research paper on attitude of students towards e learning

• Research article
• Open access
• Published: 11 March 2021

Attitudes and awareness of regional Pacific Island students towards e-learning

• Joel B. Johnson   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9172-8587 1 ,
• Pritika Reddy 2 ,
• Ronil Chand 2 &
• Mani Naiker 1  

International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education volume  18 , Article number:  13 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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The rise of online modes of content delivery, termed e-learning, has increased student convenience and provided geographically remote students with more options for tertiary education. However, its efficacy relies upon student access to suitable technology and the internet, and the quality of the online course material. With the COVID-19 outbreak, education providers worldwide were forced to turn to e-learning to retain their student base and allow them to continue learning through the pandemic. However, in geographically remote, developing nations, many students may not have access to suitable technology or internet connections. Hence it is important to understand the potential of e-learning to maintain equitable access to education in such situations. This study found the majority (88%) of commencing students at the University of the South Pacific owned at least one ICT device and had access to the internet. Similarly, most students had adequate to strong ICT skills and a positive attitude toward e-learning. These attitudes among the student cohort, in conjunction with the previous experience of The University of the South Pacific in distance education, are likely to have contributed to its relatively successful transition from face-to-face to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction

The use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) to deliver educational content and learning support now forms a widespread and accepted norm of many institutes in the higher education sector across the world (Latchem, 2017 ; Sharma et al., 2020 ; Wu, 2016 ). Its growing leverage in developing countries is assisting in bringing the quality, sustainability, accessibility and delivery of education on par with those of the developing countries. The ICT based innovations and tools from the higher education institutes in the developing countries have shown promising and significantly positive results (Reddy et al., 2016 , 2020c ; Sharma & Reddy, 2015 ; Sharma et al., 2019a , 2020 , 2018b ).

Indeed, ICT is now an integral part of most institutes rather than supporting tools (Bhuasiri et al., 2012 ; Irfan et al., 2018 ). The use of e-learning is of particular importance for reaching students in geographically remote locations and improving the equity towards the delivery of education systems (Graham, 2019 ). However, certain barriers remain towards the use of ICT and e-learning as tools for enhancing educational equity (Lim et al., 2020 ; Yang et al., 2018 ). Firstly, some students in remote locations or those living in low socio-economic status (SES) situations may not have access to the appropriate technology or resources required to successfully participate and engage in the e-learning process (Yang et al., 2018 ). For instance, students may not be able to afford equipment such as laptops or desktop computers, or be able to afford internet access plans with sufficient bandwidth and data allowance for video streaming or other data-heavy applications (Chillemi et al., 2020 ). This is more prominent in developing countries such as those in the Pacific region (Reddy et al., 2017 , 2019 , 2020a , 2020b ; Sharma et al., 2018a , 2018b ). Hence in many of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs), government initiatives have been implemented to provide school students with laptops and tablets in order to allow them to access online resources and obtain assistance with their schoolwork (Reddy et al., 2016 , 2017 , 2020b , 2020c ). Similarly, students may only have limited access options for accessing the internet (e.g. through a mobile phone network) (Huang et al., 2017 ), especially in more remote locations (Beinicke & Bipp, 2018 ; Milakovich & Wise, 2019 ), or may be restricted to accessing the internet in certain locations such as local remote campuses and/or education centres, such as in Samoa and Tonga (Reddy et al., 2017 ; Sharma et al., 2019a , 2020 ).

In addition, studies have reported a "digital divide" among students of different socio-economic classes, with primary and secondary students from a low SES background typically having poorer ICT literacy (Scherer & Siddiq, 2019 ), albeit to a lesser degree compared to other domains such as reading and mathematics. It is important to note that this divide is due to differences in their literacy (i.e. familiarity and capability) with ICT devices, not their access to ICT devices per se (Cotten et al., 2014 ). However, in many instances, their lower ICT literacy would likely result from restricted access to e-technology at home or in rural schools in developing countries. Previous surveys show that over 50% of the population in the South Pacific now has access to the internet as a result of improved network infrastructure and the reduced cost of ICT devices (Reddy et al., 2017 ). However, these studies also highlight the variation in device ownership amongst the student population as a result of the financial, social and cultural challenges that exist in the PICs (Raturi, 2018 ; Reddy et al., 2019 ; Sharma et al., 2019a , 2020 , 2019b ). Education institutes and governments across the PICs have attempted to assist the students facing such challenges through interventions such as the provision of one free laptop or tablet per child, and equipping schools with adequate internet connections and computing devices (Sharma et al., 2020 , 2019b ). Similarly, the SchoolNet Project in Samoa and Tonga was funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and implemented by the government to enhance learning outcomes for secondary students and improve knowledge sharing through equitable ICT access (ADB, 2019 ). Nevertheless, despite such assistance from a number of stakeholders, digital literacy in the PICs remains a challenge. One recent study at a regional university in the South Pacific found 73% of the freshmen to have high to very high digital literacy competencies (Reddy et al., 2020d ); whereas another study conducted on high school students in Fiji found 61% to have very low to average competency in digital media literacy. Students will only continue to use digital technology if they have a positive attitude and perception towards technology-enabled learning (Reddy et al., 2020a , 2020d ). In turn, the students will only have a positive attitude towards technology-enabled learning if they possess the competencies needed to use the technology in question (Reddy et al., 2020a ). Hence the advocacy of digital literacy in the PICs has just begun.

However, challenges remain worldwide with the use of e-learning. Students who participate in e-learning may not necessarily receive the same educational benefits as those who enrol in face-to-face classes. It is typically more difficult and time-consuming to ask the lecturer a question through an online forum than in a face-to-face lecture or tutorial situation (Heirdsfield et al., 2011 ). Conversely, it may be more difficult for the educator to explain more complex topics online, where it is more difficult to capture non-verbal aspects used in teaching, such as fine hand gestures or annotations on a whiteboard (Arasaratnam-Smith & Northcote 2017 ; Phirangee & Hewitt, 2016 ). Additionally, a lack of real-time feedback from the students makes it more difficult for the lecturer to tailor their lecture content to suit the class's overall learning style. In other words, most lecturers must significantly transform their teaching style from that which they use in face-to-face classes in order to deliver the content in an online format effectively (Kebritchi et al., 2017 ). Similarly, another issue for content providers is the increased difficulty in designing effective online activities and assessments (Kebritchi et al., 2017 ). This can result in lower student engagement and interaction, combined with an increased chance of online cheating (Olt, 2002 ). From the perspective of both lecturers and students, it is often more of a challenge to build good verbal and non-written communication skills in an online format (Lalande, 1995 ), which are typical graduate attributes sought after by prospective employers. Overall, the failure of educators to meet these challenges may result in a poorer learning experience for their online cohort of students, which in turn has implications for student achievement and student loyalty to their education provider (Pham et al., 2019 ).

Some subjects, such as introductory chemistry units, include teaching certain practical skills to students in order to prepare them for future, more advanced units (Chandra & Sharma, 2018 ; Naiker et al., 2013 ; Naiker & Wakeling, 2015 ; Wakeling et al., 2014 ). This is typically delivered as a compulsory "residential" or "practicum" block for online/distance students, typically ranging from several days to a week in length, rather than the short, weekly lab sessions typically used with on-campus students. However, in many subjects which do not contain a compulsory practical component, gaining hands-on practical experience may still be quite useful for students to solidify their theoretical knowledge and gain greater insight into the practical implications of what they have learnt. For example, this situation is valid for computer programming courses. Such benefits are not available to students studying solely online.

However, online learning is not without its benefits (Chandra & Sharma, 2018 ). In many instances, it provides the students with greatly increased flexibility, allowing them to learn wherever and whenever they want (Hollenbeck et al., 2005 ; Kilburn et al., 2014 ). There are considerable benefits associated with self-paced (Bhuasiri et al., 2012 ), self-directed and personalised learning. In addition to the increased equitable access to education afforded by online learning (Graham, 2019 ), students can replay lectures to solidify their knowledge of the content, and benefit from online peer feedback (van Popta et al., 2017 ) and peer mentoring (Fayram et al., 2018 ). Moreover, there are increasing volumes of high-quality resources, including OERs (open educational resources), available for students undertaking e-learning, even if their host institution does not necessarily provide these resources. Other ventures such as MOOCs (massive open online courses) and diagnostic tools, such as the Online Mathematics Diagnostic Tool (Sharma et al., 2019a , 2020 ) can also increase educational equity for students unable to attend prestigious universities (Gardner & Brooks, 2018 ; Littlejohn et al., 2016 ).

Literature review

The innovations in information and communication technology (ICT) and its integration into the education sector has massively impacted the education process, particularly in higher education. New learning methods such as web-based or Internet-based delivery modes have evolved into a broad range of learning modes, including e-learning, m-learning (mobile learning), tablet-learning and flipped classrooms (Ansong-Gyimah, 2020 ; Reddy et al., 2020b ). In the recent years, e-learning has become one of the most trending learning methods in academia (Bhuvaneswari & Dharanipriya, 2020 ). E-learning has been defined as the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education which continues to evolve to meet the needs and demands of the students (Bhuvaneswari & Dharanipriya, 2020 ), E-learning involves the use of technology and web platform to create a two-way platform for communication and discussion between students and teachers, where student-to-student discussions enhance social learning, and teachers provide a scaffolded learning experience for students via timely feedback (Layali & Al-Shlowiy, 2020 ), E-learning encompasses a broad set of applications and processes such as computer-assisted learning, web-based training, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration (Kashive et al., 2020 ). is the reason for its popularity results from numerous associated advantages, including (Kashive et al., 2020 ; Layali & Al-Shlowiy, 2020 ; Raturi, 2018 ; Reddy et al., 2020b ):

No limitation of pace and time. Students can access the content and learn at their own speed and time

Promotion of active learning, as students take the lead role in the learning process

Promotion of student-centred, self-directed, interactive, flexible learning

Students are exposed to the use of versatile education tools

Although e-learning comes with a lot of advantages, there are many barriers that the higher education institutes face in the successful facilitation and delivery of e-learning including the network infrastructure, lack of students’ computer competencies, students’ efficacy in using technology for learning, and the potential for miscommunication between students and facilitators (Layali & Al-Shlowiy, 2020 ; Mousavi et al., 2020 ; Rafiq et al., 2020 ). Researchers have also highlighted that since e-learning is closely linked to technology, and because students must use these communication tools for learning, their competency and efficacy in the use of such technology is extremely important (Arshavskiy, 2017 ; Henderson et al., 2017 ; Sakarji et al., 2019 ). Kashive et al. ( 2020 ) and Rafiq et al., ( 2020 ) note that positive perceptions and attitudes of students toward technology is a strong determinant factor in a successful e-learning system. In the context of this study, student “attitude” can be defined as the “knowledge, feeling and action of an individual towards learning with technology or e-learning. Bhuvaneswari and Dharanipriya ( 2020 ) propose that attitude indicates the degree of potential adaptation to technology, and hence a favourable attitude to e-learning would mean that students would be more likely to accept online learning systems. Similarly, in the present study the term “perception” refers to how an individual feel about the use of technology for learning. Previous researchers have proposed that if students perceive that e-learning is useful and helpful to their studies, they will be more likely to accept it (Dospinescu & Dospinescu, 2020 ; Mahajan, 2020 ; Sakarji et al., 2019 ).

Due to the challenges of student acceptance, digital competency and technological acceptance, it could seem at face value that the learning outcomes of students participating solely in online education could be poorer than those engaging in face-to-face learning. However, the jury appears to still be out on whether there are statistically significant differences between the outcomes between these two modes of content delivery. Beinicke and Bipp ( 2018 ) reported that across the entire course content, e-learning was just as effective as in-person learning for procedural knowledge and more effective than in-person learning for declarative knowledge. Baxley ( 2018 ) argued for a more integrative approach, suggesting that online learning can successfully be used to augment face-to-face teaching methods and improve cohort achievement. However, most studies on the quality of e-learning services have been conducted in developed countries (Dursun et al., 2014 ; Machado-Da-Silva et al., 2014 ; Martínez-Argüelles et al., 2013 ) and it is unclear if the same underlying factors and trends would be similar in developing nations (Pham et al., 2019 ).

The South Pacific countries are one such group of developing nations, currently undergoing a technological revolution in order to meet the growing digital demands of the populace (Reddy et al., 2016 , 2020a , 2020c ; Sharma et al., 2019a ). Many higher education institutes in the South Pacific have transited to technology enabled learning to make the learning processes more effective and to meet the demands from the students. However, the phenomena of e-learning in the South Pacific is still developing and there are relatively few studies explored student attitudes and perceptions toward the use of technology, with most studies focused on technology and student acceptance (Raturi, 2018 ; Reddy et al., 2020b ; Sharma & Reddy, 2015 ; Sharma et al., 2020 , 2019b ).

Both the potential and challenges of e-learning were recently highlighted by the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. As a result, education providers worldwide were forced to turn to e-learning and emergency remote teaching within extremely short timespans. For universities with a traditionally predominant face-to-face delivery mode, this has resulted in many challenges as they scramble to transfer their unit content online (Miltiadous et al., 2020 ). Nevertheless, with forced campus closures due to local governmental policies, e-learning and to some extent, m-learning (mobile learning) are the only means left for universities to retain their student base and ensure they can continue learning throughout the pandemic. Universities in more regional areas and in developing nations have also been hit hard. In these situations, a considerable number of students may not have access to suitable ICT and/or internet access at their home location, so risk falling behind their peers when attempting the switch to e-learning. Universities that have a long history of online education, such as CQUniversity and Charles Sturt University in Australia, and the University of the South Pacific in the Pacific region, are considerably better off in this regard compared to many of the well-established "sandstone" universities, as the transition from "mostly online" to "fully online" is considerably easier to achieve. Furthermore, their student base is also likely to be better prepared in terms of organising access to suitable technology and internet access, as even the face-to-face units offered by such universities typically have a considerable online component/presence associated with the unit (CQUniversity, 2020 ; Rapanta et al., 2020 ).

Since the beginning of the pandemic, many studies have been published documenting university students' readiness towards e-learning and/or learning from home across the globe (Ali, 2020 ; Chung et al., 2020 ; Leacock & Warrican, 2020 ; Naji et al., 2020 ). However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no published data available on students' e-preparedness from the South Pacific region. Hence, the present study aims to provide insight into the preparedness of first-year students enrolled at the University of the South Pacific towards e-learning in the COVID-19 pandemic context. The University of the South Pacific (USP) occupies a unique status as one of three regional universities in the world, being owned by its 12 member countries: Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. With a student roll of about 30,000, USP has 14 campuses and 10 study centres spread over an area of 30 million square kilometres, with at least one campus hosted in each member country. The campuses vary in size and student populations, as well as the available support services and facilities, and modality of delivery. The main campus of USP is located in Fiji, which hosts the university's administrative, academic and commercial operations (Sharma & Reddy, 2015 ; Sharma et al., 2018a , 2019a ). The university offers flexible and distance learning programmes delivered through a variety of modes and technologies, although the majority of students are enrolled in face-to-face programmes. While the university is committed to delivering quality education and adequate learning support to students across its member countries, many students have somewhat limited access to computers and broadband internet, making the shift to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic quite a challenge.

The current study aims to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of USP students towards e-learning, their ICT and information literacy competencies, their self-efficacy and their confidence in using technology for learning. It is envisaged that our findings will be useful not only for education providers in the oceanic region but also for regional governments and other education stakeholders in developing nations more globally. Specifically, we aim to address the following research questions:

What is the current status of ICT (technological) literacy for the South Pacific students?

What is the current status of information literacy for the South Pacific students?

How frequently do students participate in various ICT activities?

How confident are students in using ICT products?

What are current student attitudes and perceptions toward the use of computers?

This study uses data collected as part of a PhD study on eLearning and digital literacy by one of the authors (PR). Research and ethics approval was provided by the USP research office. The survey instrument used in this study was a unipolar Likert scale 1–5 questionnaire administered to the students using Google Forms. A copy of the survey instrument is provided in the Additional file 1 . The questions were designed to gain an overview of the e-learning resources available to the students (e.g. type of electronic devices available; type of internet connection), the preparedness of students toward e-learning (e.g. length of time they have been using computers for, amount of time spent on the internet per day, level of ICT troubleshooting skills) and student perceptions or thoughts toward the use of ICT and e-learning. We refer to these aspects as "ICT resources", "ICT literacy" and "ICT perceptions" throughout this paper.

Our study population was first-year undergraduate students enrolled at the University of the South Pacific. Students were surveyed in February 2020 prior to the commencement of their first year of university study. All commencing students at the University of the South Pacific were invited to complete the survey and were given a window of approximately three weeks in which to do so. A total of 313 students opted to provide informed consent and complete the survey. At the closing time of the survey (24 February), there were approximately 83,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, with less than 5000 cases outside of China (World Health Organization, 2020 ). There were no known cases of COVID-19 in any Pacific Island country or territory at this point, with the first case reported in French Polynesia around 17 days later (Craig et al., 2020 ). Hence we consider it unlikely that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the student responses in this survey, thus providing an accurate insight into the e-preparedness of first-year students who were predominantly expecting to study face-to-face in the upcoming semester.

In general, the response of USP in moving its teaching and learning online was not a major issue following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many courses offered by the university were already facilitated online for distance students. However, emergency remote teaching was a challenge for the university due to the persisting issues including network infrastructure and student access to suitable e-devices and the internet. The unit facilitators encountered many challenges during emergency remote teaching, including the design of assessments and exams to minimise the potential for online teaching, monitoring students' progress, and adjusting assessment due dates to accommodate students whose study had been disrupted as a result of difficulty accessing the internet or other external factors.

The questions that involved a quantizable response (e.g. "how often do you perform the following activities", "how important are the following", "rate yourself on these skills", or "how much do you agree with these statements") were numerically coded in a similar fashion to a Likert scale, ranging from 1 (never/not important at all/no capability/strongly disagree) to 5 (frequently/very important/excellent/strongly agree). Statistical analyses were performed in R Studio, running R 4.0.2 (R Core Team, 2020 ). Students who did not respond to demographic data such as their age bracket, country or program were excluded from subsequent data analysis, leaving a total of 295 valid responses. Students who did not respond to a specific question were excluded from analyses pertaining to that question only.

Results and discussion

Demographics.

The number of male and female survey respondents were virtually equal, at 49.5% and 50.5% of the total respondents, respectively (Fig.  1 ). The majority of respondents were studying a Science program (60%), followed by Arts (30.8%) and Education (9.2%). Approximately 69.2% of the freshmen students were 21 years of age or under, with 25.4% between 22–35 years of age and the over 35 years age bracket making up the remaining 5.4% of students (Fig.  1 ). The number of respondents from the different Pacific Island countries is illustrated in Fig.  2 . The majority of students (69.8%) were from Fiji, with the next highest numbers of students from the Solomon Islands (7.8%), and Vanuatu (6.1%). Most of these students would normally study face-to-face, with a minority studying online/via distance.

Barplot showing the numbers of male and female students in each age bracket

Breakdown of the survey respondents by their country of residence

ICT resources

Of the 287 students who provided a valid response as to which ICT devices they own, 88.2% of all students reported owning at least one ICT device. The likelihood of a student owning at least one ICT device was not influenced significantly by their gender, age bracket, nationality or program of study (Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test; P > 0.05 for all). The majority of students (67.6%) owned a laptop, with approximately 9% of students owning a desktop computer and 13% owning a tablet or iPad (Fig.  3 ). Only 22.3% of students reported owning a smartphone in the present study. However, we consider that this low figure is due to most students not interpreting the question ("do you own an ICT device of your own?") as referring to smartphones. Indeed, it has previously been reported that the ownership of mobile devices in the PICs in 2014 was 93% (Reddy et al. 2016 ), which seems more reasonable.

ICT device ownership among the surveyed students. Note that the total percentages do not sum to 100% as some respondents owned more than one type of device

The most common type of internet connection that students reported access to was mobile internet service (57.3% of students), followed by Wi-Fi connection (29.5%). Only 5.9% of students reported access to a Broadband internet service at home, while 7.3% reported access to a Broadband internet service at their university campus. Prior studies conducted in the South Pacific reveal that more people now have access to the internet, with subscriptions increasing every year due to the falling price of internet services and improvements in the network infrastructure (Reddy et al., 2017 , 2020a , 2020b ; Sharma & Reddy, 2015 ; Sharma et al., 2020 ). However, persisting connectivity issues impact on how students access the internet or which internet connection they use (Reddy et al. 2017 , 2020b ). This has resulted in a growing trend toward the use of mobile devices in the South Pacific, as a result of the falling prices and more affordable data plans for mobile devices (Reddy et al., 2016 ). Consequently, surveys conducted among South Pacific students indicated that 90% are in favour of using their mobile phone for learning purposes (Reddy et al., 2017 ), in a trend known as mobile learning (m-learning). This has significant implications for education providers and stakeholders with interest in improving education access equity. Typically, mobile internet access will be slower and more variable compared to Wi-Fi or Broadband access. Furthermore, the data costs (per gigabyte) can be much higher than satellite or cable internet access. On the whole, students who can only access the internet through a mobile phone service are likely to have more restricted access to the internet in general. This can make it harder for them to access online content material, particularly when associated with data-heavy applications such as streaming lecture videos or accessing live tutorial videoconferences.

More recently, government initiatives of providing free Wi-Fi in countries such as Fiji, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Niue and the Solomon Islands – particularly at higher education centres – have shown an increase in Wi-Fi use. Furthermore, we believe that an increase in internet usage and e-device ownership will continue to increase in the education sector, particularly due to the mandatory shift from the traditional method of face-to-face learning to online learning during and post COVID-19 pandemic. From our personal observations in South Pacific countries, the onset of the pandemic has resulted in internet providers lowering data plan prices, in some cases in collaboration with South Pacific educational institutes to ensure all students have adequate internet access to continue their learning journey.

Student ICT literacy

Approximately 47.1% of the students reported having used computers and/or the internet for a time period of longer than 6 years prior to the survey (Fig.  4 ). Only 5.5% of students had used ICT devices for less than one year. However, there was a significant interaction between the length of time students had used ICT and their likelihood of owning at least one ICT device (Fisher's Exact test; P < 0.05). Students who had used ICT for 1–3 years were much less likely to own an ICT device than expected by chance, while students who had used ICT for over 3 years were more likely to own an ICT device.

Number of years of experience using ICT devices among the surveyed students

The majority of students (60.7%) reported spending between 1–4 h per day on the internet for university or school-related purposes, with around a fifth spending 5–8 h per day on these activities (Table 1 ). Over 6% of students used the internet for over 9 h each day for university purposes. Slightly more students than this (9.8%) used the internet for over 9 h each day for edutainment, which can be loosely interpreted as media intended to be both educational and enjoyable. As defined in the survey provided to students, this includes purposes such as games, music, videos and social networks. Students' distribution across the other three-time brackets for edutainment followed an approximately normal distribution, with almost half (46%) spending 1–4 h on it per day.

Further breakdown of time spent on the internet revealed that students reported their most frequent activity as email, followed by accessing online educational resources and communication (through non-email means such as Skype, Viber, Facebook or online forums) and social networking (Table 2 ). The majority of students reported accessing their online educational resources "very often" and reading free course content "sometimes".

A common definition of ICT literacy is "an individual's ability to use computers to investigate, create, and communicate in order to participate effectively at home, at school, in the workplace, and society" (Fraillon et al., 2013 ). Hence, it is informative to assess the length of time spent and activities performed by students using ICT and their efficacy at performing various common ICT-related tasks. In general, the students in this cohort reported strong skills in computers' technical use (Table 3 ). Their average information literacy was a little lower compared to their technical capabilities. Still, it ranged between "good" and "excellent" for the majority of students. In the South Pacific the concept of information literacy is growing. For example, the current cohort of university students surveyed for this study have to complete a compulsory information literacy unit in their first year of their study (Reddy et al., 2020d ). Therefore, the current student cohort's information literacy competencies should also improve significantly throughout their study when compared to their other literacies.

Student attitudes towards ICT

The majority of students (55.6%) reported either "loving" or "liking" new technology and that they were usually the first to try new technology among their acquaintances. Only 19% of students reported that they "were not used to new technology" or were "one of the last people to try new technology", suggesting an overall positive attitude and interest towards ICT among the student cohort.

The most important uses of e-learning, as reported by the student cohort, were for video/audio tutorials, email groups and open education resources (Table 4 ). Only a few students reported the use of education games, blogs, social networking sites or wikis/podcasts for education purposes. Most students were moderately to strongly confident in their abilities to use technology, although not necessarily with troubleshooting computer problems (Table 5 ).

Virtually all students reported a positive attitude toward the use of technology in the learning process, particularly for keeping connected to their course material and accessing a wide range of educational resources (Table 6 ).

General discussion

The current study shows that of the 88% of participants who own at least one ICT device, all have access to the internet in some form, whether it be through mobile data, Wi-Fi or broadband, either on campus or at home. In comparison with prior such studies, the study noted an increase in device ownership and Internet accessibility for the South Pacific countries. Given that all participants of this study were students from USP, they would also have access to university computer labs across all campuses which can be utilised for learning purposes, in addition to their personal e-devices. Furthermore, the university also provides free Wi-Fi access at all campuses so that students who do not have personal access to the internet can use the services provided at the campuses. Overall, these are quite positive trends toward the uptake of digital technologies across the South Pacific region and the current and future potential for e-learning. This concurs with previous studies reporting that technology-enabled learning has been well received by most students (Raturi, 2018 ; Reddy et al., 2019 ; Sharma et al., 2020 , 2019b ). Although there have been drawbacks, as discussed in the introductory sections, initiatives to improve the facilitation of technology-enabled learning from the higher education stakeholders in the South Pacific have been put in place by government agencies and researchers. These include the provision of ICT devices and training to students in need.

In terms of the technological competency of the students, the overall response was noted to be above average, indicative of widespread technological acceptance. The results for the usage of digital technology indicated that the participants mostly used their technology for accessing and sending emails, followed by accessing online educational resources and social networking websites. The high competency of students in using emails is prominent as a result of all USP students being issued with a university email address. Similarly, USP facilitates at least some portion of all courses through an online learning management system (Moodle), thus accessing educational resources through this platform is expected to be a regular part of their study experiences. In contrast, students’ usage of digital library resources and free online course content was considerably lower, predominantly ranging from “rarely” to “sometimes” in the former instance. Hence, we believe that as commencing first-year students, they may have lacked knowledge about these aforementioned resources. A study conducted by Reddy et al. ( 2020c ) similarly revealed that students in the South Pacific lack digital literacy knowledge, suggesting that more outreach efforts and awareness programs are needed to expose the students to the latest digital literacy trends. In other words, students from the South Pacific appear to generally have sufficient technological skills, but may require further support with their digital literacy (finding academically sound information, judging its reliability, etc.). Various initiatives have been put in place in the South Pacific to impart and solidify students’ computer skills, including:

A framework for Pacific Regional Framework 2018–2030 – Moving Towards Education 2030, which includes increasing students’ digital literacy (Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, 2018 )

The National Framework of Digital Literacy in Fiji, which includes programmes for students from Year 1 – Year 12

The SchoolNet Project in Samoa to incorporate e-learning and increase the use of computers at secondary and primary schools, run by the Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility

Pilot trial of one laptop per child (OLPC) initiative in Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Island, Tonga and Vanuatu, run by the Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility

Provision of ICT training by the USP to around 860 primary school students and 680 parents in the Western division of Fiji (Yusuf, 2009 )

Overall, the attitude of the majority of students towards online learning was positive. The students perceived that online learning connected them more with their peers and facilitators, gave them access to wider range of learning materials, made the learning process more creative and enabled self-paced learning. This agrees with a recent study conducted in the South Pacific by Reddy et al., ( 2020a ), who found that the aforementioned benefits of online learning resulted in the positive attitudes toward technology, ensuring that students were open to continued use of e-learning.

As the present study was conducted just prior to the arrival of COVID-19 in the South Pacific and before all higher education institutes had to move their delivery mode online (USP, 2020a ), it provides an insight into the “typical” level of e-preparedness among students from the Pacific Island Countries. The majority of students in this study showed high levels of e-preparedness, indicating that they would be expected to be somewhat ready for the transition from face-to-face to online learning. This agrees with anecdotal observations during the pandemic, where it was reported that the semester and exams were able to progress via an online format with minimal disruptions and participation rates of up to 80% (USP, 2020b ). In contrast, Chung et al. ( 2020 ) reported that over 50% of Malaysian students did not wish to continue with e-learning following the COVID-19 pandemic. The key challenges identified by these students were internet connectivity, a lack of continuity in the online delivery methods used by different lecturers, and difficulty understanding online content provided by lecturers (Chung et al., 2020 ). This highlights the digital competency of university educators and staff as another important facet of e-learning (Ali, 2020 ). Indeed, high levels technological and digital literacy among educators was identified by several authors to be a key factor in the successful transition to online learning (Chung et al., 2020 ; Naji et al., 2020 ; Rapanta et al., 2020 ).

Despite these promising results found amongst students from the South Pacific, ongoing work is necessary to identify and assist students experiencing difficulty in accessing and using digital technology to assist their learning process. This highlights the importance for universities to maintain awareness of the e-capabilities of their student population, perhaps through the use of surveys such as the one presented in this study, or the Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) survey. This will assist these institutions in delivering a robust system of education that can adapt to future challenges.

The increasing use of online modes of content delivery has the benefit of increasing convenience for students, by allowing them to choose where and when to learn, but also has the potential to improve equitable access to education by providing students in geographically remote locations with the option to pursue tertiary education without having to relocate to a more urban locality. However, a number of challenges to this approach remains, including ensuring equitable access to suitable technology and internet connections, maintaining high quality in online learning resources and ensuring the learning outcomes of online students are comparable to those achieved through face-to-face classes.

Following the recent outbreak of COVID-19, education providers worldwide have been forced to turn to e-learning to retain their student base and allow them to continue learning through the pandemic. However, in geographically remote, developing nations, many students may not have access to suitable technology or internet at their home location but are rather dependent upon face-to-face classes at their local university campus to allow them to participate in higher education.

This study found that among the commencing 2020 cohort of students at the University of the South Pacific, 88% possessed at least one ICT device and access to the internet. Similarly, most students had adequate to strong ICT skills and a positive attitude toward e-learning. These attitudes among the student cohort, in conjunction with the previous experience of The University of the South Pacific in distance education, are likely to have contributed to the relatively successful transition from face-to-face to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Educational institutes should maintain ongoing awareness of the e-capabilities of the student cohorts in order to be best prepared for future challenges to the educational sector.

Availability of data and materials

The dataset is available from the authors upon request.

Change history

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The original publication was missing its supplementary files. The article has been updated to include the missing files.

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Johnson, J.B., Reddy, P., Chand, R. et al. Attitudes and awareness of regional Pacific Island students towards e-learning. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 18 , 13 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-021-00248-z

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This article seeks to determine the attitudes of undergraduate nursing students toward e-learning at the (X). A quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive, and exploratory approach was the procedural methodology selected in this study. A suitable sample of sophomore nursing scholars (n = 71) was registered. A total of 58 students returned the questionnaire (82.8% were females). Students who have previous computer training were significantly more confident in connecting to the internet than those with no prior computer training (t = 2.1, p < 0.05). Students who had prior experience in e-learning predicted they would feel significantly more nervous when working with computers than those who did not have this prior experience (t = 2.3, p < 0.05). In general, our investigation uncovered a differently favorable view of nursing students towards e-learning, however, some negative attitudes were also recorded. Factors likes students` motivation and personalities, backgrounds and feelings related to the control of their educational process must be considered in the application of e-learning.

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1 Introduction

Electronic learning (e-learning) in healthcare teaching was positioned as an important innovation in education for healthcare professionals. The academic setting is one of the most contexts analyzed concerning to nursing education to develop abilities required, regarding to perform competencies related to nursing care practice (Rouleau et al., 2019 ).

E-learning is an internet or network-based training method, which comprises a set of instructions provided over electronic media systems (Omar et al., 2012 ). Debate over an accurate definition of e-learning is still in progress; though it is widely accepted that e-learning is a variety of contents delivered in different formats, i.e., text, video, or image patterns, and electronically offered via internet, laptop, personal digital assistant (PDA) or CD-ROM (Behera, 2013 ). Despite the diversity of the contents that define e-learning, benefits of the system have been widely documented (Basha, 2020 ; Marengo, 2005 ; Regmi & Jones, 2021 ).

Due to the need of nurses to access up-to-date information on illnesses, medicines, and proficiency, e-learning is of great value to nursing practice (Kadioglu et al., 2020 ). The advantages of online learning systems on nursing students have been widely documented (Gerkin et al., 2009 ; Koivisto et al., 2017; Pront et al., 2018 ; Seada, 2017 ) and most studies show high levels of satisfaction among students on the use of online learning systems. Likewise, nursing students often refer to advantage and approach as the primary reasons to take online courses. In accordance, some advantages of e-learning have been described. E-learning reduces education costs; e-learning content is punctual and more trustworthy, with an end-to-end learning procedure and the creation of worldwide groups through online interconnection (Ruggeri et al., 2013 ). Compared with the conventional method, e-learning is cheaper to achieve, self-paced (e-learning courses can be taken when required), quicker (known material can be skipped) and provides more reliable content (traditional education focus on diverse teachers` approach on the same subject) (Cheng, 2012; Jung 2011 ). The challenging issues of clinical conditions in nursing education limit the student-patient connection within the traditional didactic education. Furthermore, restricted clinical hours and deployments, unreliable existence of patients with illnesses, and each patient’s singularity and their support system make the achievement of a high-quality teaching experience for the students even harder (Pfefferle & Stock 2010 ).

Several authors highlight the benefit of online education in nursing instruction (Morente et al., 2013 ; Vaona et al., 2018 ; Wasmiy & Noha 2014 ). Recently, flexibility in nature regardless of learner geographical place and material access were described as one of the e-learning advantages (Regmi & Jones, 2020 ). In addition, e-learning has been recognized for continuing professional development for medical and nursing students (Ota et al., 2018 ). Online education has also been said to result in an enhanced preservation and a greater hold on the topic since lots of aspects that are fused in e-learning highlight the communication, namely video, audio, and quizzes interface. Moreover, e-learning can be simply achieved for large groups of learners (Gross, 2018 ). Consistent with Keefe & Wharrad ( 2012 ), nursing scholars who interface with virtual patients in preconceived situations may prevent unwarranted risks in meetings with real patients.

There is the fact that students might sometimes reject e-learning. The successful execution of e-learning tools relies upon the users’ knowledge and skills on computers. Such ingredients are said to involve users’ primary endorsement of computer equipment and their hereafter attitude on the use of web-based learning systems (Kim & Moore, 2005 ; Jones & Jones, 2005 ). In addition, positive attitudes towards e-learning lead to major chances that learners will adopt this new learning system (Zabadi & Al-Alawi, 2016 ).

On the contrary, recent studies report negative and uncertain nursing students´ attitudes about e-learning (Soriano & Oducato, 2021 ; Nsouli & Vlachopoulos 2021 ;  Hvalič-Touzery et al., 2017). Some nursing students consider that face to face lectures increase student knowing more than e-learning classroom (Omolola et al., 2016 ). The assimilation and application of e-learning has changed and evolving, as are student outlooks. Though the availability of the current academic techniques, teaching and learning are not stimulated by e-learning. Achieving a much better comprehension of students’ disposition upon e-learning will give educators deeper vision and prospect for developing strategies that match students’ needs (Williams et al., 2011 ).

To add another layer of complexity, previous research suggested that gender may play a role towards e-learning preference. Males usually have positive experience with technology while females do not like to learn from computers and prefer person-to-person learning (Ausburn et al., 2009 & Johnson,. D. 2011). Another research has suggested that age could impact student performance and interaction with technology (Willey, T., Edwards, S., & Nonchalkier, V. 2008).

Before moving forward in applying this new teaching approach, there is a need to obtain more information concerning nursing students’ attitudes towards e-learning, and to determine in what way it could best be implemented for nursing scholars. As mentioned before, E-learning is becoming more essential to the future of nurse education and the facilitation of lifelong learning because of its benefits to extend learning and culture beyond the classroom. Therefore, it is important to examine student expectations concerning of this new learning method (McVeigh, 2009 ), so foundations and strategies to manage barriers toward e-learning can be designed and implemented. Additionally, research conducted to explore nursing students’ attitudes toward e-learning is important considering that it has been encouraged for its ability to captivate learners, customize the learning process and successful implementation in clinical skill acquisition (Bloomfield, 2013 ). Similarly, the relevance of studies related to the application of e-learning in nursing education has been supported from the perspective of the necessity to perform computer information technology staff development that is of high quality, accessible and tailored to enhance the increasing role information technology has in teaching and learning and the nursing profession (Button et al., 2014 ). Likewise, e-learning instruction method has shown evidence-based insights in nursing clinical practice to improve professional competences (Beeckman et al., 2008 ).

To evaluate the impact of e-learning tools, we followed Kirkpatrick ( 1996 ), who presented a 4-level evaluation model comprising reaction (1), learning (2), behaviour (3), and results (4). Our study is interested in the first level of evaluation, the reaction, as it measures the students’ perception, interest and motivation of the e-learning tools (Kirkpatrick, 1996 ). Therefore, this article seeked to determine the attitudes of undergraduate nursing students toward e-learning at the (X).

The following assumptions were proposed:

H 1 : A correlation exists between gender and internet self-efficacy toward e-learning.

H 2 : A relation exists between computer training and learner computer anxiety.

H 3 : A correlation exists between prior experiences of e-learning and students’ positive attitudes towards computers.

2 Research methodology

2.1 research design.

A quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive, and exploratory approach was the procedural methodology selected in this study. In the view of Rincon et al., ( 2003 ), survey-based analyses are frequently used in the discipline of education perhaps owing to the evident ease and openness of this method. Campoy & Pantoja ( 2000 ) highlight surveys’ skill to oversimplify results achieved in the population as one of their main benefits. This study used a descriptive method because it best fit our intentions, consistent with the concepts by Fox ( 1987 ), who explains the use of the descriptive approach in educational research by virtue of the absence of information, its production and availability.

2.2 Participants

The designed survey was sent to sophomores nursing students who are enrolled in the course Pharmacology for Nursing at the Physiotherapy and Nursing University School, (“X”). The students were chosen using a convenience sampling. Convenience sampling is widely held since it is not costly, not as time expending as other sampling strategies, and simplistic. When used to generate a potential hypothesis or study objective, convenience sampling is effective. When no other sampling method is feasible, convenience sampling can be used to develop hypotheses and objectives for use in more rigorous research studies (Stratton, 2021 ). According to our objectives, the individuals used in the research are selected because they are readily available and because we know they belong to the population of interest. The prevalence of sampling through non-probabilistic methods (pseudo-random, empirical or snowball) in educational research (Mayorga & Ruiz, 2002).

2.3 Ethical considerations

The Human Ethics Committee from (“X”) deemed the study exempt from review. All nursing students in the second year of the bachelor’s program were informed verbally about the study one week prior to implementation. Participating in the study was voluntary and anonymity was guaranteed. Neither e-mail addresses nor other personal data were included within online questionnaires to avoid revealing respondents’ identities.

2.4 Measurement

After an extensive scientific articles review (Fan, 2005 , Maag, 2006 , Ali, 2012 , Chong et al., 2016 , Akimanimpaye, 2015 ) an ad hoc questionnaire was designed incorporating Semantic Differential Scales measuring attitudes (Guillasper et al., 2020 ). The instrument consisted of three sections: (1) demographic information (age, gender, pathway to study nursing, experience with an e-learning), (2) self-assessment related to the position in relation to computers, learner’s computer uneasiness (seven items), and (3) internet self-efficiency (eight items). The last two sections were designed to determinate students’ attitudes towards the use of computers in their learning process, and their confidence in using computers in their learning, respectively. Five-point Likert scales that range from vigorously dissent to actively consent was utilized for opinion level scaling. An “I don’t know” option was included in the scale to close the gap produced between what students really know and the scores they get. This approach helps participations to avoid making a guess when they are not aware of the answer (Singh, 2001 ).

For the reliability of the instrument, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients was determined. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the 15-item attitude toward e-learning (Sect. 2 and Sect. 3) scale was 0.88 and 0.7, respectively (Table  1 ). Therefore, internal consistency of the questionnaire was adequate—an alpha value on top of 0.7 suggests acceptable reliability according to sources (Schrepp, 2020 ). Overall, the instrument had a good internal consistency resulting in a reliable tool to measure attitudes towards e-learning.

To further assess the validity of the questionnaire, a pilot test was carried out amongst 10 undergraduate nursing students to ensure that the questionnaire precisely addressed the research questions, there were no confusing questions, and that all items were evaluated. No changes were made to the questionnaire based on the results of the pilot test. However, students who contributed to the pilot test were omitted from the study.

The questionnaire was administered electronically (using Google Forms) to students during class time for the subject Pharmacology for Nursing, while reminding them that participation is voluntary and, confidential and their responses will be anonymous.

2.5 Data analysis

The IBM SPSS software, version 22 ® (IBM Corp, Armonk NY) was used to examine the quantitative data. Demographic data including gender and pathway to study nursing, as well as experience with an e-learning, were compared between the students. Cronbach’s Alpha test was applied to evaluate the internal reliability of the inquiry form. T-tests and one-way ANOVA test were implemented to establish any significant dissimilarity in attitudes in relation to the e-learning. Probability (p) values of less than 0.05 were interpreted as statistically significant. Population data gender included along with pathway to study nursing, as well as experience with an e-learning, were compared among the students.

A total of 58 students (81.6% of the class) completed the questionnaire. Most participants were female (82.8%) with an average age of 20.4 ± 2.65 (mean ± SD). Most participants (72.4%) came from high school as their pathway to study nursing. All participants had computer facility at home, and more than a half-had computer training experience. Demographics for the sample are found in Table  2 .

Data related to student’s satisfaction, posture on computers, scholar’s computer anxiety, learner internet self-confidence, computer technology are found in Table  3 . Most respondents showed a positive attitude towards computer and internet work.

Concerning the first hypothesis (H 1 ) significant gender differences were found (Table  4 ). Females were more certain than males about leaving the use of computers to the youngest (t = -2.0, p < 0.05). In other matters, males were way more certain than females about both connecting to the internet and printing materials from the internet (t = 2.6, p < 0.05 and t = 2.7, p < 0.05, respectively).

Students who have previous computer training were significantly more confident in connecting to the internet than those with no prior computer training (Table  5 ). Interestingly, students who had prior experience in e-learning predicted they would feel significantly more nervous when working with computers than those who did not have this prior experience (t = 2.3, p < 0.05).

4 Discussion

The main aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of undergraduate nursing students toward e-learning in(X). Results suggested that student attitude regarding computers, student computer nervousness and learner internet self-efficacy are the essential aspects that affect student’s attitudes toward e-learning and online systems.

The demographic analysis showed that all participants in this study have had access to internet connected computers. This is a picture of the prevalence of computers and the internet in modern societies. Moreover, the majority (82.8%) of respondents were females which is consistent with international and “X” trends in nursing profession. Nursing remains a predominantly female profession, with the proportion of male students has only slightly increased from 7.7% in the 2000 Census to 9.1% in 2010. Moreover, there were only 15.7% male students in the 2013 academic cohort according to the “X” statistic (Bernalte-Martí, 2014 ). Data from the Women’s “X”, show that more than 43% of the “X” medical profession are female. However, in the case of nursing, the percentage of female students stands at around 83% (Álvarez-Terán, 2019 ).

Research suggested that gender is a contributing factor towards e-learning preference. For instance, males exceed females both in computer practice, information technology and positive attitude regarding them (Colley, 2003 ). On the contrary, females do not like to learn from computers and prefer face-to-face learning (Ausburn et al., 2009 ; Johnson, 2011 ). As a result, the study showed a diverse male and female computer attitude towards computers. By means of computer games, male students tend to take computers as both, figures, and pieces of technology to be learned. On the other hand, woman students see computers in a distinct way, tending to use them as assisting instruments to produce work. Furthermore, women tend to follow the procedures, while men interact with the software in a more lighthearted and experimental way (Lee, 2003 ).

As for the first hypothesis (H 1 ), this research shows that there is substantial difference due genus when comparing attitudes toward online tools which includes feeling related to printing material and connecting to the internet homepage. Gender has been shown to influence attitude towards using technology in education with previous research suggested that females prefer to access face-to-face learning methods while males usually have shown a confident stance on the use of technology in learning (Ausburn et al., 2009 ). Our study supported this finding as males were considerably more confident than females in accessing the internet and printing learning materials from a website. A study conducted by Johnson ( 2011 ) reported that women transmitted further, comprehended the atmosphere having greater social presence, were more pleased with the course, regarded the course as of a greater value, and had slightly greater achievement than men. Even though the provocations faced by women in e-learning contexts, the outcomes of this research indicate that e-learning fields that permit peer-to-peer communication and connectivity could improve women get over some of these handicaps.

In contrast, concerning the second and third hypothesis (H 2 and H 3 ), this study proves that previous computer experiences and training have impact on e-learning attitudes including: learner computer anxiety and perceived self-efficacy of online tools. Results demonstrated that students who have computer training and previous experiences with e-learning were significantly more confident in using computers in their learning. This finding can be founded by issues which stated that the passion of computer usage and prior experience of online tools have the biggest impact on learners’ approaches to e-learning. Moreover, a case study conducted in Romania examined student attitudes towards e-learning as well as analyzing differences in attitude due to socio-demographic profile differences (Mukhametshin et al., 2021 ). A confident attitude of students in relation to e-learning was reported; the mean was 3.5, as measured on five-point Likert scale. Attitude is additionally motivated by time spent practicing with computer. A study conducted by Çevik ( 2022 ) reported that a positive student rated learning teaching efficiency as 82.2% for in-person learning as well as 83% for mixed learning. In addition, the results revealed a positive interrelation among attitude towards e-learning and technical skills. Students most frequently using their computer (54% of the study sample) were more likely to accept e-learning. In other studies, a positive connection was seen among student attitudes towards technology and their degrees of onset to several techniques; while no correlation was found between e-learning attitude and residence (Dalshad et al., 2015 ). Additionally, it is thought that the common soreness with the technology engenders students who do not have experience with Information Communication Technology communicate themselves carefully about its use in education (Rhema & Miliszewska, 2014; Michael & Marz 2006 ). In compliance with Popovici ( 2015 ) more experienced students in tech use in their daily lives were generally more optimistic about e-learning schemes. Students having a previous e-learning experience are found to possess a greater predisposition to including this learning tools. Fuller et al., ( 2006 ) argued that computer anxiety is a state, rather than a trait, which suggests that it is malleable given the appropriate conditions. Therefore, it is essential to run an orientation workshop before the start of the course to upskill students and make them comfortable to utilize the e-learning resources.

5 Conclusions

A Kirkpatrick’s Level 1 Evaluation was used to assess nursing students’ perception, interest and motivation towards the adaptation of e-learning into their curricula. The benefits of this type of evaluation is to clearly identifies problems and uses student input to generate solutions., Our investigation showed a clearly favorable attitude of nursing students in relation to e-learning, however, some negative attitudes were recorded. These attitudes can somewhat be described by the fact that students be inclined to prefer conventional learning style. Student expectations should be considered when proposing e-learning (Burton , 2003). Factors likes students` motivation and personalities, backgrounds and feeling related to the control of their educational process must be considered for the application of e-learning (Duggan et al., 2001 ; Docherty & Sandhu, 2006 ).

Such issues have been said to affect users’ preliminary endorsement to computer technology and their potential behavior towards the use of web-based learning systems. Besides, favorable attitudes towards e-learning show a bigger possibility that students will accept this innovative learning method (Dhiman et al., 2014 ). Aspects that affect students’ attitudes towards e-learning include patience, self-control, software use and skills, good technical skills, as well as managing abilities. As a result, user’s attitudes could be either positive, if the original education system fits the undergraduates’ needs and features, or negative in case the students do not achieve adaptation to a computerized learning system (Darling-Hammond et al., 2019 ).

6 Strengths and limitations

Limitations of this study are related to sample and generalization, because it was only developed at a higher education institution; consequently, outcomes cannot be extended to all nursing learners in Spain. We did not evaluate objective learning effects. This research applied only quantitative methods, but a qualitative research method could be used (focal groups, interview, etc.). Future research can build upon our results by using the mixed methods according to its showed benefits (Regnault et al., 2018 ).

Finally, our sample size was small with only 58 participants, nevertheless, the response rate was very good (86,1%) which is expected for online survey. Our research only asked for attitudes towards e-learning, other research should be carried out to determinate potential causes and factors that influence these attitudes. Therefore, future research using probability sample method must be conducted. This article describes the results of a first approach to the study of nursing students’ attitudes towards e-learning in our educational framework. However, new lines of research should be opened to analysis the underlying elements that influence the positive and negative attitudes found. Consequently, provision of appropriate training at different levels with experts regarding e-learning, psychological factors, equipment and technological readiness for the change in learning method, gender and age will be explored in the next phase of our study.

Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article.

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Acknowledgements

The present study would not have been possible without the contribution of nursing students. The authors would like to thank the Nursing School staff at the Castilla-La Mancha University for the support. Deepest thanks to Mr. Anthony Reyes and Mr. Jack W. Salmon for their valuable collaboration in the linguistic correction of this paper.

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Sánchez, A.M.M., Karaksha, A. Nursing student´s attitudes toward e-learning: a quantitative approach. Educ Inf Technol 28 , 2129–2143 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11226-x

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, evaluation of students’ attitude toward distance learning during the pandemic (covid-19): a case study of elte university.

On the Horizon

ISSN : 1074-8121

Article publication date: 27 January 2021

Issue publication date: 4 June 2021

Covid-19 has prompted higher institutions around the globe to relocate traditional classes to online classes. Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) was no exception. It had already drawn up limited strategies regarding distance education, but those Web-based platforms were provided only to students with special needs. Due to the pandemic, all ELTE students were compelled to use online platforms that the university provided, such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, to resume their studies. This study aims to evaluate the initial experience of students in using these new platforms. It also explores the effects distance learning has on students’ satisfaction and attitudes toward their education.

Design/methodology/approach

By using a quantitative approach, students’ attitudes toward e-learning and their access to tech-platforms, use of those platforms and satisfaction with online courses are processed and analyzed via a statistical package for the social sciences.

The results of this study show that distance learning is still in the development stage, and although traditional classrooms appeared to be indispensable, the positive attitudes and willingness of the majority of students to engage in distance learning classes in the post-COVID19 pandemic indicate that there is an immense potential future for e-learning platforms in higher education institutions.

Originality/value

The distance learning approach has been the only way for institutions worldwide to resume studies during the pandemic of Covid-19. Students faced mixed feelings of perplexity, loneliness, uncertainty over what is going to happen with classes, exams, graduation and other significant activities impacting their study path; irrespective of their daily struggles with the hard accessibility to means of e-learning and personal potential health problems. This evaluation is considered as a roadmap for institutions to follow-up and to improve the organizational and educational shortcomings they met.

• Distance learning
• Student attitudes

Acknowledgements

Informed Consent : Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Declaration of conflict : There is no conflict of interest with the submission of this article. Funding : The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Ismaili, Y. (2021), "Evaluation of students’ attitude toward distance learning during the pandemic (Covid-19): a case study of ELTE university", On the Horizon , Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 17-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/OTH-09-2020-0032

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Research Article

Transforming students’ attitudes towards learning through the use of successful educational actions

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Department of Linguistic and Literary Education, and Teaching and Learning of Experimental Sciences and Mathematics, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Deusto, Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Roles Investigation, Project administration, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation CREA–Community of Research of Excellence for All, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

• Javier Díez-Palomar, 
• Rocío García-Carrión, 
• Linda Hargreaves, 
• María Vieites

• Published: October 12, 2020
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292
• Peer Review
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Previous research shows that there is a correlation between attitudes and academic achievement. In this article, we analyze for the first time the impact of interactive groups (IG) and dialogic literary gatherings (DLG) on the attitudes that students show towards learning. A quantitative approach has been performed using attitude tests validated by previous research. The data suggest that in both cases, the participants show positive attitudes. The social context has an important influence on students’ attitudes. The items with higher correlations include group work, mutual support, and distributed cognition. In the case of IGs, group work is much more appreciated, while in the case of DLGs, self-image and self-confidence are the two most clearly valued attitudes. The positive impact of IGs and DLGs on students’ attitudes may have potential for teachers in transforming their practices and decision-making within the classroom.

Citation: Díez-Palomar J, García-Carrión R, Hargreaves L, Vieites M (2020) Transforming students’ attitudes towards learning through the use of successful educational actions. PLoS ONE 15(10): e0240292. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292

Editor: Christian Stamov Roßnagel, Jacobs University Bremen, GERMANY

Received: April 9, 2020; Accepted: September 24, 2020; Published: October 12, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Díez-Palomar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: JDP, RGC, LH and MVC want to acknowledge the funding provided by the EU Commission under the grant num. 2015-1-ES01-KA201-016327, corresponding to the project Schools as Learning Communities in Europe: Successful Educational Actions for all, (SEAS4ALL), under the program ERASMUS +; and the Spanish Ramón y Cajal Grant RYC-2016-20967 for open access publication of the article.

Competing interests: No authors have competing interests.

Introduction

In this article, we address the following research question: What impact does participation in interactive groups (IGs) and dialogic literary gatherings (DLGs) have on the attitudes that students show towards learning? To define “attitudes”, we draw on the definition of Harmon-Jones, Harmon-Jones, Amodio and Gable [ 1 ], who characterize attitudes as “subjective evaluations that range from good to bad that are represented in memory” [ 1 ]. This definition is also consistent with the classic definitions about “attitudes” used in social psychology studies [ 2 ].

Previous research suggests that there is a clear relationship between students’ attitudes and their academic achievement [ 3 , 4 ]. Decades ago, classic studies in the field of educational research [ 5 ] concluded that teachers’ expectations about students’ attitudes and behaviors may explain students’ effective academic achievement. According to [ 4 ], the process of the “social construction of identity” explains why there are students who seem destined to obtain poor academic results. Drawing on the theoretical approach developed by Mead [ 6 ], Molina and her colleagues [ 4 ] argue that the way in which a student defines his/her own identity determines his/her own learning expectations and, as a consequence, his/her own academic career. In this sense, the process of constructing identity is social in essence.

According to Mead [ 6 ], the self emerges as a result of social interaction with other people who project their expectations and attitudes on the individual. The identity of a person is formed by two components. The first component is the me , which is of social origin and incorporates the attitudes of others about the individual; the second component is the I , which is the conscious reaction of each individual to those attitudes. A process is thus created in which identity is the result of the dialogue between the individual and others. This somehow explains why some students end up developing an identity as bad students, while others develop an identity as good students. This process has been called the “Pygmalion effect” by educational researchers [ 5 ]. As Flecha [ 7 ] suggests, drawing on successful educational actions (SEAs), teachers get their students to achieve better results, and that, in turn, explains why these students improve their self-concept as students (i.e., their me and I , in Mead’s terms). However, does that mean that they also change their attitudes towards learning in school?

Classic studies such as Learning to Work [ 8 ] suggest that students with low academic performance tend to be children who reject school. These students tend to manifest that feeling of rejection in wayward attitudes. These children also do not see school as a desirable or attractive place. In contrast, they show an attitude of rejection and resistance towards schooling, which is accompanied by low academic performance. Later researchers, such as Bruner, have suggested that this attitude is the result of the failure of the schools to respond to the expectations of these children (and their families) [ 9 ]. Students’ identities are defined in other spaces and with other references. This may have a negative impact on the ability of teachers to teach. Various studies have suggested that as some of these children grow, their interest in school diminishes. This happens especially in the transition between primary and secondary school, as some students lose interest in science, mathematics and other subjects. Given this situation, researchers have found that learning initiatives located outside of the school can change these attitudes towards learning, as in the case of visiting museums, laboratories, or research centers [ 10 ].

This article discusses the impact of participating in two educational activities previously defined as successful educational actions (SEAs) [ 7 ] on attitudes towards learning shown by students who have participated in these actions. Thus far, we have clear evidence of the positive impact that SEAs have on learning outcomes [ 11 – 15 ], and there are studies suggesting that there is also a positive effect on the coexistence and cohesion of the group-class [ 16 , 17 ]. However, previous studies have not explored the impact that such SEAs may have on students’ own attitudes. Therefore, this article discusses this dimension of learning, which, as the studies mentioned above claim, is a relevant aspect to understanding how learning works.

Theoretical framework

Attitudes and learning.

There is an assumed belief in education that there is a direct relationship between student attitudes and academic achievement. Renaud [ 18 ] distinguishes between dispositions and attitudes by stating that the former is more “resistant” to change than the latter. Dispositions are defined as “more general and enduring characteristics”, while attitudes are tendencies or internal states of the person towards anything that a person can evaluate, such as “learning math, extracurricular activities, or the general notion of going to school” [ 18 ]. Previous research that exists on attitudes and learning has found that there is a clear relationship between both aspects. Renaud [ 18 ] quotes literature reviews that indicate that there is a correlation between attitude and achievement in mathematics [ 19 – 21 ] and in science [ 22 ]. According to previous research, the relationship becomes stronger at higher educational levels [ 22 – 24 ].

Ma and Kishor [ 19 ] analyze three indicators that refer to attitude to evaluate their impact on academic achievement: the self-concept about mathematics, the support of the family and the gender role in mathematics. According to their data, the most important correlation corresponds to the self-concept (p. 24). Masgoret and Gardner [ 23 ] found that motivation is more closely related to academic achievement than attitude. Attitude, on the other hand, seems to be related to achievement; however, it is related indirectly through motivation. Motivation and self-concept present a clear relationship (a correlation exists), but the research is not conclusive in regard to which direction the relationship works, i.e., we do not know (yet) if it is the motivation that gives rise to the person’s positive self-concept or if having a positive self-concept translates into an increase in terms of motivation. In any case, both variables seem to correlate directly with academic achievement; higher motivation and self-concept are associated with better academic results (in general terms).

The “symbolic interactionism” approach

The theoretical approach that has devoted the most effort to analyzing the relationship between attitudes, motivation, self-concept and academic achievement is that of symbolic interactionism. George H. Mead [ 6 ] is one of the best-known representatives of this theory. According to his findings, self-concept is of social origin. “The self is something which has a development; it is not initially there at birth” [ 6 ]. To explain this process, Mead proposes the concept of the generalized other. According to him, the generalized other is “the organized community or social group which gives to the individual his or her unity of self” [ 6 ]. Mead illustrates how this concept works to create the self-concept by drawing on the game metaphor. He uses the example of baseball. The baseball team is what Mead calls the generalized other. Each player has a specific role within the team, and he or she acts in accordance with what is expected of him or her in that position. The rest of the team does the same, so that individual actions are defined and carried out within the more global unit that defined is the team (i.e., the generalized other). Using this example and others, Mead [ 6 ] was able to show that the self is the result of a social process. Similarly, Vygotsky [ 25 ] claimed that higher psychological functions emerge through interpersonal connections and actions with the social environment until they are internalized by the individual.

Mead states as follows:

It is in the form of the generalized other that the social process influences the behavior of the individuals involved in it and carrying it on, i.e., that the community exercises control over the conduct of its individual members; for it is in this form that the social process or community enters as a determining factor into the individual’s thinking. [ 6 ]

This social process involves interaction with other individuals in the group through shared activities. The classroom is the perfect example of a group. The teacher and the students are part of a social group with defined norms [ 26 ] as well as an institutional objective (teaching and learning), where each “player” performs a specific role according to those (declared or implicit) norms.

In some investigations, this social unit has been defined as a “community of practice” [ 27 , 28 ]. Brousseau [ 29 ] uses the concept of “contracte didactique” to characterize this social unit and analyze its functioning in the mathematics classroom. According to Brousseau, there is a relationship between the different actors (individuals) participating in the mathematics classroom, in which each plays a specific role and has specific responsibilities. The teacher has the obligation to create sufficient conditions for the appropriation of knowledge by the students and must be able to recognize when this happens. Similarly, the responsibility of the students is to satisfy the conditions created by the teacher. Brousseau studies how the teacher performs what he calls the didactic transposition of scientific knowledge to be taught in school. S/he has to identify the epistemological obstacles and the cognitive obstacles that make it difficult or students to learn in the classroom.

However, other studies have suggested that there are factors of another nature (neither cognitive nor epistemological) that also influence the academic achievements reached by students. This is the case with interactions [ 16 , 30 , 31 ]. As Mead [ 6 ] suggested, the self-concept created by an individual is the result of the internalization of the expectations that each individual has of himself or herself by the role s/he plays in the group to which s/he belongs. For example, the student who always tries hard and answers the teacher’s questions is fulfilling his or her role within the good student group. The group expects him or her to play that role. It is part of his/her identity. In addition, s/he acts accordingly. The effect of the positive or negative projection of expectations on students has been widely studied in education [ 32 , 33 ]. What we know is that teachers have to be cautious and try not to project negative expectations on students because that has a clear effect on their academic achievements, giving rise to well-studied interactions such as the Pygmalion effect, or the self-fulfilling prophecy [ 5 ].

However, the impact of successful educational actions [ 7 ] on the attitudes that students have towards learning at school in the context of interactive groups and dialogic literary gatherings has not been studied so far. This impact is what is discussed in this article.

The successful educational actions of interactive groups and dialogic literary gatherings

The research question discussed in this article is framed in the context of the implementation of two successful educational actions identified by the European Commission in the research project titled INCLUD-ED : Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion from education in Europe [ 34 ]. A successful educational action is defined as an action carried out in the school, the result of which significantly improves students’ learning [ 7 ]. The two successful educational actions that are discussed herein are interactive groups and dialogic literary gatherings.

Interactive groups.

Interactive groups (IGs) consist of a particular group-based teaching practice in which students are put together in small groups of approximately six or seven students, with an adult person facilitating the task. IGs must be heterogeneous in terms of their composition, including children with different ability levels, gender, socioeconomic background, etc. The adult person (the facilitator) is a volunteer who encourages dialogic interaction among the group members while performing the task designed by the teacher. The teacher splits the students among four or five IGs (depending on the number of children in the classroom and the time available for the lesson). Each group of students has a task assigned, which the teachers have previously designed. There is a total of four or five tasks (the same number as the number of IGs). The assignments are about the subject that is being focused on in the lesson plan (i.e., mathematics, language, science, history, etc.). To perform the assigned task, groups have fifteen or twenty minutes of time (depending on the total time allocated for that activity in the school day). After this interval, the teacher asks the students to move to the next IG, where they will find another task. When the class is over, each of the children must have gone through all of the tasks. All of the children perform four or five different tasks designed by the teacher to cover the curriculum requirements. In some schools, the kids move from one IG to the next. In other cases, the teachers prefer to ask the facilitators to move between the groups to avoid the noise and disorder created by the children getting up and moving to the next table (task).

The facilitators never provide solutions to the tasks executed by the students. Instead, they encourage students to share, justify, explain, their work to their group mates. Their responsibility is encouraging students to use dialogic talk [ 15 ], which is based on the principles of dialogic learning [ 35 ]. Research evidence on IGs suggests that using dialogic talk increases participants’ chances of improving their academic achievements [ 15 , 30 , 36 ]. When students are asked by the facilitator to justify their answers to a task, they need to conceptually defend their claims; this implies that they must be able to not only understand the concept or concepts embedded in the assigned tasks but also explain them to their group mates. The type of talk (speech) that appears when children engage in this type of interaction has been defined as dialogic talk [ 30 ] because it is oriented towards validity claims [ 37 ], not towards the power position that children occupy within the group.

Dialogic literary gatherings.

Dialogic literary gatherings (DLGs) are spaces in which students sit in a circle and share the reading of a classic literary book. The gathering is facilitated by the teacher, whose role is not to intervene or give his/her opinion, but to organize the students’ participation by assigning them turns. Every child who wants to share his/her reading raises his/her hand and waits until the teacher gives him/her a turn. Readings come from classic literature, such as works by Shakespeare, Cervantes, Kafka, Tagore, etc. [ 38 , 39 ]. Students read at home the assigned number of pages (it either could be a whole chapter or a certain number of pages, according to the teacher’s criteria). When reading the assignment, the student highlights a paragraph and writes down the reason for his/her choice. Then, during the DLG session in school, the children bring the paragraph or paragraphs they want to share with the rest of their classmates. At the beginning of the session, the teacher asks who wants to share his/her paragraph. S/he writes down the name of the students offering to share on a list. Then, the teacher starts with the first name on the list and that student reads aloud his/her paragraph; s/he also identifies on which page of the text it is so that the rest of the participants in the DLG can follow the reading and explains the reason for his/her choice. After the reading, the teacher opens the floor for questions. S/he always prioritizes the children who participate less often. When the teacher considers that the topic has been sufficiently commented on either because the idea that led to the intervention has been fully commented on or because the children's questions drifted to other irrelevant topics, s/he moves to the next name on the list. The process is repeated until the session ends.

Children, when talking about their paragraph, become involved in a process called “dialogical reading” [ 40 ], which is based on the application of Bakhtin’s concept of “dialogism” [ 41 ]. Bakhtin explains this concept using the idea of “polyphony” to refer to the use of multiple voices in a narrative work, such as the case of Dostoevsky’s poetics [ 41 ]. According to Bakhtin, no voice is the result of a single speech but rather it integrates different voices. This concept has been reused and reinterpreted in educational research. Drawing on those authors, knowledge is the result of internalizing the voices of multiple people (teachers, family members, friends, classmates, and other people) that we have encountered throughout our lives. DLGs recreate that multiplicity of voices through the dialogues that generate a space in which all children contribute with their opinions, ideas, and understandings about the paragraph being discussed. In this sense, reading understanding develops in a much deeper way than if the child had to read the material individually because s/he can incorporate the points of view of his/her peers into his/her own final comprehension.

Methodology

The data used to discuss the research question come from a research project titled SEAs4All–Schools as Learning Communities in Europe . The dataset has been submitted to this journal as supporting data for public use. Six schools from the four European countries of Cyprus, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain participated in this project. Five of them were primary schools, and the last one was a middle/high school. All of the schools were selected because they applied successful educational actions (SEAs) [ 7 ]. After implementing IGs and DLGs, a survey was conducted in three of the schools to evaluate the impact of using these two types SEAs on students’ attitudes and perceptions towards learning. Children between 7 and 11 years old participated in the survey. Two of the surveyed schools are located in the United Kingdom, and the third one is located in Italy. All of the schools are located in different contexts. One of the schools in the United Kingdom is in an area where families have a high economic status and high cultural capital (Cambridge), while the other English school is located in a neighborhood considered to be of a medium-level SES (Norwich). The Italian school is located in a low SES area of Naples. A total of 418 children participated in the survey (251 participating in DLGs and 167 engaging in IGs), as shown in Table 1 .

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t001

To collect the data, the SAM questionnaire, developed at the Universities of Leicester and Cambridge, UK, was used as a model for the evaluation of the impact of the implemented educational actions. The original SAM questionnaire consists of 17 items that are measured using a 5-point Likert scale, which ranges between “strongly agree” and “strongly disagree.” The questionnaire used in the current study was amended by drawing on previous results from a pilot test and was thus reduced to 12 items [ S1 File ].

The children answered a paper version of the questionnaire. The data were then coded and entered into an Excel matrix that was later used to analyze the data in SPSS (version 25.0). To debug the database and detect possible errors in the transcription, univariate descriptive analysis was conducted using the table of frequencies for each item to check that all codes and weights were aligned with the data collected through the paper questionnaires. Whenever an anomaly was detected, we proceeded to review the original questionnaire on paper to verify the information and data transcribed in the matrix.

To analyze the data, a descriptive report was first made by tabulating the data in frequency tables using the mean, median and mode, as well as the variance and standard deviation.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t002

Before performing Bartlett’s test, four of the items were recoded (#1, #3, #4, and #6) since the grading vector of the Likert scale used in these three items went in the opposite direction as that used for the rest of the items. These four items were displayed in a negative tone (i.e., “we learn best when the teacher tells us what to do”, “learning through discussion in class is confusing”, “sometimes, learning in school is boring”, and “I would rather think for myself than hear other people’s ideas”), unlike the rest of the items in which the tone of the answers was positive. Therefore, the labels of “strongly agree”, “agree a little”, “not sure”, “disagree a little”, and “strongly disagree” for items #1, #3, #4, and #6 referenced to a scale with a negative associated vector, whereas for the rest of the items, the same labels refer to a positive vector. For this reason, the responses of these four variables were recoded into four new variables that reversed the original direction of the response vector.

In both cases, (IGs and DLGs), Bartlett’s test suggests that we can accept the null hypothesis, which means that we can use factor analysis to discriminate which principal components are the ones that explain the greatest percentage of the variance. The results of this analysis are discussed below.

Ethic statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics Committee of the Community of Research on Excellence for All, University of Barcelona. Schools collected the families’ informed consent approving the participation of their children in this study.

The Ethics Board was composed by: Dr. Marta Soler (president), who has expertise within the evaluation of projects from the European Framework Program of Research of the European Union and of European projects in the area of ethics; Dr. Teresa Sordé, who has expertise within the evaluation of projects from the European Framework Program of Research and is a researcher of Roma studies; Dr. Patricia Melgar, a founding member of the Catalan Platform against gender violence and researcher within the area of gender and gender violence; Dr. Sandra Racionero, a former secretary and member of the Ethics Board at Loyola University Andalusia (2016–2018); Dr. Cristina Pulido, an expert in data protection policies and child protection in research and communication and researcher of communication studies; Dr. Oriol Rios, a founding member of the “Men in Dialogue” association, a researcher within the area of masculinities, as well as an editor of “Masculinities and Social Change,” a journal indexed in WoS and Scopus; and Dr. Esther Oliver, who has expertise within the evaluation of projects from the European Framework Program of Research and is a researcher within the area of gender violence.

Students’ attitudes towards learning

The data collected suggest that the students who participate in the IGs and the DLGs have positive attitudes towards learning in general terms. Table 3 indicates that the answers for almost all the items are clearly positive; this is true for between 75% and 80% of the responses, except for three items (#3, #4, and #6). This outcome is understandable since in these three items, the interviewer changed the meaning of the question, i.e., instead of phrasing the questions positively, as with the rest of the items, the questions were phrased negatively, with the expected outcome being that the positive trend in the answers would be reversed, which is what occurred. Surprisingly, in the case of item #1, which we expected to function similar to items #3, #4 and #6, the responses are aligned with the rest of the items.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t003

The answers to item 1 (“We learn best when the teacher tells us what to do”) may indicate an active role by the teacher, which a priori would not be the expected answer in the context of using IGs and DLGs. In contrast, what we would expect in that context is for students to show a preference for answers related to an active role of the student, which is the case for the rest of the items analyzed. However, the fact that the respondents also claim that they learn better when the teacher tells them what to do either suggests that there is a bias in the student responses that is either due to what Yackel and Cobb [ 26 ] call the “norms”, which are also theorized as the “didactic contract” in Brousseau’s terms [ 29 ] and which regulate the social interactions within the classroom, or because the role of the teacher as a leader is recognized by these students.

Table 4 summarizes the previous results in two categories (agree and disagree). The trend noted above can now be clearly seen.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t004

Items #4 and #10 are crucial to understanding the attitudes that students have towards learning. In the first case, half of the respondents contrarily claim that learning is a boring activity. If we assume that for a boy or a girl between 7 and 11 years old, defining an activity as fun or boring can be a clear way of indicating their attitude towards that activity, the fact that half of the students participating in the survey declare that learning is not boring suggests that their participation in doing mathematics in the IGs and DLGs makes these two activities in some way attractive to them.

On the other hand, another relevant aspect regarding the students’ attitudes is the feeling of self-confidence. Previous research has provided much evidence that suggests the importance of this aspect in the attitudes that children can have towards learning [ 5 ]. Boys and girls who have confidence in themselves tend to show a clearly positive attitude towards learning. The data suggest that this is what happens when students participate within IGs or DLGs, i.e., three out of four children affirm that they feel more self-confident with regard to learning in school than they normally do. This result is relevant because it suggests that both IGs and DLGs have a clear impact on the positive transformation of attitudes towards learning. The data show that this is true for children in the three schools that participated in the survey, regardless of the country or the context in which they are located.

Principal components analysis

The KMO test indicates whether the partial correlations between the variables are small enough to be able to perform a factorial analysis. Table 2 shows that in this case, the KMO test has a value of 0.517 for the students participating in IGs and 0.610 for the students participating in the DLGs, which allows us to assume (although with reservation) that we can perform a factor analysis to find the principal components explaining the variance. Bartlett’s sphericity test (which contrasts the null hypothesis assuming that the correlation matrix is, in fact, an identity matrix, in which case we cannot assume that there are significant correlations between the variables) yields a critical value of 0.000 in both cases, which suggests that we can accept the null hypothesis of sphericity and, consequently, that we can think that the factorial model is adequate to explain de data.

After performing ANOVA several times, considering the several items in the tested models, we managed to find two models (one for the students who had participated in the IGs and another for those engaged in the DLGs) that explained more than half of the variance. Tables 5 and 6 introduce the obtained results.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t005

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t006

As Tables 5 and 6 indicate, the items that are included in the SAM test contribute to better explaining the attitudes that the students participating in the study have regarding DLGs than those they have regarding the IGs. For the DLGs, we observed that there are four components above 1, explaining 74.227% of the variance. In contrast, in the case of IGs, we find only two components above the value of 1, which together explain only 63.201% of the variance. This suggests that the SAM test is probably the best instrument to measure attitudes in the case of the DLGs.

The sedimentation graphs make it easier to visualize this result. In the left image of Fig 1 (the sedimentation graph obtained for the IGs), a clear inflection is observed from component 2. In contrast, in the case of the DLGs, the inflection occurs from component four and onward.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.g001

The matrix of components suggests that, in the case of the IGs, factor 1 is formed by the components that we can label as “active peer-support” (#9 “Helping my friends has helped me to understand things better”) and “active listening” (#8 “It is good to hear other people’s ideas”). Factor 2, on the other hand, is formed by the component of “participation” (#2 “We can learn more when we can express our own ideas”). For the IGs, the component “individualism” (#6 “I would rather think for myself than hear other people’s ideas”) is clearly the least explanatory (-0.616), which is a fact that seems to suggest that collaboration within the groups is a fundamental aspect of the learning dynamic occurring within them. Table 7 shows that the most explanatory factor of the variance is the first factor. On the other hand, factors 2, 3 and 4 are less important since their weights are almost irrelevant.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t007

When we observe the results for the case of the DLGs, the component matrix ( Table 8 ) indicates that factor 1 is formed mainly by the components of “positive discussion” (#11 “I like discussing the books we read with the class”), “self-confidence in school” (#10 “I am more confident about learning in school than I used to be), and “participation” (#2 “We can learn more when we can express our own ideas”). In contrast, Factor 2 contains a single component (#1 “We learn best when the teacher tells us what to do”). In the case of factor 3, the more explanatory component is the sixth component (#6 “I would rather think for myself than hear other people’s ideas”). Finally, factor 4 includes the third component of the SAM test (#3 “Learning through discussing in class is confusing”).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t008

Fig 2 shows the graphs of the loading scores for each component in a rotated space, both for the IGs and the DLGs. The data confirm the interpretation of the previous tables. The graphs show that for the IGs (the left side of Fig 2 ), variables #8 and #9 tend to explain the maximum variance of factor 1, while in the case of DLGs, the three-dimensional component chart shows the two slightly differentiated groups of variables.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.g002

Construction of subscales of attitudes towards learning in IGs and DLGs

The collected data allow us to think that the variables obtained with the SAM test may explain the attitudes that students have towards learning in the context of IGs and DLGs. However, according to previous theoretical models, it would seem plausible to assume that not all variables are equally precise in the explanation of the attitudes towards learning showed by the students interviewed in both contexts. For this reason, in this section, we compare two possible scales for each context (IGs and DLGs) to identify which variables would be more reliable in explaining those attitudes.

In the case of the IGs, we created two subscales. The first subscale (Tables 9 – 11 ) includes items #1 (“We learn best when the teacher tells us what to do”), #7 (“I enjoy learning when my friends help me”) and #10 (“I am more confident about learning in school than I used to be”). In contrast, subscale 2 (Tables 12 – 14 ) incorporates items #2 (“We learn more when we can express our own ideas”), #5 (“Learning in school is better when we have other adults to work with us”) and #11 (“I like discussing the books we read with the class”). Table 9 shows the Cronbach’s alpha value for subscale 1, which is rather mediocre (0.412), while Table 12 indicates that subscale 2 is a much more reliable subscale (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.794), suggesting that the subscale 2 works better than the first one to characterize the components explaining the results obtained within the IGs. The difference between the two subscales is that in the first one, the role of the teacher is not included, while in subscale 2, item #5 (“Learning in school is better when we have other adults to work with us”) is the one that presents the highest correlation (0.613), as seen in Table 13 , which shows the interitem correlation matrix for the variables of subscale 2.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t009

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t010

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t011

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t012

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t013

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t014

Regarding DLGs, we also created two subscales, i.e., subscales 3 (Tables 15 – 17 ) and 4 (Tables 18 – 20 ). Subscale 3 is formed by variables #1 (“We learn best when the teacher tells us what to do”), #5 (“Learning in school is better when we have other adults to work with us”), #10 (“I am more confident about learning in school than I used to be”) and #11 (‘I like discussing the books we read with the class”). In contrast, subscale 4 includes variables #2 (“We learn more when we can express our own ideas”), #7 (“I enjoy learning when my friends help me”), #8 (“It is good to hear other people’s ideas”) and #9 (“Helping my friends has helped me to understand things better”).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t015

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t016

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t017

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t018

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t019

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.t020

Table 15 shows the results for subscale 3 (DLGs), including a high Cronbach’s alpha value (0.820), indicating that this subscale is a good proposal. According to data shown in Tables 16 and 17 , the subscale 3 works better when component #10 is removed from the model (increasing Cronbach’s alpha from 0,820 to 0,829). This result suggests that self-confidence is not a relevant component for attitudes towards participating in DLGs. Subscale 3 is better than subscale 4, which presents a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.767, which, although high, is lower than that found in subscale 3.

The clearest difference between both subscales (3 and 4) is that the first one (subscale 3) includes item #11 (“I like discussing the books we read with the class”), which is the one item more focused on the context of the DLGs. The other items are more related to the interaction among the students (Tables 18 – 20 ). However, the amount of correlation explained is lower than the amount explained by subscale 3. This fact may explain why subscale 3 is more reliable in measuring students’ attitudes towards learning in social/interactional contexts, such as DLGs.

Discussion and conclusions

Previous research in education has provided enough evidence to claim that attitudes have a relevant impact on learning [ 42 – 46 ]. Studies such as those of Fennema and Sherman [ 3 ] have confirmed almost half a century ago that the “affective factors (…) partially explain individual differences in the learning of mathematics” [ 3 ]. Currently, we know that the results of learning depend, to a certain extent, on the attitudes that students have towards it. When there is a clear resistance to school and school practices, it is more difficult for students to achieve good results. Aspects such as motivation or self-concept, for instance, are relevant to explaining a positive attitude towards learning. These aspects often appear to be correlated [ 19 ]. When a child has a poor self-concept as a student, s/he often feels very unmotivated to learn in school. The literature reports numerous cases of students who actively or passively resist or even refuse to make an effort to learn their lessons because they felt that they cannot learn anything. In contrast, when students’ self-image is positive, then it is easier for them to learn. In those cases, the data provide evidence of positive correlations between learning achievements and attitudes. Rosenthal and Jacobson [ 5 ] called this type of behavior the Pygmalion Effect.

SEAs [ 7 ] such as IGs and DLGs are framed within the dialogic learning theory, one of whose main principals is that of transformation. As Freire [ 47 ] claimed, people “are beings of transformation, and not of adaptation.” Education has the capacity to create opportunities for people to transform themselves. Drawing on the assumption that “education needs both technical, scientific and professional training, as well as dreams and utopia” [ 47 ], SEAs integrate practices endorsed by the international scientific community to create real opportunities for learning for children. The data presented in the previous section suggest that children participating either in IGs or DLG have a clear positive attitude towards learning. Table 4 suggests that these children truly enjoy learning. Less than half of the participants say that learning at school is “boring” (41.8%). In contrast, almost eight out of ten children interviewed said they love learning (78.6%). The SAM test items, validated in previous studies [ 10 , 48 , 49 ], have been confirmed as components with which to measure children’s attitudes towards learning. For the first time in the context of studying the impact of actions included within the SEAs [ 7 ], we have been able to identify (and measure) the positive relationship between implementing SEAs, i.e., boys and girls engaged in the IGs and/or the DLGs showed a clear positive attitude towards learning. We can therefore claim that in the context of SEAs, students show positive attitudes towards learning. The data analyzed suggest that participating within IGs and DLGs empower students to transform their own attitudes towards learning.

On the other hand, we know that social contexts have a powerful influence on people’s attitudes. The context of positive empowerment, based on the idea of “maximum expectations” [ 50 , 51 ], is able to transform the attitudes that students have towards learning (especially those who are more resistant to learning and school). In contexts where school and school practices are not valued, children have to overcome the social tendency to openly show resistance against school (and everything that represents the school, such as teachers, attitudes of compliance with the school activities, norms, etc. ) and embrace a new tendency of valuing all these aspects. However, as previous studies framed within the symbolic interactionism approach have largely demonstrated [ 6 , 8 ], it is hard to turn against the social pressure of the group. We define our identity as a result of our interactions with others. If the group finds it attractive to resisting schooling, school norms and practices, then it is going to be difficult for individual students to achieve good academic results (unless they receive a different context from elsewhere) because they have to fight against the social pressure of not valuing school, in addition to the inherent difficulties of learning itself (in cognitive and curricular terms). In contrast, when the context is transformed (to adopt the terms of Freire and Flecha) and learning becomes a valued practice, children usually transform their attitudes, which previous research has correlated with successful learning achievement [ 14 , 15 , 33 ]. The data collected and discussed herein provide evidence for how changing the context (drawing on the two SEAs of IGs and DLGs) can transform students’ attitudes towards learning. As we stated in the previous section, 78.6% of the students participating in the survey claimed that they like to learn after participating in either IGs or in DLGs. They claim that they like “when my friends help me.” Along the same lines, 78.3% of the respondents said that “it is good to hear other people’s ideas,” while 76.7% claim that “helping my friends has helped me to understand things better.” This type of answer clearly demonstrates that IGs and DLGs create a context in which learning is valued positively. Attitudes such as solidarity, willingness to help the other, friendship seem to indicate the preference for a context that is oriented towards learning rather than resisting it. Hence, transforming the context also changes how individuals recreate their own identities using different values as referents, which, drawing on Mead [ 6 ], is how identity creation works. The evidence collected herein suggests that IGs and DLGs work to increase students’ academic performance because they transform the students’ context; hence, students transform their own attitudes (as expected according the theory of symbolic interactionism).

By analyzing more in detail what happens in both the IGs and the DLGs, we have been able to verify that the attitudes that emerge among the students participating either in the IGs or the DLGs are slightly different. In the case of the IGs, the data collected reveal that children value much more the collaborative work with the rest of their classmates, as seen in the answers to items #8 (“It is good to hear other people’s ideas”) and #9 (“Helping my friends has helped me to understand things better”). These two items are the main components explained by the variance detected. On the other hand, in the case of the DLGs, the ability to express one’s ideas is especially valued. In this case, the variance is explained above all by items #2 (“We learn more when we can express our own ideas”), #10 (“I am more confident about learning in school than I used to be”) and #11 (“I like discussing the books we read with the class”). The last component (#11) clearly belongs to a context similar to that of the DLGs. However, the two previous components (#2 and #10) suggest that participation in DLGs is related to the development of a positive self-image as learner. The chi-square test indicates that the correlations are significant in both cases. Therefore, the data obtained suggest that participating in IGs and/or DLGs is related to showing positive attitudes towards learning (both as an individual and as member of the group, i.e., in a social sense).

On the other hand, when analyzing the reliability of the results, it can be verified that in the case of the IGs, the most important correlation appears in the case of item #5 (“Learning in school is better when we have other adults to work with us”). This finding is very relevant since it constitutes empirical evidence of something that Vygotsky already suggested when he proposed his concept of ZPD, which is that in order for the process to work, there must be an adult or a more capable peer to help those who are learning achieve what they can with the support of these adults who act as facilitators. The difference between IGs and other collaborative learning groups is exactly that, i.e., in the IGs, there is always an adult who dynamizes the activity (who does not provide the answers but encourages the children to engage in a dialogic interaction [ 15 ]).

Regarding the DLGs, the most important correlation appears in the case of item #11 (“I like discussing the books we read with the class”), which is an aspect that makes sense in the context of the gatherings. Children affirm that they like to read books together with their other classmates. As we know, this activity has clear advantages from the point of view of the development of reading understanding [ 41 , 52 ].

A surprising finding is the high response rate to item #1 (“We learn best when the teacher tells us what to do”). This would seem to be inconsistent with using IGs or DLGs, where the role of the teacher is rather marginal or passive (the teacher organizes the activity but does not give answers, and they explain the academic content such as in a master’s class, etc.). Perhaps a possible reason to explain this result is that the school, as an institution, is characterized by a series of social norms [ 26 ]. Waiting for teachers’ directions is part of those norms. It is assumed that when attending the school, we must pay attention to what the teacher says. This idea corresponds to the social image of the teacher as a transmitter of knowledge, which is part of the social norm characterizing the school institution. It is possible that even though the children participating in this study have engaged in IGs and DLGs, there are not excluded from the norms of the social context, so that their attitudes are tinged with them.

We can therefore conclude that the SAM test demonstrates that children who participate in IGs and/or DLGs clearly show positive attitudes towards learning after participating in these two SEAs. Perhaps this is one of the fundamental variables explaining the successful learning results that other studies have found among children using SEAs [ 11 – 15 ].

Future implications

This research confirms some aspects of learning, while it leaves others open for further study. We have observed that children who participate in SEAs show positive attitudes towards learning. However, what we do not know (yet) is whether it is the use of these SEAs that explains why these children show these attitudes or if the transformation lies in other reasons. To clarify this lack of information, it is necessary to conduct further experimental research comparing groups of students using SEAs and other groups of students using other types of educational actions.

On the other hand, the data that we have discussed herein suggest that there is a social component that has a critical influence on the type of attitudes that students report in the survey. According to the criteria of how the IGs and DLGs work, solidarity, interaction, and sharing seem to explain why these children develop positive learning attitudes. However, it would be interesting to continue with this line of research to see if this outcome also presents when other educational actions are used in which the principals of action are different (when they are centered on the individual, for example).

Finally, evidence seems to support the statement that the successful academic performance of children who participate in IGs and DLGs is explained by the fact that participating in these two types of SEAs transforms the children’s context to a positive orientation towards learning. Indeed, the results are hopeful. However, we need to further replicate this study to confirm (or refute) that statement. In any case, confirming that statement and covering the preceding research questions presents the clear implication that teachers have to put their effort into designing their lessons, as how they organize their classes truly encourages students’ learning.

Supporting information

S1 file. sam questionnaire: what i think about learning in school..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.s001

S2 File. Dataset.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240292.s002

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The Impact of the Use of E-Learning to the Students' Attitude

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Demonstratio Mathematica

Ryszard Pawlak

Czesław Byliński

arXiv (Cornell University)

Victor Ostrik

Mathematical Problems in Engineering

Xinrui Zhan

Journal of Education, Humaniora and Social Sciences

Teguh Dartanto

BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics &amp; Gynaecology

Ancizar Betancourt

Developmental Psychobiology

John Richards

Health Policy and Planning

Robert e. Black

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