely used platforms are mentioned below:

Google Meet: Google meet is a video communication service which was formerly known as Hangouts Meet, developed by Google.

Zoom: Zoom cloud meetings is a proprietary video teleconferencing software program developed by zoom video communications.

Microsoft Teams: Microsoft teams is a proprietary business communication platform developed by Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft 365 family of products.

WebEx by Cisco: WebEx by Cisco is the leading enterprise solution for video conferencing, online meetings, screen share, and webinars.

Adaptability of india towards online education

As per the world economic forum, the COVID-19 pandemic also has changed the way how several people obtain and bestow education. According to the survey of household social consumption on education in India report, based on the 2017-18 NSSO, nearly 15% of rural Indian households and 42% of urban Indian households have internet access. The survey revealed, computers owned by rural households are nearly 4% and 24% of urban households. Also, for smooth and efficient online learning availability of electricity is a significant challenge and need (Table 1).

According to the ministry of rural development 2017-18 survey, 47% of indian households receive more than 12 hours of electricity. and more than 36% of schools in india operate without electricity. This suggests that students from marginalised and underprivileged backgrounds are more likely to lack access to technology and the internet. Whereas, students with better means of living can easily manage the transition from traditional to online learning. Nonavailability of technical support and irregular disrupted internet connectivity all across India was the most significant challenge in front of the students and teachers.

Despite the challenges, online learning has become a solution to deal with education in this deadly pandemic taking care of all safety measures. Initially, the shift from offline face to face classes to online classes was challenging for teachers, students and parents, but with time through many online tools and online platforms, the education system was able to adapt to a system that no one was prepared for. to continue learning amid pandemic online classes played an important role, platforms like google meet, google classroom, microsoft teams, zoom etc allowed students and teachers to connect and communicate with each other. To keep the classes organized and easy to operate many tools were included like workplace chat, video meetings and file storage. they normally support the sharing of a variety of content like word, pdf, excel files, audio, videos and many more. it allows tracking of student’s assessments, attendance and other activities. virtual classroom platforms were increasingly being used like video conferencing (Google Hangouts Meet, Zoom, Slack, Cisco, WebEx) and customizable cloud based learning management platforms such as Elias, Moodle, bigbluebutton and skype.

However, the significant concern is about the quality of learning, which is closely related to how well the content is devised and achieved. The effectiveness of learning also depends on how the online environment is curated for students as well as teachers and also, in understanding and addressing the constraints faced by students.

Both teachers and students encounter many impediments during online education. Lack of basic facilities like stable Internet connection and access to digital devices, external distraction and family interruption during teaching are some major concerns that have been noticed. And in a scenario where both the parents are working, parental guidance becomes another challenge, especially for young learners. Whereas other problems noticed by educational institutions are the budget for purchasing advanced technologies, lack of training, lack of technical support and a lack of clarity and direction towards syllabus planning. Many difficulties were faced by teachers also. The issues were lack of technical support, lack of technological infrastructure, inadequate information of online teaching platforms and security matters.

Aim of the study

The aim of the present study is to understand and analyse the student perspective towards the shift of education from traditional to online form, the challenges faced by them and thereby, conclude the feasibility and effectiveness of newly adapted means of education over a year duration since its implementation.

Justification for the study

Having seen such unprecedented times of COVID-19 and its effect on all the normal activities, it becomes necessary to sustain all those essential activities which by default could not be neglected. Of all such activities, the education of children is one among the most important activity that needs to remain unaffected or least affected with whatever the situation comes. With COVID-19 era came a great transformation in the mode of education from classic classroom teaching to online teaching. Owing to all the developments in technology and internet facilities, this mode of education can be seen as the great tool for imparting education to the children in future as well. With this transformation taking place, it becomes really important to understand the effectiveness and quality of teaching. Meanwhile the challenges and potential drawbacks that could lead to inefficiency of this system also need to be addressed with utmost care to ensure the proper utilisation of resources in future. Hence this research aims to justify such needs of the time, the effectiveness and quality of online education, the challenges faced by children in learning and the affordable solutions to curb such challenges and loopholes to improve further upon the standards of education through online media.

Chapterisation

This dissertation is structured as follows: this chapter introduced the topic of research.

• Chapter 2 elaborates the relevant literature on this subject or closely related subjects.

• Chapter 3 describes the methods used to obtain data and analysis it.

• Chapter 4 then presents the empirical data by first describing the findings then interpreting and

• analysing the data related to the research questions presented and the research questions answered.

Finally, in chapter 5, the researcher will summaries and conclude present critical reflections, and suggestions for future research.

Need for the study

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in its initial stage around the world had created an urgent need for the educational institutions to sustain their teaching and learning process with all the schools and colleges coming to an indefinite pause to curb the coronavirus spread. Such needs were fulfilled by transitioning from classroom teaching mode to online teaching mode, which opened up a broad scope for researchers to study the various aspects of design structure, challenges and transitioning benefits of the newly adopted mode of education.

To highlight various factors, challenges, benefits and scope of online education implementation through student’s perspectives and their experience.

The result of this research could be used to streamline the strategies, meet the challenges and create a better structure of the curriculum to meet the institutional objectives of the teaching and learning process.

Limitations of the study

The study was restricted to 100 purposely selected samples. The sample for the present study constituted young school students belonging to students belonging to students of sixth and seventh standard. This study examines only ‘online learning experience of school students amid pandemic’ in detail. Experience of teachers, parents and other class students were not taken into consideration while designing the tool for data collection. Since the study involves data collection from young aged respondents and online mode of data collection. In person interaction may have contributed to the data but the ground situation did not allow the researcher to physically interact with all the samples. Researcher feels that, the data leaves void of personal interactive and context of human interrogation. Moreover, the timeline of the study only focuses on the time when COVID-19 pandemic hit the world which eventually was extended till 2021. By the time researcher collected data, the students had become used to the online education processes and therefore may have lost novelty and reflectivity about their life in an online class.

This study is restricted to examining the students experience in online learning.

This chapter elaborated objectives, need and limitations of present research. Next chapter will explain available literature in the area of study.

Literature Review

Online education or e-learning is not a new concept in the world of education.

The application of e-learning has been seen in Computer Based Training (CBT) in 1990. E-learning can be defined as a learning process that is shared with the use of online technology.

There are both advantages and disadvantages of online learning. There are a number of benefits of online learning such as adjustable schedule, learning flexibility, saves time and money for travelling to school/college/university. Although some of the disadvantages that online carry with it, such as lack of interaction with friends and teachers, difficulty at some level to understand, face many distractions and disturbances, unavailability of proper internet and device.

The review of literature has been divided into following sections:

• Theories associated with online learning

• Online learning and students’ perception

• Adapting online education amid pandemic

Theories associated with online learning

Community of Inquiry (CoI): The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework proposed by asserts that a complete educational experience in an online collaborative learning environment will amplify only if three kinds of presence are in such a community: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. It is a model for educational developers to aid in the organisation of online and blended educational experiences. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) is a theoretical framework for the optimal design of online learning environments to support critical thinking, critical inquiry and discourse among students and teachers. While identifying the overlap and relationship among the three components, Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer advised further research on each component. Their model stands with the design of online and blended courses as effective learning environments or communities dependent on instructors and students sharing views, information, and opinions. According to Garrison et al., it is through the skilful collection of these forms of presence that online academic staff and students, in collaboration, develop a productive online learning environment through which knowledge is constructed.

Social presence: Social presence is defined as the ability to project one’s personal identity in the online community so that one is perceived as a ‘real’ person. Social presence is important because it functions as a 'support for cognitive presence, indirectly facilitating the process of critical thinking carried on by the community of learners and is a direct contributor to the success of the educational experience’. Therefore, Garrison and Anderson suggest that ‘cognitive presence is enhanced and sustained when social presence is established'.

Cognitive presence: Cognitive presence is defined as the ‘extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse’. Cognitive presence, thus, reflects higher-order knowledge construction through critical thinking and is ‘intimately connected to the learning context’.

Teaching presence: Teaching presence is defined as ‘the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realising personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes’. Teaching presence brings the two other types of presence together in a balanced and functional relationship, which is congruent with the intended outcomes and which takes the learners’ needs and capabilities into account (Figure 1).

Connectivism: Connectivism is a learning model that acknowledges major shifts in the way knowledge and information flows, grows, and changes because of vast data communications networks. Internet technology has moved learning from internal, individualistic activities to group, community, and even crowd activities.

Siemens describes connectivism as, “the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories where learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more and are more important than our current state of knowing”.

Online Collaborative Learning (OCL): Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) is a theory that focuses on the facilities of the Internet to provide learning environments that foster collaboration and knowledge building, proposed by Linda Harasim.

Harasim describes OCL as, "a new theory of learning that focuses on collaborative learning, knowledge building, and internet use as a means to reshape formal, non-formal, and informal education for the Knowledge Age”.

Unlike connectivism, which is suited for large-scale instruction, OCL is best situated in smaller instructional environments.

In OCL, there exist three stages of knowledge construction through discourse in a group:

• Idea generating: the brainstorming phase, where divergent thoughts are gathered

• Idea organizing: the phase where ideas are compared, analysed, and categorized through discussion and argument

• Intellectual convergence: the phase where intellectual synthesis and consensus occurs, including agreeing to disagree, usually through an assignment, essay, or another joint piece of work.

Online learning and students perception

Mohalik and Sahoo, studied that the problems and challenges faced by the student teachers in online learning need improvementpower interruptions and internet connection difficulties were among the major problems that teachers and students experienced in distance education.

Students perception of online learning during COVID-19 Pandemic: A case study on the english students of STKIP Pamane Talino focuses on the perception of students on their online learning during the pandemic by implementing the concept of a collective case study. The study dwells on four important agendas of online education viz. student’s participation, accessibility of resources, materials and assignments delivery, and e-learning platform compatibility as per the needs. The responses were analysed, and described based on their agendas to obtain the set of results which reveal.

The cause of issues in online class participation as reported by students include lack of data plan/internet quota and unavailability of proper gadgets such as android phones or laptops. All the lecturers gave proper assignments and conducted requisite feedback sessions.

It was reported by the students that they used the following four major e-learning platform that was useful to them.

• Google classroom

• WhatsApp

• Zoom

• Edmodo

The analysis of the result concludes that the following three major factors-1) Availability and sustainability of internet connection. 2) Accessibility of teaching media. 3) Compatibility of tools to access the media made it difficult for students to access the media, limited the active participation of students in online learning classes. The study also suggests a future scope of research work in elearning during pandemic COVID-19 in Indonesia, provided the fact that the availability of resources and literature was limited to the ones exclusive of rural areas under consideration.

D. A. Akuratiya and D. N. R. Meddage looked into the students’ perception of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings presented firm support towards online learning. Before COVID-19, students were more inclined with the traditional way of learning, but with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, students have been using the online platform of learning more diligently.

T Muthuprasad, et al. “In students perception and preference for online education in India during COVID-19 pandemic” have worked on understanding the view point and preferences of agricultural students towards the online. The paper elaborates the student’s preferences of varied features of online classes, which will aid to design the effective and efficient online learning environment. The result suggested that majority of the students showed a positive attitude towards online classes. The online learning was found to be advantageous as it comes flexible and convenient for the learners to adhere while some also showed a perception of being missing out from a proper feedback allowance, and what extra traditional classrooms offered. So, all these parameters from the research work could come handy in designing and implementing the online education curriculum for students in future.

Trifonia Fahik, et al. "Student’s perception regarding e-learning in pandemic COVID-19: A case study at maria bintang laut junior high school" have worked on comprehending the perception of students on online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study explores the students perception of online learning against various factors and was hence designed on the structure of survey research.

The result analysis of students perception signifies that e-learning is preferred by candidates over the traditional method of teaching. However, there remain some factors of consideration like parents and teachers’ opinions, also study of online education perceptions in rural and remote areas.

Khan MA, et al. findings of the study revealed that on average students, the perception of students towards online classes during the pandemic was positive to maintain their educational growth though they faced many challenges in online classes. The majority of students mentioned issues like lack of interaction with teachers in online classes and low motivation for study due to a lot of distractions at home. Whereas, many students mentioned that it increased their technological literacy, saved travelling time and is more flexible in time and space. The study also revealed that more than half of the students preferred normal mode of classes in school instead of online classes.

Das S, et al. talks about online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study revealed that although a majority of the students find online classes satisfactory but students who live in a rural area, have internet issues, unskilled teachers, lower spending due to poor economic status, lower academic grades have a bad perception regarding online classes.

M Bączek, et al. studied the Students perception of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic which revealed the advantages of online classes such as, ability to stay at home, continuous access to online materials, learning at your own pace and comfortable surroundings but the study also underlined lack of interactions, technical problems, and less active students as the main disadvantages of online learning mentioned by majority of students.

Adapting online education amid pandemic

Basilaia G and Kvavadze D focuses on the capacity of the country and its population to continue the education process at the schools in online form of distance learning. It also reviews different available digital platforms that are and can be useful for online education/ learning. It talks about different tools that can prove online learning effective if used properly. To increase the coverage of the school lessons to the population, the ministry of education, science, Culture and sport of Georgia in cooperation with georgian public broadcaster’s first channel has launched the educational project titled “Teleskola” (TV School). The final data analysis showed that the transition from the traditional to the online education systems at the school was successful. The gained experience can be used in future. The study and experience can be useful for other countries that have not found the ways of transition yet.

Chung, et al. looked into the university students’ readiness to adopt online learning and the challenges they face in adopting online learning.

The study found that university students do not normally ask questions in face to face learning due to some social stigma, even when they do not understand the content of a lecture or subject, and they also do not hold a high level of online communication selfefficacy. This has undeviatingly affected their online learning readiness.

Dutta and Smita studied the impact of the pandemic on tertiary education. The challenges discussed incorporated unavailability of devices, accessibility, agility and cost of the internet, and problems related to online platforms used. Their findings showed that to minimize the social, physical, psychological, and educational interruptions among students, necessary support from the family, friends, and government is required.

Ratna Setyowati Putri, et al “Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on online home learning: an explorative study of primary schools in indonesia” focuses on the constraints and drawbacks of the online teaching and learning process at home experienced by students, teachers and parents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Tangerang, Indonesia. The observations collected and then analysed, revealed a set of result that was divided into 3 parts:

• Students: They faced issues in the initial phase owing to their lesser adaptability towards an online shift from traditional teaching methods. Also, students with inadequate means and those who required special attention faced challenges in this transition.

• Parents: Along with their work from home schedules, parents had to put in the extra duration of efforts towards their child’s education which made their schedule frenetic. Also, the internet dependency on education added to the extra expense of availing and maintaining various resources for effective education.

• Teachers: The sudden transitioning incited all the teachers to go through intensive training to aid the needs of students in online learning. The observations reveal that teachers faced issues in inviting and managing the presence of students in an online medium. Also, it reveals that assessment and evaluation of assignments and tests became tumultuous because of the inescapable incompetence from students and teachers part to adapt to online medium for the complete academic year. However, because social and physical distancing became a mandatory bid to restrain the spread of COVID-19, the study concludes that online education was the only tool left to suffice for the proper teaching and learning atmosphere amid such uncertain halting of schools and other educational institutions.

Clark, et al. the causal effects of online learning on student academic performance using administrative data from three middle schools in China. The study showed that online learning has a positive impact on student's educational performance. Students having access to online lectures of high quality external teachers benefitted the students. Students using computers did better in exams and academics than students who use smartphones. Moreover, academically weaker students have profited the most from online education, while the educational results of top students in academics have not been affected.

Al-Amin, et al. revealed a lack of readiness, participation, and less scope of classroom activities through online learning.

The study mentioned disrupted internet and electricity facilities, paying attention in class by students, comprehending lessons through the online platform as the chief limitations of online learning. Also, almost half of the students considered online classes ineffective.

Methodology

This chapter describes the methodology and methods used for the present study. The present study titled “Online Education Experiences During Pandemic for School Students of Chhattisgarh” was carried out using a student’s survey. The procedure to conduct this study has been described in the following sections.

Objectives of the study

The objectives of the present study titled “online education experiences during pandemic for school students of Chhattisgarh” were as follows:

• To examine the perceptions of school students about the shift of education from traditional to online due to pandemic

• To study the issues and challenges being faced by the students upon such transition

Locale of the study

Due to the pandemic and lockdown, the responses were collected through a google form. To limit the research, the sample population was from raigarh, chhattisgarh. The researcher was residing in Raigarh and had familiarity with the locale. People residing in Raigarh were approached for the study; hence Raigarh, chhattisgarh was selected as a geographical location for the study.

Raigarh is a city and municipal corporation in the indian state of chhattisgarh. the administrative headquarters of the district is known for its coal reserves and power generation for the state as well as the country. the city is also known as sanskardhani i.e., the cultural capital of chhattisgarh.

The total area span of Raigarh covers 7,086 km² which accounts for a total population of 14,93,984. The city has an average literacy rate of 73.7% with an average male literacy rate of 83.49% and the female literacy rate of 63.02%. The city comprises almost all sections of societies ranging from daily wage workers to big scale industrialists, which would aid to cover the right socio-economic group for the study in terms of facilities, amenities, availability and affordability (District profile, Raigarh Chhattisgarh-Azim Premji Foundation)

The school-going population accounts for 73.26% of the total population of Raigarh. However, the city is well versed with the eminent number of schools comprising many governments and private schools and those for specially abled children to cover the required number of children in the city and provide them with the right kind of education and development opportunities.

Research design for the study

There was little observational data about the perception of students on online education amid the pandemic. It was used to examine the experience of school students and their shift towards online learning; hence a mixed-method research design was used.

Research method for the study: This study of mixed method using survey tool to understand and examine students experience about online learning which shifted from traditional mode to online due to COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of the qualitative aspects of mixed method approach is to elaborate the experiences of students in terms of challenges and benefits faced, while the quantitative aspect aims to cover the statistical overview of students in various parameters considered under this study.

Sampling for the study

It is not possible to succeed in the complete population in any analysis. Sampling may be a method of getting data concerning a complete population by examining solely a region of it.

Sample design for the study: Non-probability sampling has been used for the present study. The purposive procedure was used for research considering the nature of the sample for the study.

The researcher has opted for purposive sampling because:

• The researcher was familiar with the locale.

• The researcher aimed to cover respondents who were in standard sixth to eighth and attending their classes through online medium. That demanded prior to selecting the respondent, the researcher asked, ‘Is your school conducting classes through online mode and in which class are you?’ Based on the response sample was selected.

Sample size and frame: The present study’s total size of the sample was 100 with 45 male students and 55 female students.

The characteristics of the sample were as follows:

• The respondents had to be from class 6^th to 8^th.

• The respondents were the citizens of Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.

• The respondents were students who experienced online learning during pandemic at the time of data collection.

Data collection

Keeping in mind the ongoing pandemic and lockdown, the responses were collected through the google form.

Tools and techniques for data collection: Taking into account the preventive measures of lockdown and strict government regulations due to COVID-19 pandemic second wave, online questionnaire was found to be most appropriate tool for data collection. The researcher explained the students’ certain questions for better understanding considering their young age.

Pilot study: Once the data collection tool was finalised, pilot study was planned and executed. Before starting the data collection, questionnaire was pre-tested on five respondents in April 2021. The schedule was pre-tested to check.

• The clarity of the questions.

• Whether the respondents were able to respond to the question without confusion.

The respondents were found to understand the questions and were able to answer the questions. No major changes were required to be made and the structured interview schedule was finalized for the data collection.

Data collection procedure: Data was collected during April to June 2021. In the initial days researcher talked to a few students of personal contacts via telephone or in person to understand the overview of online education and collect the brief information upon which the researcher has designed the questionnaire. The questionnaire takes into account the personal experiences of students as learned by the researcher, that would be relevant to other students. The researcher reached out to a few students of different school of Raigarh, Chhattisgarh and provided them with the questionnaire link and asked them to fill the forms, if found suitable and willing to provide data, data collection was undertaken. The researcher also got in contact with the respondents to make them understand about the motive of the research and questions and also to clarify the doubts.

The respondents were made comfortable prior to starting the data collection. They took maximum fifteen-twenty minutes to fill up the questionnaire respectively.

Data collection experiences: In the process of data collection, it was observed that respondents used to either take the help of their parents to understand the questionnaire or contact the researcher to fill-up the form. The respondents filled satisfactory answers to the questions when they had proper time to answer the question.

Overall, it was a good experience for the researcher. The respondents were helpful and courteous which made it comfortable for the researcher to collect the data.

Since the respondents were assured of the record confidentiality and that their answers won’t be shared with any school or teachers, they freely answered the questions as per their will.

The respondents took enough time to fill the form properly and were happy being part of such research.

Also, in order to have a brief understanding of the situation, the researcher had a few verbal communications with the respondents before designing the questionnaire and hence be, knowledgeable about the type of information that could be collected from them.

Data analysis

After the data collection, the data were tabulated and interpreted. In order to understand the challenges, advantages, family support, device availability, internet connection and other variables that govern the effectiveness and efficiency of online classes by using frequency and percentage, sample distribution using descriptive statistics like mean and mode were employed. Data has been presented using graphs (Table 2).

Variables of the study

Operational definitions

Student: Person of either sex, residing in rural or urban areas of Chhattisgarh, in the age group of 10 to 15 years who were registered at school studying in sixth to eight standards attending classes online.

Online education experience: Responses of student about their feelings associated with attending online classes of their school/ tuition/extra-curricular activity.

Pandemic: Due to COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown, schools continued teaching using online environments. This study takes into account time period of March to June 2021.

Results and Discussion

This chapter elaborates findings of present research. This chapter is classified into six sections as described below:

This section deals with the primary information about the students such as students ‘age, gender, education, place of residence, number of family members.

The ratio of female and male was 55: 45 and proportions of students of class sixth, seventh and eighth are 16:25:59 respectively. The age of students was found to range between 10 to 15 years after data collection (Table 3).

Primary profile of school students

Table 3 shows that the ratio of female and male respondents is 9:11 and students living in urban versus rural areas was 4:1.

Half of the students were living with 4 family members, whereas 13 percent had five family members usually included their parents and siblings. Students living with 6 family members and 7 family members were 4% and 7% respectively, who were mostly living with their parents, siblings and grandparents. Whereas, eight percent respondents were living with more than eight family members which was usually extended joint family. Few (3%) of them lived with two family members which included themselves and their parent (single parent).

Infrastructure related to online classes

This section elaborates about devices used, types of devices, nature of internet connection and device availability (Figure 2).

Device possession for online classes

Figure 2 shows that two-third (66 percent) of the total students had access to their own device for attending online classes which worked well, whereas, six percent of the students had access to their own device for attending online classes but it didn’t work well. However, around one-fourth (28 percent) of the students didn’t have access to their own device for attending online classes rather they shared the device with their respective family members (Figure 3).

Types of devices used for online classes

*Multiple responses

Figure 3 shows that around seven-tenth (69 percent) of the total students used smartphone for online classes, while almost half (49 percent) of the students used laptop. Moreover, fifteen percent students used tablet and thirteen percentage of students used desktop for online classes (Figure 4).

Types of internet connection

*Multiple responses

Figure 4 shows that around three-fourth (74 percent) of the total students used mobile data, while more than two-fifth (44 percent) of the students used WIFI connection for online classes. And, more than one-fourth (28 percent) students took hotspot from another device, whereas, 2 percent of the students used other internet connections (Figure 5).

Device availability for online classes

Figure 5 shows that close to three-fifth (58 percent) of the total students already had device to attend their online classes so they did not have to buy one, whereas, 22 percent of the students managed it by sharing the device with their family members. And one-fifth (20 percent) of the students had to buy a new device to attend their online classes as they did not have one (Figure 6).

Tools kept on during class

Figure 6 shows that more than half (53 percent) of them total students kept their camera on during their online class, while two-fifth (40 percent) of the students kept both camera and mic on. Also, 4 percent of the students kept their mics on and 3 percent of the students kept both their mic and camera off (Figure 7).

Platforms used for online classes

*Multiple responses

Figure 7 shows that majority (97 percent) of the total students used zoom platform for their online classes, whereas, 5 percent, 4 percent and 3 percent of the students use google meet, microsoft teams and other platforms respectively (Figure 8).

Learning about the online platforms and its features

Figure 8 shows that schools of close to three-fifth (58 percent) of the total student’s school conducted a special class about how to use online platform and its features. Although, more than one-fourth (27 percent) of the students learnt to use the online platforms and its features from their friends/family members. And 15 percent of the students learnt it on their own with the help of videos/tutorials.

Nature of online classes

This section talks about the parameters of online classes such as attendance of students, teachers behaviour, duration of class, online activities, student-teacher and student-student interaction and so on.

These parameters help us understand the quality of education and experiences of students in online mode (Figure 9).

Maintenance of attendance in online classes

Figure 9 shows that 92 percent of the total students said that their attendance was taken regularly on a daily basis, whereas, 5 percent said that the attendance was taken sometimes and 1 percent said that the teacher called out their names randomly. Although, 2 percent of the students said that no attendance was taken (Figure 10).

Teachers behaviour during online classes

*Multiple responses

Figure 10 shows that 71 percent of the total students said that the behaviour of most of their teachers during online classes was helpful, whereas, more than three-fifth (64 percent and 65 percent) said they were supportive and friendly respectively, while half (50 percent) of the students said that they were calm. Meanwhile, 33 percent and 8 percent of the total students said that the behaviour of most of their teachers during online classes was strict and angry, respectively. Moreover, one-tenth of the students said that the behaviour of most of their teachers during online classes was frustrated (Figure 11).

Class wise online class duration

Figure 11 shows that majority (36 percent) of the students from class 8^th out of 59 total number of students, spent 1-3 hours each day on an average for online classes, whereas almost one-fifth (19 percent) of the class 8^th students spent 3-5 hours. Moreover, 2 percent of the class 8^th students spent 5-7 hours and 2 percent of the class 8^th students spent 10 and more hours on an average for online classes. It was also observed that more than one-tenth (13 percent) of class 7^th students out of 25 total number of students, spent 3 to 5 hours on an average for online classes and 7 percent, 4 percent and 1 percent of the class 7^th students spent 5-7 hours, 1-3 hours and 7-10 hours respectively. While, out of 16 total students of standard 6^th, the majority of 12 percent of class 6th students spent 1-3 hours and 4 percent spent 3-5 hours on an average for online classes respectively (Figure 12).

Activities attended in online mode by students

Figure 12 shows that 69 percent of the total students attended online classes only for schooling, while more than one-fifth (21 percent) students attended online classes for schooling and tuitions/ coaching (Figure 13). And, four percent students attended online classes for school, tuitions/coaching and other classes (e.g., painting, dancing, music, coding etc.), while three percent of the students attended online classes for school and other classes (e.g., painting, dancing, music, coding etc.).

Doubt clarification

Figure 13 shows that more than one-fifth (22 percent) of the total students said that their school conducted separate doubt clearing classes daily, whereas one-fourth (25 percent) said that their doubt clearing classes are conducted randomly. Also, 46 percent of the students said that their school did not conduct any doubt clearing classes but they were allowed to contact their teachers through WhatsApp, call and texts and, 7 percent of the students managed it on their own (Figure 14).

Student-teacher interaction

Figure 14 shows that 31 percent of class 8^th students (out of 59) interacted with their teachers after class whenever they encountered any issues or doubts in their respective subjects, while, 13 percent of the students from class 8^th interacted with their teacher whenever they faced any technical problem in learning platform. Whereas, 1 percent of the class 8^th student’s parents interacted with their teacher regularly regarding their performance in class and 14 percent of the class 8^th students didn’t interact with their teachers after school hours. Meanwhile, one-fifth (20 percent) of the class 7^th students (out of 25) interacted with their teachers after class whenever they encountered any issues or doubts in their concerned subjects, 2 percent of the students interacted with their teacher whenever they faced any technical problem in learning platform and 2 percent of the student’s parents of class 7^th students interacted with their teacher regularly regarding their performance in class. Although, 1 percent student of class 7^th don’t interact with their teacher after class. Likewise, 14 percent of the students of class 6^th (out of 16) interacted with their teacher after class whenever they encountered any issues or doubts in their respective subjects and 2 percent of the students interacted with their teacher whenever they faced any technical problem in learning platform (Figure 15).

Student-student interaction

Figure 15 shows that more than one-fourth (27 percent) of the students of class 8^th said that they interacted with their friends casually in the free time, while, more than one-fifth (22 percent) said that they interacted with their friends whenever they encountered any doubts or problems in any subject. Meanwhile, one-tenth (10 percent) of the class 8^th students said that they didn’t interact with their friends after school hours. Also, one-fifth (20 percent) of the class 7^th students said that they interacted with their friends casually in the free time, 4 percent of the students interacted with friends whenever they encounter any doubts or problems in any subject and 1 percent said that they didn’t interact with their friends after school hours. Moreover, that 7 percent of the students of class 6th said that they interacted with their friends casually in the free time, while, 5 percent said that they interacted with friends whenever they encountered any doubts or problems in any subject and 4 percent of the class 6th students said that they didn’t interact with their friends after school hours (Figure 16).

Involvement of students during online classes

*Multiple responses

Figure 16 shows that during online classes various students were involved in various activities at their ends. All of the students said that they concentrated during their class on what teacher teaches. Meanwhile, 19 percent of the total students said that they chatted with their friends during class and used social media during their class. Although, 3 percent of the total students said that they did household work during class, while other 3 percent said that they remained in class but did other things. Moreover, 1 percent of the total students said that they watched web series or use any other device during class, while, other 1 percent said that they slept sometimes during class (Figure 17).

Extracurricular activities that were conducted online

*Multiple responses

Figure 17 shows that apart from online classes many schools also conducted various extracurricular activities online to focus overall development of children. Here are the statistics for different kinds of activities that were/are conducted for students

• More than three-fifth (63 percent) of the total students said that their school conduct/conducted yoga, however, 26 percent of the students said that no extracurricular activities were conducted online

• Close to three-fifth (57 percent) of the total students said that their school conduct/conducted painting.

• More than half (55 percent) of the total students said that their school conduct/conducted music.

• More than (52 percent) of the total students said that their school conduct/conducted dance.

• More than one-fifth (23 percent) of the total students said that their school conducted games and recreation.

• Close to one-fifth (19 percent) of the total students said that their school conduct/conducted coding.

• 7 percent of the total students said that their school conduct/ conducted other activities.

Online classes and family

This section tries to establish the context between family of students and online classes. The title highlights the effect of COVID-19 infection, home environment and family support towards online education (Figure 18).

COVID-19 Infection status of respondents and their family members

Figure 18 shows that more than three-fifth (66 percent) of the total students said that no one in their family was tested positive, while 34 percent of the total students said that someone from their family was tested covid positive out of which 11 percent of the total students said that because of which they were not able to attend classes for few days and more than one-fifth (23 percent) of them were able to manage to attend their classes somehow (Figure 19).

Home environment during online classes

Figure 19 shows that close to half (48 percent) of the total students, studied in peaceful environment away from disturbances. Meanwhile, 46 percent of the students faced little disturbances by their family members but were able to manage during online classes. And, six percent of the students faced disturbance by their family members which made it difficult for them to pay attention during online classes (Figure 20).

Family support during online classes

Figure 20 shows that majority (86 percent) of the total student’s parents made sure that they attended their online classes regularly. While, 7 percent of the parents supported them for their classes but also kept interfering while they attended their classes and 7 percent of the parents could not help them due to technical and other issues (Figure 21).

Online tasks/actions undertaken

*Multiple responses

Figure 21 shows that all of the total students attended the online classes. However, the percentage of students that appeared in online examinations ranges to 96 percent. Adding to this, close to threefourth (73 percent) stated that they were given assignments through online mode. Also, 44 percent and 30 percent of the students were involved in extracurricular and tuition classes respectively. While, one-tenth (10 percent) said that there were some other activities too in which they were involved.

Online examination

This section talks about online exam experience of school students, it highlights challenges, format and result satisfaction of online examination (Figure 22).

Appeared in any online examination

Figure 22 shows that majority (96 percent) of the total students appeared in the online school examination, while 4 percent of the students have yet not appeared in ant school examinations (Figure 23).

Online exam format

Figure 23 shows that more than half (56 percent) of the total students gave exams by writing and submitting the pictures of the answer sheet online. Also, close to two-fifth (36 percent) of the students gave exams in Multi Choice Question (MCQ) format and 5 percent of the students gave exams by question and answering via voice and video calls. And 4 percent of the students said that no exams were conducted, they were given marks on the basis of class activities and projects (Table 4).

Problems faced by students during online examination

*Multiple responses

Table 4 shows that many students faced issues adapting themselves to the new examination pattern in online mode. Here are the following survey observations on issues that students faced while giving exams online

• Two fifth (40 percent) of the students said that they faced frequent internet disconnections while giving their exams.

• 39 percent of the students said that they had issues in submitting their answers.

• 38 percent of the students said that they were worried and tensed while giving their examination online.

• More than one-fourth (27 percent) of the students said that they faced technical issues regarding their device e.g., hanging of device, camera quality and storage problem.

• Close to one-fifth (18 percent) of the students said that they were not able to log into the examination portal.

• 13 percent of the students said that they were not able to properly read and/or understand the texts and/or pictures while giving the examination online.

• 6 percent of the students said that they could not understand how to use the online examination platform (Figure 24).

Result satisfaction.

Figure 24 shows that 74% of the total students were satisfied with the results of their online exams, whereas 26% of them were not satisfied.

Perceptions and opinions of students about online learning

This section deals with pros and cons of online learning experienced by the students and overall satisfaction with online learning experience (Table 5).

Disadvantages of online learning

*Multiple responses

Table 5 shows that, majority (68 percent) of the students said that their interaction with their classmates and friends reduced while 61 percent of the students said that their interaction with their teachers reduced. Moreover, close to three-fifth (57 percent) of the students said that they faced internet connectivity issues during class, whereas, more than two-fifth (44 percent) of the students said that due to increased screen timing they started facing eye problem and having headache issues. 32 percent, 31 percent and 29 percent of the students said that they lacked self-discipline and motivation, faced distractions at home and their device used to hang during class, respectively. However, close to one-fifth (17 percent and 16 percent) of the students said that they faced Storage issue because of excessive learning materials and applications in a low storage device and difficulty in using the online tools and platforms, respectively (Table 6).

Advantages of online learning

*Multiple responses

Table 6 shows that, majority (70 percent, 68 percent and 66 percent) of the students said that they don’t have to carry bags as they used while going to school, it’s easier to attend classes from anywhere as per their comfortability and study materials are easily available through internet and and/or school websites which are quick to share from/with teachers and friends, respectively. While, more than three-fifth (63 percent) of the students said that physical environment at home is safe and comfortable which makes it easier for them to concentrate and study. Moreover, close to two-fifth (39 percent) of the students said that online learning improves technological skills i.e., internet browsing, keyboard typing, computer usage, etc. and also, their Family members can easily help during any issue during class. While the remaining (31 percent, 30 percent and 23 percent) of the students said that online classes have enabled them to ask doubts without being nervous about anything, plus it’s easy for them to manage time and studies and also, organise study materials as per their need and at one place (Figure 25).

Figure 25 shows that more than three-fifth (66 percent) of the total students are satisfied with online exams, whereas 34 percent of them are not satisfied.

Not satisfied with online learning

When asked the students to explain their reasons for why they are not satisfied with online learning, followings were the statements given by them

Student 1: “In online learning, students are unable to interact with that much interest and enthusiasm as they used to do in school. It is tough to concentrate on the online classes because of less interaction. In these classes, teachers are unable to concentrate on each and every student which makes the students less attentive. Online exams create a lot of pressure and no one is there to properly invigilate the students. In these types of exams, students are the invigilators of themselves which is not that much productive. We can't meet our friends face to face in online learning which makes it a bit boring. Overall, offline classes are far better than online classes. But both the classes are equally important as many coaching’s are always held online.”

Student 2: “Online education is good but not as good as classrooms, in classrooms it is easy to understand the topics and also friends can help. Also, in school we have other activities for fun and recreation.”

Student 3: “It is difficult to remain focused. Not able to meet my friends. Got glasses due to increased screen timing. Since I've a oneyear- old sister who disturbs during class by crying and other (Figure 26).”

Preferred medium for learning

Figure 26 shows that more than two-fifth (43 percent) of the total students said that they would prefer face-to-face learning over online, while 13 percent of the students said that they would prefer online learning. Meanwhile, majority (44 percent) of the students said that they would mix of both mediums (Figure 27).

Student’s experience with online classes

Figure 27 shows that when asked the students how would they define their online learning experience by far, majority (29 percent) of the students said it was informative, while 27 percent and 9 percent of the students said it was joyful and peaceful, respectively. Whereas, 21 percent and 14 percent of the students said it was boring and exhausting, respectively (Figure 28).

Preferred medium of learning in future

Figure 28 shows that when asked the students if they would prefer online medium in future as well to which more than half (54 percent) of the students said no, where as 31 percent said maybe and 15 percent said yes.

Conclusion

The findings indicate that students were satisfied in the current period of duration with the online medium of education. However, in the long run, they would prefer either the mixed mode of learning which would incorporate both the online medium and traditional medium or the traditional medium. The students also faced many challenges in online learning, they reasoned for their problems as reduced interaction with teachers and friends, the issues with dependencies on their electronic devices and internet facilities, the issues while giving exams were also caused because of similar dependency. Moreover, the students indicated a friendly and helpful behaviour of their teachers towards them, which possibly would have been the major key towards satisfaction of students with online education. This research also concludes that there was equal importance given to extracurricular activities in the online medium and hence, which stands vital in the overall development of the child.

Acknowledgments

It gives me immense pleasure to express my deepest sense of gratitude and sincere thanks to my highly respected and esteemed guide Dr. Mira K Desai, HOD of the department of PG.

Home science extension and communication, for her valuable guidance, encouragement, and help for completing this work. Their useful suggestions for this whole work and co-operative behaviours are sincerely acknowledged.

This study would never have been completed without her patience and fruitful guidance. It was through her knowledge and experience those various ideas of mind found expression. She has been more than just a guide and no words can express the gratitude.

I also wish to express my indebtedness to my parents as well as my family member whose blessings and support always helped me to face the challenges ahead.

In the end, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all my friends and others who helped me directly or indirectly during this project work.

Undertaking

I declare that the form and content of the thesis are original and have not been submitted, in part or full, for any other Institution. It is my original work, and anything taken from anywhere has been attributed appropriately in the thesis.

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