a survey : possibilities of revamping education …

Pharmaceutical Resonance COVID - 19 Special Issue 2020

© Published by DYPIPSR, Pimpri, Pune - 411 018 ( MH ) INDIA 30

RESEEARCH ARTICLE

A SURVEY : POSSIBILITIES OF REVAMPING EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE STRETCHING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Kalyani Dhirendra Asgaonkar1, Shital Manoj Patil1, Tina Saldhana1, Atharva Sudhakar Kulkarni2*,

Kshitija Ghanasham Abhang2, Bhairavi Dhananjay Bakhle2 1 Faculty of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, AISSMS College of Pharmacy, Kennedy Road, Pune - 01 2 Student of Bachelor of pharmacy, AISSMS College of Pharmacy, Kennedy Road, Pune - 01

Atharva Sudhakar Kulkarni Student of Bachelor of pharmacy, AISSMS College of Pharmacy, Kennedy Road, Pune - 01 Contact : +91 86057 26910 eMail: [email protected]

Abstract : The wor ld has faced an unprecedented challenge when coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged as a pandemic. Worldwide lockdown has affected over 1.2 billion learners due to closure of schools and universities. Aim: To investigate encountered hurdles, adaptation challenges and future possibilities of revamping current traditional offline education system by conducting an online survey using Google Forms. Methodology: Students and teachers from AISSMS Institutes participated in the survey. Post- survey data generated in Google Sheets was analysed statistically for chi-square test to determine the influence of respondent’s occupation (teacher or student) on their opinion about survey questions. Result and Discussion: Over 81.1% teachers preferred teaching with the aid of digital materials like Google Classroom and 66.2% students wished to continue using online platforms during regular academic schedules but the biggest hurdle faced by both respondents was network and bandwidth issues (p = 0.192). Conclusion: Majority of respondents believe network and bandwidth issues to be the biggest obstacles in online education and inability to apply online education to practicals and others to follow. But more than half of the respondents believe that the education system has been successful to an acceptable extent in adapting online education. Most of the responses were influenced by the occupation of the participant (student/teacher) thus indicating that problems faced by teachers in this lockdown and their opinions on online education differed from students

Keyworkd : COVID-19, Pandemic, Education, Survey, Chi-Square Test.

1. Introduction :

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has been considered as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) [1]. The pandemic has struck the world like a thunderstorm with no prior weather report. While the global count of Covid-19 patients rises to 4.1 million (as per latest WHO report), the situation becomes riskier to handle [2]. The entire world is locked off to ensure protection, curbing the spread of infection. But this has been effective at a cost, taking a toll on all sectors ranging from economy to IT [3]. Similarly, education has been affected by this pandemic, as closure of schools and colleges has led to extreme societal repercussions [4]. According to UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation),

about 1.2 billion students worldwide have been affected due to school and university closures causing disruption in the academic semester, syllabus completion, examinations, and admission process [5]. But education must go on even in the lockdown and curfew conditions, wherein online learning has proven to be the solution and a recommended alternative [6]. The students and teachers all around the world are facing numerous challenges with this drastic shift in education system from traditional classroom teaching to online technology [7,8,9]. This may include the simplest problem of network connections to something as big as cancellation of examinations and delay of admission processes. The students of 12th grade and final year graduation are in a complicated situation considering the carry-over of competitive exams and career prospective. Additionally, the inability to conduct hands-on laboratory classes has adversely affected several courses, like the medical and para-medical streams [10]. But tough times only make us stronger and the students, teachers and universities have oriented themselves sufficiently to handle the crisis with the everlasting support of the Education Ministry [11,12]. The goal of this study is to acknowledge the



challenges posed by the pandemic specifically on the education system through the view of students and teachers. It also focuses on the metamorphism of the education system to tackle these challenges and the advantages of the webinar trend so formed.

2. Methodology :

2.1 Plan of study :

It was decided to conduct an online survey amongst the institutes of All India Shri Shivaji Memorial Society (AISSMS) including all the teaching staff and students [13]. The students and teachers of 10th and 12th grade were also included in the study leading to number of participants to 1,632 (1,442 students and 190 teachers). The survey was conducted during the pandemic lockdown (from 5 to 8 May 2020) by following all the rules of social distancing and without risking the lives of any participant. The planning and discussion amongst the team members was also done via online platforms like ZOOM, CISCO WebEx, and WhatsApp.

2.2 Survey design :

The questionnaire for the survey was designed using Google Forms after a thorough literature survey including research articles, blogs, news reports and official websites of national and international organisations. Two separate survey forms were developed for teachers and students each to ensure avoidance of incorrect data. Each form had 10 questions which were basically divided under two major titles of ‘Educational challenges’ and ‘Educational Adaptations’. After multiple revisions, the finalized draft of the survey form was created which was used for a trial wherein the survey was attempted by the team to understand and solve any technical or technological blunders. The trial was evaluated for results and necessary changes were made in the questions to avoid any future confusion.

2.3 Conduct of the survey :

The links of survey forms were communicated to the target participants via a social media platform (WhatsApp groups) and they were requested to fill and submit the forms. The incoming data was constantly inspected to avoid any technical issues. At the end of survey duration, the link to the form was sealed and the data was collected in Google Sheets and transferred to Microsoft (MS) Excel for further analysis [14].

2.4 Statistical analysis :

Statistical tests were applied to the data to infer the relationship between the survey and the participants involved; the chi-square test of independence was employed [15]. It allowed us to determine the influence of the respondent’s occupation (student or teacher) on

their opinion about the survey questions. The chi-square test was performed using online Social Science Statistics Chi-square Calculator at significance level <0.05 [16,17,18,19].

3. Result :

Figure 1. Preference of digital mater ials to aid teaching in the classroom of teachers (n = 190) and students (n = 1443).

Figure 2. Challenges in online education faced by teachers (n = 190) and students (n = 1443).

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5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1 2 3 4 5

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6.8

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33.7 33.2

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t re

spo

nse

s %

Likert scale (with 1: signifying least and 5: most)teachers students

Figure 3. Compar ison of opinions of teachers (n = 190) and students (n = 1443) about the extent to which the pandemic lockdown has affected the education system



Figure 4. Response of teachers on their opinions on problems during online teaching (n = 190).

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6.4

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t re

spo

nse

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Likert scale (with 1: signifying least and 5: most)teachers students

Figure 5. Compar ison of opinions of teachers (n = 190) and students (n = 1443) about the success of the educational adaptations during the pandemic

Figure 6. Compar ison of views of teachers (n = 190) and students (n = 1443) on possible future steps that can be taken by the government to make the educators and learners better prepared for such a crisis.

The sample size of the survey was 1633, with 1443 student participants and 190 teacher participants.

As the preferred medium used for teaching online, most of the teachers opted for internet classrooms (81.1%) compared to usage of educational apps and games (36.8% and 15.8% respectively). More teacher (80%) than student participants (66%) preferred using online educational videos in the classroom (p < 0.001) (Table 1). The case was the same for utilizing social networking sites as digital materials for aiding classrooms (53.2% and 35.8% teacher and student participants respectively) (Figure 1).

Both the sets of respondents, teachers as well as students agreed that network and bandwidth issues were the biggest challenge in the online education system (p = 0.192). From the rest of the challenges, a higher percentage of teacher (30.5%) than student participants (21.1%) felt that the training of educators to use online platforms for teaching has been inadequate (p = 0.003) (Figure 2).

4. Discussion :

The lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the lives of educators and learners. Most of the survey participants (66.9% students and 61% teachers) felt that the education system has been affected to a great extent (ranked >3 on a Likert scale from 1-5, with 1: signifying least and 5: most) (Figure 3). As we see a shift from classroom to online learning, the majority of teachers agreed that technology makes way for distractions, delays in assignment submissions and conduces cheating (Figure 4). The extent of success of the educational adaptations during the pandemic lockdown was met with a moderate response (43.2% and 44.1% teachers and students respectively opted for rank 3 on a Likert scale from 1-5, with 1:signifying least and 5: most) (Figure 5).

Practicing online teaching/exams in regular schedules after the lockdown as a step taken by the government to make students and teachers more prepared for such a crisis was elected by both sets of respondents, irrespective of their occupation (p = 0.102). However, a greater percentage of teacher (77.9%) than student (66.1%) participants felt that the government should provide training for usage of online educational platforms (p < 0.001). Provision of funds for higher availability of online resources was also opted by more teachers (64.7%) than students (53.5%) (p = 0.003) (Figure 6).

5. Conclusion :

It was clear from the results that majority of respondents believe network and bandwidth issues to be the biggest obstacles in online education and inability to apply online education to practicals and others to follow. But more than half of the respondents believe that the education system has been successful to an acceptable extent in adapting online education technology with the use of educational videos, webinar software and google classroom. More than half of the population involved in the survey believed that training of students and teachers in use of online education platforms, online teaching and examinations in regular schedules and appropriate funding and support from the government will pave off a way to handle such crisis in the future and build a hybrid of online and offline learning.



Sr. Statements (parameters assessed)

Agreed by the respondents

Total n=1633

Students n= 1443

Teachers n=190

P value

A Challenges in Education system

1 Network and bandwidth issues 1355 1191 164 0.192

2 Online learning cannot be applied to practical courses 881 764 117 0.024*

3 Ineffective student-teacher interaction 798 690 108 0.019*

4 Teachers are not trained on using online technology 362 304 58 0.003*

B Digital materials preferred in classroom

5 Online educational videos 1104 952 152 <0.001*

6 Internet classrooms like Google classrooms 1015 861 154 <0.001*

7 Webinar software like Zoom, WebEx, etc. 743 619 124 <0.001*

8 Educational apps 668 598 70 0.225

9 Social networking sites like WhatsApp 618 517 101 <0.001*

C Future steps by government for preparedness in such crisis

10 Training teachers and students on use of online educational platforms

1096 948 148 <0.001*

11 Practice online teaching /exams in regular schedules 1092 955 137 0.102

12 Provide funding to afford online resources for education

895 772 123 0.003*

Using Chi-Square test, *Significant at <.05 significance level

Most of the responses were influenced by the occupation of the participant (student/teacher) thus indicating that problems faced by teachers in this lockdown and their opinions on online education differed from students.

Acknowledgement :

We are thankful to Dr. A. R. Madgulkar, Principal, AISSMS College of Pharmacy, Pune, India for everlasting support and motivation.

References :

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[2] WHO report. Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic. Available at: https://www.who.int/ emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019. Accessed May 13, 2020.

Table 1. Assessment of study par ticipants to test the independence of selection of a parameter based on

their occupation- teacher (n = 190) or student (n = 1443).

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[6] Mustafa, Nasir. Impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on education. International Journal of Health Preferences Research 2020. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.27946.



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[11] Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Available at : https:// seshagun.gov.in. Accessed May 12, 2020

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