ONLINE LEARNING AND ITS IMPACT ON STUDENTS' SATISFACTION IN THE PRESENT ECONOMIC CRISIS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

A combination of the COVID-19 widespread and financial emergency drive to continue online learning among the higher educational institutions in Sri Lanka. The design of the traditional face-to-face physical classroom learning framework has been changed into an online learning framework. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to examine the online learning system and its impact on students' satisfaction and to evaluate the level of student satisfaction with the implemented online learning system. Data analysis ofthe study is based on 282 students who are pursuing a higher national diploma in management at Advanced technological institute (ATI), Dehiwala. Based on the analysis, the mean value of 4.03 shows that the majority ofthe students faced challenges during online learning. It also found that challenges, the effectiveness of instructor, knowledge, and skill development are significant where p values are less than 0.05. The result of the analysis shows that the effectiveness of the instructor is the most vital factor that affects the satisfaction of students during online learning. Thus, instructors need to be very efficient and attentive while conducting online lessons. Findings also demonstrate that a point increase in the effectiveness of instructors and knowledge and skill development lead to an increase in students' satisfaction by .355 and .251 respectively. Further, 92 students are dissatisfied with online classroom interaction and 79 students were unsatisfactory with gaining knowledge and understanding of lessons. Therefore, it is necessary to identify reasons for the lack of interaction, knowledge and understanding of lessons by gathering regular feedback from the students.