This study aimed to develop an online structured questionnaire to address the need for an instrument measuring the impact of quarantine practices on students' skills and beliefs about online learning that they received during the pandemic. To the best of our knowledge, no published study assessing the self-regulatory learning skills and beliefs of students enrolled in online course during quarantine among Greek students is available. The transition from traditional to online courses was the result of the nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19. In Greece, all schools’ and academic institutions’ closure was announced on March 10th of 2020 [14] and the Greek educational system was abruptly confronted to online education The majority of the Greek students, lacking relevant previous experience, were unprepared and this was expected to have an impact on their adjustment to online courses. This research aimed to explore the impact of quarantine practices on students' life, and students' skills and beliefs about the online learning that they received during the pandemic using an online structured questionnaire. Our study provides evidence toward the reliability and validity of the instrument. The Cronbach’s alpha of the instrument was 0.934 indicating adequate internal consistency and an acceptable measure of self-regulation in the online learning environment as well. Nunnally [15] has suggested that score reliability of 0.70 or better is acceptable when used in basic social science research such as in this study. When examining the internal consistency of scores by each subscale (factor), values for Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.858 to 0.927 revealing sufficient score reliability on the subscale level.
One distinguishing characteristic of online learning is the autonomy students experience in the learning environment. As such, online instruction eliminates the limitations of place, time, and physical materials and to a great degree gives students the control over when, what, and how to study [16]. As the online learning environment is characterized with autonomy, self-regulation skills and beliefs become a critical factor for success in online learning [17–20]. Students lacking self-regulatory beliefs about online learning and acquisition of learning skills may misconstrue the autonomy of the online learning environment and, as a result, may not accomplish learning tasks they are expected in online courses. However, the role of self-regulatory skills in the online learning environment during quarantine or other kind of distance education, should receive the appropriate attention as it does in the traditional face-to-face learning environment.
This study highlights the positive and negative points that emerged but also the attitude of students towards online learning, attempting to develop a questionnaire that predicts achievement success in online learning. There are several major findings. The first one is that the original literature-based dimensions of online learning were validated through factor analysis of the 15 items of the questionnaire. This does not say, of course, that these are the only dimensions that might be identified. Two predominant factors were identified: Factor 1 comprised items related to “self-regulatory beliefs about online learning”; Factor 2 comprised items related to “acquisition of learning skills.”
The second major finding is that males reported a greater comfort with basic “skills” than females. With regards to the use of the internet or online learning facilities among university students, gender difference has been viewed as a major concern for researchers interested in students’ abilities and attitudes toward the computer or web-based learning itself [21–23]. Hong [24] had also found gender as one of the critical factors that affects learners’ satisfaction on the internet. On the other hand, there are numerous studies that indicated few or no gender differences for students’ attitudes toward internet or web-based learning [21]. Specifically, Yukselturk and Bulut [25] have shown that there was no statistically significant mean difference among motivational beliefs, self-regulated learning and achievement with respect to gender. Although Yang, et al [22] found an interesting pattern emerging in relation to gender differences in students’ effort, it is still left to be proven if this gender difference is consistent across course delivery formats. Gender difference was also found in the students’ confidence about computers and stereotypical views of computer users [21. Through the above research, it can be seen that gender difference is a worthwhile factor that needs to be considered when discussing the students’ online experience.
The third finding indicates that participants aged > 21 years old reported having more confidence in prerequisite “skills” and had more positive “beliefs” about online learning than younger participants, suggesting that older students had better adjustment to online courses. Consistent evidence from university samples has shown that older students have more confidence than younger ones in computer proficiency and learning skills[26]. In addition, age has already been shown to predict students’ need to have support in online education process [27, 28].
Similarly to previous reports documenting that ethnicity influences students' perceptions of online learning [23, 29], our results suggest that participants with non-Greek nationality reported having less confidence in prerequisite “skills” than Greeks. Previous research identified culturally related differences in students’ online learning experiences. The cultural norms related to students’ ethnic groups could explain differences between online learning practices [30, 31, 32].
Interestingly, our findings indicated that students who were very satisfied with their living conditions during quarantine had higher scores in “skills” and “beliefs than those who were moderately satisfied while those who reported a little or not at all satisfied had lower scores in both factors than those who were moderately satisfied. Additionally, students whose decision concerning their place of residence was influenced by health reasons related to the pandemic and financial reasons had more positive “beliefs” about online learning compared to students who had chosen their place of residence influenced by educational/academic reasons. Finally, participants who were studying general sciences were found to have more positive “beliefs” about online learning than those who were studying health sciences. All above findings are, indeed, a puzzling outcome of this study which warrants further research attention.
Our study was conducted in two Universities in Greece and included a sizable number of students of all academic years. In addition, it is one of the few studies that evaluated and used an online learning instrument in order to assess students' self-regulation skills and beliefs about online learning experience during pandemic and also investigated demographic characteristics associated with them. Furthermore, due to the anonymity of self-reporting data, selection and reporting biases are substantially limited.
Nevertheless, the present research has certain limitations. Firstly, the participants were mainly students from urban areas of Greece; and since it was an online survey, certain age (elderly) or educational groups as well as geographical areas such as rural, may be underrepresented. Furthermore, our study sample consisted of a high number of students residing in Athens. However, since there are no major differences in socio-demographic characteristics between the urban population in other Greek cities (which accounts for nearly 80% of the total country population) our results could be representative of the whole country. Another limitation of the current study is the use of a convenience sample which does not allow findings’ generalization.
In conclusion, our study provides important new information in respect of the students’ self-regulation skills and beliefs towards online education during the quarantine. Currently, online courses are expanding beyond the traditional face-to-face educational environment while becoming more and more incorporated into academic institutions interested in enhancing the participants’ academic skill level and abilities. We expect that the outcomes of our study will help decision-makers understand students' attitudes and motivation toward online learning and how this will affect their plans and decisions. Under these circumstances, students’ perceptions of online courses could be a crucial predictor of the ultimate effectiveness of online learning and could thus have implications on improving ongoing online courses.