Students’ Perception towards E-Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic in Philippines: An

Empirical Study1
 Abstract

The educational system across the world has immensely been affected due to outbreak of
COVID-19; it forced the shut down of educational institutions, which adversely affected student
fraternity across the globe. Due to its contagious nature, COVID-19 demanded containment and
enforced isolation that tremendously affected personal interaction of teachers and students. In
the absence of traditional classroom teaching and one-to-one interaction, computer-based
learning has emerged as closest substitute for off-line teaching. Against such a backdrop, it is
pertinent to examine the students’ perception and readiness about online-learning system
adopted at the school level during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For the present study, the
quantitative approach has been adopted and responses from 30 Electrical students of Anomar
National High School of Delhi, India namely Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia (Central
University) and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University are collected through online
questionnaire. This research study was conducted during June–August 2020. The findings of the
study reveal students’ positive perception towards e-learning and thus acceptance of this new
learning system. It has also empirically demonstrated the significance of e-learning in the time
of COVID-19 crisis. In fact, e-learning has emerged as a new way of enhancing the learning
process where social media may further improve the learning output. The findings of the study
will facilitate educational institutions and policy makers to take this online-learning process to
the next level in a better way.

Keywords: students’ perception; E-learning; COVID-19; traditional classroom learning2

1. Introduction

The effect of information technology on human life is immense and its role in education

too cannot be subsided. In the current scenario of COVID 19 pandemic, the contribution of

information technology has gained momentum due to closure of educational institutions

that raises challenges for students’ learning. During this quarantine time information

technology is serving the solution for the ongoing learning process through innovative

and learning management systems [1,2]. It has provided opportunity for educators to

implement IT solutions for teaching as well as evaluation for the completion of course

work of students. The efforts of stakeholders namely teachers, students and institutional

administrators are on for the optimal use of the technology and efficient learning process [3].
The ultimate goal is to minimize the learning gap that arouse due to lockdown.

Educational institutions and students across the world have accepted and appreciated

the online platform of learning. The reasons of this acceptability are ease of use, learning

flexibility and controllable environment. However, despite its multiple advantages there

are quite a few limitations of e-learning such as social isolation, face to face interaction4

between teacher and student, connectivity issues, etc. [4]. E-learning has never been

adopted and accepted as real learning or the formal mode of education before this ongoing

pandemic that compelled to resort to electronic learning solution by world over [5]. Now,

at the hour of pandemic crisis, most of the educational institutions are exploring and

approaching towards e-learning to make it easy for students to work out at new normal.

Also, various e-teaching software are being explored by teachers or educators to bring
maximum possible ease for their students [6].

As a matter of fact, as this e-learning wave is a recent development, teachers as well as

students are in the process of adapting this new teaching and learning methodology. At this

prevailing situation of virtual teaching and setting of new normal of teaching-learning

methodology, it becomes all more important to get to know the opinion of learners and to

explore learners’ inclination towards this novel teaching methodology, such as their degree

of adaptation and amendment if any they would like to suggest for the same or want to

reject it altogether [7]. Against such a backdrop, this study aims to examine the perception

of e-learning during COVID-19 lockdown period5

2. Literature Review
In the recent time, the research on exploring students’ perception and their expectation

from e-learning has been on surge [8,9]. “National Center for Education Statistics” has

reported the growing requirement of e-learning due to its increasing acceptance recently.

Several studies indicate that most of the students enrolled in online courses are satisfied

with the mode of learning. However, studies also reveal that perceptions of learners are

affected by a host of factors [10–12].

Factors such as age, gender, prior knowledge of computer literacy and learning styles

of individual are the vital predictors of technology acceptance by students. There exists

ample literature which discusses the theories of “technology acceptance” to study students’

perception [13].
Country-wise research in the area as listed are contributed by Australia [14,15],

United States [16,17] and in the United Kingdom [18]. These studies confirm that a majority of
learners have their own internet enabled devices such as personal computers and

mobile phones. They are using these digital devices for communication over formal and

informal platforms of networking such as emails, blogging, etc. This study is based on

the students’ expertise, expectation and perception of e-learning. Relevant literature is

consulted to find the possible answers particularly in the area of users’ perception towards

innovation. “Theory of diffusion of innovations” [19,20] is so far is one of the most relevant

theories used for the study of technology adoption in higher education. Roger has defined

users’ perception of innovation immensely affects its adoption by them. The perception of

relative advantage, the degree to which the innovation is perceived as better one than the
compared product, compatibility, consistency with current value set up, past behaviour and

experience of innovation recipients, the extent of complexities associated in understanding

and making use of innovation.

As per “Technology Acceptance Model”, two most important determining factors for

technology acceptance are perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use [21].

The study investigated the relationships among course structure/organization, learner

interaction, student engagement, and instructor presence on student satisfaction and

perceived learning in the online learning environments. This study indicated a significant
relationship between course structure and perceived student learning. Furthermore, the data

indicated that student interaction does not have a statistically significant impact on student

satisfaction yet instructor presence does have a statistically significant impact on perceived

student learning. The data, however, indicated that learner interaction does significantly
impact perceived student learning. The data also indicated that instructor presence does

influence student satisfaction. The mediated variable, student engagement, partially mediated
the impact that instructor presence has on student satisfaction. Furthermore, student

engagement fully mediated the impact of both instructor presence and learner interaction9

on perceived student learning [22]. Online learning is still new, and it is continuously evolving
by the rapidly changing technologies. More efforts are required by all online educators

to integrate pedagogy with technologies in order to enhance student learning. In nutshell,

online discourse as a communication activity could be very beneficial in current online

learning environment to the students or learners, by providing a space for information

exchange and to generate deeper thinking, but only if educators understand how it would

work and how students learn in the online environment [23]. This survey-based research

study examined the perception of students on various engagement strategies used in online
courses. Learner-to-instructor engagement strategies seemed to be most valued among the

three categories of student engagement. Icebreaker/introduction discussions and working

collaboratively by using online communication tools were rated the most beneficial
engagement strategies in the learner-to-learner category, whereas sending regular
announcements

or email reminders and providing grading rubrics for all assignments were rated most

beneficial in learner-to-instructor category. Thus, we can conclude that student engagement

increases student satisfaction, enhances student motivation to learn, reduces the

sense of isolation, and improves student performance in the online learning environment.

The results of the study have implications for online instructors, instructional designers,

and administrators who wish to enhance engagement in the online courses [24]. This research
study was conducted to investigate the perception of academic stress experienced
by students during current online education and coping strategies using emotional intelligence
adopted by them. The findings of the study indicated that significant differences

were observed between the fear of academic failure and online and home environment

among male and female students. Many of them have started diverting themselves to

various creative activities and taking up online courses that are helping them to learn new

technical skills. Thus, by using emotional intelligence and distancing from boredom and

depressive thoughts, students were trying to cope with negative effects arising from the

current pandemic situation in this new environment of online education [25].

The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) has exerted a significant influence on

adult learning. The current study tries to investigate the MOOCs’ effect on higher education

systems. This research found the majority of university faculty think that MOOCs has a
direct impact on improving educational outcomes. Furthermore, the research data support

that MOOCs has a direct impact on developing students’ learning skills. Thus, we can

conclude that MOOC is a suitable platform to train entrepreneurs because it provides

tools to enable students’ collaborative mastering as properly as enhancing individuals’

affective key entrepreneurial factors together with such possibility reputation and aid

acquisition [26,27]. The present study analysed the satisfaction level of the participants

from the MOOC run by Swayam, Coursera, FutureLearn and Edx. The satisfaction from

the MOOCs has been studied on four parameters i.e., course delivery, course content,

course assessment, and course support. The qualitative results highlighted that the participants
have gained knowledge from the course and 65% of them preferred Swayam

and Coursera MOOC portals. The overall findings revealed that participants were more
satisfied than dissatisfied from the MOOC. Thus, MOOC providers should focus more on

building great course content, ensuring timely and flawless delivery of the lectures along

with appropriate course assessment, covering the correct information from the course

content. Hence, the satisfaction of participants can be achieved and they can be encouraged

to further enroll in other courses along with completing the current course [28].

2.1. Research Gap

The review of literature reveals that most of the studies are undertaken to identify

students’ perception and attitude towards e-learning and studies related to students’

perception of e-learning at the time of COVID-19 pandemic are found to be few and

far between.13

2.2. Objectives of the Study

1. To cognize the importance of e-learning during the phase of ongoing pandemic.

2. To study the benefits of online mode of learning from the perspective of students.

3. To analyse the students’ perceptions of e-learning during Covid-19 lockdown period.

3. Methodology

This study is quantitative as well as descriptive in nature and used both primary and

secondary data for the analysis. A modified questionnaire has been used to collect data from

184 students enrolled in various universities of NCT of Delhi, India, namely Delhi University,

Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University) and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

The respondents of the survey are the students who are actively using e-learning platforms for

their regular course during COVID -19 lockdown. The survey was conducted in the National
Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi during June to August 2020.

The questionnaire consisted of two sections. Section A collects personal information

of students. Section B of the Questionnaire gauges the perception and attitude of students in
regard to the effectiveness of e-learning during COVID-19. The questionnaire is

finalized after minor changes required after pilot survey for the assessment of feasibility

of the survey. For the purpose of validation and analysis of the collected data from the

sample respondents, appropriate statistical tools and techniques have been used by the

researcher. Cronbach’s alpha technique was considered in the study for measuring the

internal consistency between the manifest variables or reliability of the latent constructs

that have been used in the study. To examine that whether all the measured variables are

explicitly explaining their respective latent construct or not, Confirmatory Factor Analysis
(CFA) technique was applied in the study through AMOS (version 24) software. To analyse

the benefits of online mode of learning and to study the perception of students towards

e-learning during this ongoing pandemic as well, SPSS (version 25) software was used by

the researcher.

4. Results and Findings

For the collection of primary data, the questionnaire was randomly distributed

through online form —Google doc. Social networking sites have been a significant source of

reaching out to students enrolled in different universities. 184 valid responses are recorded

that qualify for data analysis. SPSS software is used for the analysis of data collected.

The demographic profile of the students, the device which the students use for the access
of online-learning, duration of using the computer, and students’ perception and attitude

in regard to e-learning are presented below.

4.1. Profile of the Sample Respondents

This section presents some basic information of the university students. Table 1 shows

the outputs of the questions related to gender, age group, course and level of education.

All the data presented here is compiled form primary data.17

Table 1 depicts the personal information of the respondents classified on the basis of

their gender, age group, level of education, academic year, and present status of the sample

respondents. It is revealed from the aforesaid Table that majority of the sample respondents

(51.63%) were females whereas 48.37% were males. 84.78% of the respondents belong to
the age group 19–29 years, 8.70% are in the age group 30–39 years and 4.89% of students

are below 18 years of age. None of the respondents belongs to the age group of 60 years

and above, while only 1.09% falls within the age group of 40–49 years and 0.54% of the

respondents were within 50–59 years. Respondents belonging to 19–29 age group represent

the voice of the youth. Students are justifiably distributed as per their academic year of

study. As presented in Table 1, 7.07% respondents are in first year, 40.21% are in second

year, 37.50% are in third year, and 15.22% are in fourth year, respectively. 59.24% of the

total responses have been recorded from full time students, 7.61% from students who are

on study leave, 33.15% are working as well as pursuing their studies. 85.33% of the total

respondents are from business management course, 8.15% from the course of Art/Design,
3.80% from IT and the rest 2.72% are from Engineering stream. Therefore, fairly various

groups of students have been included in the study to have their views.

As far as the sources of sample data is concerned, the students enrolled in the numerous
universities located in Delhi such as Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia (Central

University) and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University were considered in the study.

Majority of the students (40.21%) belong to the Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University),

followed by Delhi University students (33.70%) and the remaining 26.09% of the students

were studying in Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

4.2. Reliability of the Latent Constructs

Testing the reliability is an important step, as it checks the internal consistency and

inspects the properties of measuring scale [29]. This study used Cronbach’s alpha as a measure
of reliability, which is a commonly applied measure in Likert scale survey questions.
Table 2 gives the value of Cronbach’s alpha for each of the construct considered separately.

The information presented here is prepared by the Researchers through SPSS Output.

Table 2. Reliability of the Constructs.

Latent Constructs Cronbach’s Alpha No. of Items

Benefits of E-learning 0.922 10

Students’ Perceptions of E-learning 0.957 14

The reliability value of Cronbach’s alpha between ±0.41 and ±0.70 qualifies for

moderate reliability of the scale measured, while greater value than ±0.70 shows high

internal consistency [30]. The Cronbach’s alpha [31] values between 0.70 to 0.90 exceed the

level of acceptability. As depicted in Table 2, Cronbach’s alpha value is little over 0.90 and
hence holds good internal consistency allowing for further analysis.

4.3. The Benefits of E-Learning

The study investigates the benefits of e-learning for students enrolled at different educational
institutions. To measure the degree of benefits availed from e-learning, questions

listed in Table 3 are asked on five-point Likert Scale-based statements ranging from “Strongly

Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”.

“Strongly Agree” and “Agree” are clubbed together to form one positive response of

“Agree”. The same procedure is applied in case of “Strongly Disagree” and “Disagree” and

they are combined to get one response from the sample respondents which is “Disagree”.

“Neutral” was left as it is. The results are shown in Table 3. The information in Table 3 is

prepared by the Researchers through SPSS Output.21

Table 3. Benefits of E-Learning (N = 184).

Code Variables SD(1) D(2) Total(1 + 2) N(3) A(4) SA(5) Total(4 + 5)

BEL1 Flexibility in Time and Space 6% 8.2% 14.2% 24.5% 39.1% 22.2% 61.3%

BEL2 Ease and quick share of educational material 5.4% 4.9% 10.3% 16.3% 43.5% 29.9% 73.4%

BEL3 Improved collaboration and interactivity among students 9.8% 29.3% 39.1% 27.7% 21.7%
11.5% 33.2%

BEL4 Access to higher education for all applicants 8.7% 19% 27.7% 26.1% 27.7% 18.5% 46.2%

BEL5 Possibility of working with e-learning 6.5% 10.9% 17.4% 23.4% 37% 22.2% 59.2%

BEL6 Accommodates different types of learning styles 4.9% 10.9% 15.8% 28.8% 41.8% 13.6%
55.4%

BEL7 Quick feedback 4.8% 11.4% 16.2% 28.3% 34.8% 20.7% 55.5%

BEL8 Wide and diverse interactions 5.4% 14.7% 20.1% 26.1% 39.1% 14.7% 53.8%
BEL9 Access study resources effectively 7.1% 10.3% 17.4% 21.2% 38.6% 22.8% 61.4%

BEL10 Updated learning material 4.3% 6.5% 10.8% 20.7% 43.5% 25% 68.5%

The analysis of Table 3 depicts that the highest response rate was 73.4% with regard

to “Ease and Quick Share of Educational Material”. It reveals that through the medium

of e-learning, instructor and learner can easily and quickly share the educational material

with each other, while only 10.3% of the sample respondents opined that e-learning system

is not helpful in sharing the-learning material, pedagogical material, instructional material

etc. The second highest positive response rate was 68.5% with regard to “Updated Learning

Material”.

However, 10.8% of the students are of the opinion that updated material in webbased learning
is not supportive in designing the new curriculum and teaching strategies,
while 17.4% of the students have opined that they are unable to get the study resources

through web-based learning system. In terms of “Access Study Resources Effectively” the

results show that 61.4% of students have indicated this factor as a positive one. Thus, it can

be concluded that with the help of e-learning system students can get easily the various

study resources. It is needless to mention here is that as per international recognition, it is

desirable to have updated learning course material at online platform. In case of variable

“Flexibility in Time and Space” the positive response rate was 61.3%. This shows that for

majority of students, e-learning has emerged as a convenient option when matter comes to

flexibility of time and geographical space. Flexible-learning can be understood as learning

mode where teaching-learning are independent of any geographical location, time or pace.
The positive rate of response received on the factor —“Possibility of Working with

E-learning” is 59.2%. This shows majority of the students have capability to leverage the
elearning platform as they find it user friendly. The efficient learning management system is

the one that has various tools embedded in it to make it accommodative and manageable for

e-learning course [32,33]. This implies that not all e-learning platforms are not open source

due to limited embedded applications and security reasons. Also, from Table 3, variable

—“quick feedback” has received 55.5% of positive response. Particularly in the context

of e-learning quick feedback is important as timely and quick responses make students

more involved in discussion fora and hence catalyse the e-learning process. The variable

“accommodates different types of learning style”; received 55.4% of positive responses

which indicates that majority of students appreciate the accommodative nature of e-learning
platform for various learning styles. This finding aligns itself with the past studies that

affirms possibility of e-learning to accommodate different learning contents [34].

For the variable “wide and diverse interactions”, 53.8% positive responses are received.

This indicates that over half of the total respondents are comfortable with the-learning

at online platform; though they are away with physical interaction. Also, they are well26

aware of the fact that cultural diversification groups are meeting online and interacting

during the-learning process. The variable “Access to Higher Education for all Applicants”

received 46.2% of positive responses which indicates that a little less than half of the

respondents believe in the increment of the opportunities for students to get enrolled in

higher education system through online mode. Because of overcoming the limitation of
geographical proximity, e-learning has been as great enabler of access to higher education

and hence providing more opportunities to learners [35,36]. E-learning enables working

people to get enrolled and study along with their job. E-learning has been responsible for

much of such enrolments and increasing the literacy rate of the citizens [37,38].

The least positive response rate was 33.2% with regard to “Improved Collaboration

and Interactivity among Students”. Collaboration is much important in contemporary

scenario and has been a relevant subject for researchers due to its inherent nature of
knowledge sharing. The responses so received however are mixed with the degree of
agreement,

disagreement and being neutral. It indicates that there is much need to understand the

importance of collaboration for the sake of knowledge sharing.

4.4. Students’ Perceptions of E-Learning

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is used for the verification whether all the measured
variables are clearly explaining their respective latent construct or not. To analyze

the students’ perceptions of e-learning system, several sub-constructs with their respective

measured variables have been included in the latent construct namely “Perception of Students
towards E-learning” [39]. The CFA measurement model for the same latent construct

depicting how each measure variable is correlated with its assumed theoretical construct is

presented in Figure 1 that is prepared by the Researchers through AMOS Software.

28Figure 1. CFA Measurement Model for “Students’ Perceptions of E-learning”.

Figure 1 discerns that the major latent variable i.e., “Perception of Students towards

E-learning (PSEL)” is measured by its four sub-constructs namely Perceived Usefulness

of E-learning (PUE), Perceived Self-Efficacy of Using E-learning (PSE), Perceived Ease of

Use of E-learning (PEE), and Behavioural Intention of Using E-learning (BIE). The first
sub-construct coded as PUE is measured through four statements (PUE1, PUE2, PUE3,29

and PUE4) which is represented by rectangles as the convention followed for observed

variables. The second sub-construct namely “Perceived Self-Efficacy of Using E-learning” is

measured through three statements coded as PSE5, PSE6, and PSE7. Similarly, the variable

namely “Perceived Ease of Use of E-learning” and “Behavioural Intention of Using Elearning”
are measured by four statements coded as PEE8, PEE9, PEE10, PEE11 and

BIE12, BIE13 and BIE14 respectively. The small circles with arrows show residual terms,

which represents how much variation in the endogenous variable is unexplained by the

exogenous variable. Factor loading for given item is mentioned in the proximity of pointing

arrow drawn and multiple correlations are mentioned above each response item of manifest

variable. To solve the problem of redundancy between items and improving the results
of model fit indices, three redundant items (i.e., e5↔e6, e5↔e7, and e10↔e11) were

constrained as “free parameter” in the measurement model. Tables 4–6 depict the analysis

summary of the aforesaid model provided by AMOS 24.

Table 4 shows that Chi-square p-value is 0.135 (more than 5%) and CMIN/DF value

is 2.041 (less than 3) which reveals that data is suitable for the model fit. The model also

generated other indices of goodness i.e., GFI = 0.910, AGFI = 0.849, CFI = 0.967, NFI = 0.937

all of which exceed their threshold limits depicting that this is a well-fitted model and two

indices of badness i.e., RMSEA = 0.020 (less than 0.10) and SRMR = 0.022 (less than 0.09)

reveal that the data fits the model well because lower RMSEA and SRMR value indicates

better fit. Thus, it reveals that the aforesaid CFA measurement model is a well-fitted model.
Table 5 reveals that all the manifest variables related to their respective latent construct
depicted in Figure 1 are statistically significant since their p-values are less than 5%

significance level. It further explains that convergent validity of the above discussed CFA

measurement model is also achieved since each measured variable or manifest variable

or observed variable is strongly correlated with its assumed theoretical construct with the

standardized regression weights of more than 0.4 [40].

Table 4. CFA Model-Fit Summary.

Name of Category Model Threshold Limits Values

Fit Indices Attained

Absolute Fit Indices

χ
2 p-value > 0.05 0.134

RMSEA <0.05 good fit; 0.05-0.10 mediocre fit; 0.020 and if >0.10 bad fit

SRMR <0.09 0.022

GFI >0.90 0.910

Incremental Fit Indices

AGFI >0.80 0.849

CFI >0.95 great; >0.90 traditional; and if 0.967 >0.80 sometimes permissible

TLI >0.90 0.957

NFI >0.90 0.937

Parsimonious Fit CMIN/DF <3 good; and if <5 sometimes permissible 2.04132

Table 5. Path Analysis.

Path Std. Variance Explained Critical Ratio p-Value Regression Coefficients

PSEL → PUE 0.904 0.817 9.875 <0.001

PSEL → PSE 0.878 0.771 11.959 <0.001

PSEL → PEE 0.991 0.982 10.321 <0.001

PSEL → BIE 0.937 0.878 12.091 <0.001

PUE → PUE1 0.739 0.546 9.479 <0.001

PUE → PUE2 0.749 0.561 9.860 <0.001

PUE → PUE3 0.752 0.565 9.893 <0.001

PUE → PUE4 0.782 0.612 10.309 <0.001

PSE → PSE1 0.902 0.813 10.572 <0.001

PSE → PSE2 0.852 0.727 18.679 <0.001

PSE → PSE3 0.934 0.872 15.708 <0.001

PEE → PEE1 0.809 0.655 12.245 <0.001

PEE → PEE2 0.869 0.755 13.989 <0.001

PEE → PEE3 0.810 0.656 12.620 <0.001

PEE → PEE4 0.819 0.670 12.821 <0.001

BIE → BIE1 0.848 0.719 13.338 <0.001

BIE → BIE2 0.889 0.790 15.527 <0.001

BIE → BIE3 0.825 0.681 13.757 <0.001

Table 6. Validity and Reliability Results.

Construct Composite Reliability (CR) Average Variance Extracted (AVE)

PUE 0.839 0.573

PSE 0.924 0.803

PEE 0.896 0.683

BIE 0.891 0.730

As per the validity and reliability analysis (Table 6), the Composite Reliability (CR)

of each latent construct is more than the acceptable limit of 0.70. It reveals that there is a

strong internal consistency in the scale items. On the other hand, the Average Variance

Extracted (AVE) of each latent construct exceeds the threshold limit of 0.5. It affirms that

the above discussed CFA measurement model has strong convergent validity. This part
of the questionnaire aims at fetching the information regarding students’ perception for

e-learning through Likert scale (“Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”). The broad

headings contain usefulness, self-efficacy, ease of use and behavioural intention of using of

e-learning platforms. The study looks at the perception of students as it is indispensable for

designing, development and to deliver course teaching online which is based on learners’

perception and need. “Strongly Agree” & “Agree” are clubbed together to form one

positive response i.e., Agree and “Strongly Disagree” and “Disagree” were also combined

to get one response from the sample respondents which is “Disagree”. “Neutral” was left

as it is. The results are shown in Table 7.

The respondents have indicated their perceptions and their own capability to make
use of e-learning platform. The responses so received show that 56.5% of the respondents

have confidence of using e-learning platform. Additionally, 60.3% of the respondents have37

shown confidence about operating the functions of e-learning and 61.4% indicate their

confidence for learning the online study content. Thus, most of the students are found to

be comfortable and confident with the use of learning systems. These results are aligned

with the finding [41] that shows that majority of the students who have positive perception

about e-learning are the ones who are frequent e-learners. The study intends to examine

the behavioural intention of e-learners with regard to using e-learning tools. The findings

listed in Table 7 shows that 79.9% of respondent students are using e-learning as an aid

of their learning; 85.3% of respondent students are using e-learning for updating their
subject knowledge and keep track of amendments if any; 86.9% of respondent students

are using e-learning as a free-learning tool. The major findings of the study illustrates

that behavioural intention of students regarding e-learning is encouraging and positive.

It is expected that students’ perception would impact their satisfaction positively through

interactive e-learning.

The researchers sought to determine the usefulness of the e-learning resources. It was

found that 58.7% of the respondents believed that studying through e-learning mode

provides the flexibility to study at the time convenient to the learner, whereas 22.3%
respondents preferred to remain neutral. Whereas, 73.4% of the respondents believed that

e-learning enables students to pursue their studies irrespective of geographical disparities

and facilitates exams and submission of assignments electronically. In the last variable,
68% of the respondents agreed that the effectiveness of communication indeed is possible
between instructor and learner without face-to-face interaction, while 20% remained

neutral.

As far as “Perceived Ease of Use of E-learning” is concerned, the study finds that 52.2%

of the students believe that e-learning platforms are user friendly, while 32.1% of the sample

respondents were neutral. 68% of the students have observed that through e-learning

system we can easily access the necessary information, while 19% of the sample respondents

were neutral and 13% of the students have opined that they are unable to explore the

necessary information through e-learning system. 50% of the sample respondents believed

that web-based learning system simplifies the-learning process for the students, while 25.5%

were neutral and 24.5% of the respondents were not in favor of this. In the last variable,
42.3% of the students have observed that the set-up of the e-learning service is compatible

with the way they learn. However, 33.2% of the students were undecided and 24.5% of the

sample respondents were disagreed with this feature of e-learning system40

5. Conclusions

The present study analyses the perception of university students towards e-learning

during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The study reveals the preferences of students for

e-learning as it provides them much freedom to connect with their teachers, fellow students

and engage with their study materials at the comfort and flexibility of space and time.

The easy access of study resources is found to be one of the major reasons for the students to

opt for e-learning. The study indicates that e-learning technology enables easy information

access leading to positive attitude formation of students towards it. This finding is based
on usefulness, self-efficacy, ease of use, and the behaviour of students as regards e-learning.

The study affirms the usefulness of e-learning such as ease of study from any geographical

location which is not possible in case of conventional face to face-learning. Furthermore,

the study illustrates the similar experience of being educated as done through the physical

classroom teaching as students perceive e-learning as analogous to face to face-learning.

However, unlike past research conducted by Abbasi et al. [42], this research study

indicated that in the recent past, e-learning has gained immense popularity in India as

students are found to be inclined towards online learning tools to interact with each

other and the educators as well. Furthermore, in the absence of face-to-face interaction,

digital technology has also been well accepted by the students for the purpose of learning.
Therefore, necessary measures should be adopted for improving the quality of E-learning

to help with better learning of students during the phase of Covid-19 pandemic.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, M.A.K. and V.; Resources, M.K.N., M.A.K. and M.T.;

Investigation, M.A.K. and M.K.; methodology, M.A.K., V. and M.K.N.; writing—original draft

preparation, V. and M.K.; writing—review and editing, M.T., V., M.K.N. and M.K.; supervision,

M.A.K. and M.K.N.; project administration, M.A.K. and V. All authors have read and agreed to
the

published version of the manuscript.

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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