MSc

The present study entitled “Impact of online learning during COVID-19 in
Kerala Agricultural University: Students’ and teachers’ perspectives” was conducted
in the four colleges of Kerala Agricultural University viz, College of Agriculture
(CoA), Vellayani; CoA, Vellanikkara; CoA, Padannakkad and CoA, Ambalavayal. The
objective was to study the perception of students and teachers about effectiveness of
online education, delineation of factors affecting its effectiveness and identification of
constraints therein.
The sample consisted of 150 students and 40 teachers from the four colleges
under KAU. Based on the judges rating and literature review, ten and eight independent
variables were selected for the students and teachers, respectively. Perception of
students and teachers about effectiveness of online education were selected as the
dependent variable for the study. The variables were measured and analyzed with the
help of various statistical tools like frequency, percentage analysis, mean, standard
deviation, quartiles, chi square test, correlation and t test.
The detailed investigation on the profile characteristics of students pointed out
that, majority of the students (80%) were females, more than half of them (60%)
belonged to rural family background and majority of them (55.8%) had medium annual
income. Majority of the students (58.67%) were quite ready for the online classes during
COVID-19 and most of them (86%) had self-owned devices for attending online
classes. Seventy-one percentage of students had medium exposure to technology and
seventy three per cent of the students used digital technology at a medium level.
Majority of the students (68%) had medium adaptability with digital platforms and
learning management system and nearly half of the them (46%) had fair quality of
internet connection for attending online classes during COVID-19. The proportion of
students who intend to continue their education online (50.67%) is marginally higher
than the reverse (49.33%).
Analysis of the profile characteristics of teachers revealed that majority of the
teachers (65%) were female and half of them (50%) were middle aged. Majority of the
teachers (65%) had less teaching experience. More than half of the teachers had prior
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online experience before COVID-19 (60%) and had received training for taking online
classes (65%). Sixty three percent of teachers belonged to the category of medium use
of digital technology and majority of them (60%) had good quality internet connection
for conducting online classes during COVID-19. More than half of the teachers (52.5%)
had positive continuance intention for online education.
The results of the study revealed that majority of the students (64%) and
teachers (60%) had positive perception about effectiveness of online education. There
was no significant difference observed between the perception of students and teachers
about online education during COVID-19.
Based on the result of chi square test, profile characteristics of students such as
place of residence, annual income, continuance intention, e-readiness, exposure to
technology and internet accessibility were found to have significant association with
the perception of students about online education. In case of teachers, profile
characteristics such as gender, age, prior online experience, training received and
continuance intention had significant association with perception about online
education.
Among the five factors affecting effectiveness of online education viz., selfefficacy, subjective norm, attitude, digital competence and technostress, subjective
norm had the highest score for students as well as teachers. Self-efficacy and attitude
had positive significant correlation whereas subjective norm and technostress had
negative significant correlation with the perception of students about online education.
For teachers, self-efficacy and attitude had positive significant correlation whereas
technostress had negative significant correlation with the perception about online
education. In case of constraints in online education during COVID-19, technological
and health constraints were ranked as the important constraints faced by students
whereas insufficient/ unstable internet connectivity followed by the technical problems
were the important constraints faced by the teachers.
To conclude, students and teachers had shown interest in the use of online
education in their academic activities and its use was no doubt intensified by the sudden
outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though online education had worked as an
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aid during COVID-19, shifting completely to online mode may not be possible in
agricultural education system where many courses are practical oriented. Hence, there
is a need of designing a hybrid mode of education which will be beneficial for both
teachers and learners during any future crisis-like situations.