An Exploration on Online Learning Challenges in Malaysian Higher Education: The Post COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak

Flexible online programmes and learning are gaining popularity as a means of educating students. It can also facilitate the delivery of knowledge to pupils, as well as facilitating the learning process. The purpose of this study was to investigate Online Learning Challenges following the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in Malaysia. This study employs the qualitative and Fuzzy Delphi Method in collecting the data. In the qualitative research phase, open-ended questions were distributed to 118 participants, while in the Fuzzy Delphi phase, expert questionnaires were distributed to 7 experts in the field of study. Qualitative data were analysed using Atlas-ti software, whereas Fuzzy Delphi data was analysed using Fudelo 1.0 software. The qualitative study discovered that students confront seven significant challenges: internet coverage, mental fatigue, learning devices, environmental disturbance, pedagogical challenges, lack of motivation, and social interaction.Meanwhile, the fuzzy Delphi analysis of the expert consensus of the theme is at a reasonable level. The overall expert consensus agreement findings exceed 75%, the overall value of the threshold (d) is 0.2, and the -cut exceeds 0.5. The study provides important insights into online learning issues and the fields for further improvement. This study also discusses the avenue for future research by future researchers for more significant benefits and contributions to knowledge in general.

@article{Mustapha2021,
  title     = {An Exploration on Online Learning Challenges in Malaysian Higher Education: The Post COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {12},
  number    = {7},
  year      = {2021},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Ramlan Mustapha and Maziah Mahmud and Norhapizah Mohd Burhan and Hapini Awang and Ponmalar Buddatti Sannagy and Mohd Fairuz Jafar},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2021.0120744},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2021.0120744}
}