Online Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic at Tertiary Level in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Benefits from the Students’ Perspective

Abstract

Due to the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, a temporary interruption of education activities occurred all over the world. The sudden and quick shift from face-to-face learning mode to the sole online learning mode affected the perceptions of students toward the online learning application. This study investigated the perceptions of students toward the online learning application. It involved sixty students studying in different colleges at Northern Border University in Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire survey was designed to obtain quantitative data and Interviews were used to obtain the qualitative data. The data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data analysed using SPSS and the qualitative data were thematically analysed based on Braun and Clark's (2006) steps. The results discovered that the Saudi university female students showed positive attitudes and perceptions toward using online learning through attending online classes and doing their activities online because they viewed that online learning brought them many benefits referred to in detail in the results chapter. However, the students indicated that they faced a serious problem represented in the internet connection where most of them mentioned that they faced either frequent cut-offs in internet connection or poor quality in the internet connection negatively affected their attendance in their online classes and their performance in completing their online activities. Finally, the study provided some important recommendations for different stakeholders