Undergraduate students’ attitude towards online learning in Makerere University: a case study of School of Statistics and Planning

Abstract

This study examined the undergraduate students’ attitude towards online learning in Makerere University, taking the undergraduate students at the School of Statistics and Planning as a case study. The study was guided by five specific objectives namely; to investigate the relationship between students’ demographic factors and attitude towards online learning, to investigate the relationship between students’ experience in using specific technologies and attitude towards online learning, To investigate the relationship between students’ experience in using a variety of ICT in educational context and attitude towards online learning, To find out challenges being experienced by students as a result of online learning, To find out solutions to address the challenges being faced by students as a result of Online Lectures. The study used primary data with a sample size of 311 respondents that was selected using simple random sampling and whose responses were collected using structured questionnaire with both open and closed ended questions. The collected Data was entered in STATA to create a data file and later used to generate statistical summary from which analysis and presentations were made and conclusions drawn. Majority were males making up 56.27% of the total and 43.37% of the respondents were female. Most of the students were aged between the ages of 22- 24 years (60.45%) with the least number of students falling in the age group of 27-29 years (16.72%). Most respondents (93.83%) were under day as a mode of study (55.31%) and the rest were under the evening mode of study. Most students had a negative attitude towards online learning (57.2%). The study found out that the student’s attitude towards online learning was associated with their demographic features, the technological devices used to access online learning and some of educational contexts conducted online since most of them were found out to have a significant relationship after analysis. It was also found out that the online system enables students to learn effectively but eventually it is the educators who still need to play their roles and perform their tasks in order for learning process to happen. Students also shared challenges that they have been facing with the system and most of them suggested the poor network that has been consistently disrupting the lessons plus the high internet costs that are not favorable especially to students from poor backgrounds, solutions were suggested to address the challenges in order to improve the efficiency of electronic learning.