Evolution to Online Education around the globe during a SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic: Do develop and underdeveloped cope alike?

Qazi, Javaria; Naseer, Khulla; Qazi, Atika; AlSalman, Hussain; Naseem, Usman; Yang, Shuiqing; Hardaker, Glenn; Gumaei, Abdu

Background Educational institutes around the globe in this 21st century is facing challenges of SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus infectious disease. They are required to conduct online learning to avoid face to face contact in emergency scenarios such as COVID-19 pandemic and continuing academic year while keeping social distancing. Students need to adapt to new roles of learning through information technology to succeed in academics amid COVID-19. Objective However, access to the impact of access & use of online learning resources, to what extent, these students are satisfied with online learning amid COVID-19 particularly in handling new challenges are critical to explore. Therefore, in this paper, we aimed to assess and compare the access & use of online learning of Bruneians and Pakistanis amid enforced lockdown imposed by the governments using a five-items satisfaction scale underlying existing literature. Method For this, a cross-sectional study was done in the first half of June 2020 after the pandemic situation among 320 students’ across Pakistan and Brunei and strata with a pre-defined questionnaire. Data were analyzed with statistical software package SPSS 2.0. Results The finding showed that there is a relationship between students’ satisfaction and access & use of online learning. Outcomes of the survey suggest that Bruneian are more satisfied (50%) with the use of online learning amid lockdown as compared to Pakistanis (35.9%). Living in the Urban area as compared to a rural area is also a major factor contributing to satisfaction with the access and use of online learning for both Bruneian and Pakistanis. Moreover, previous experience with the use of online learning is observed prevalent among Bruneians (P=.000), while among friends and family is using online learning (P=.000) were encouraging factors contributed to satisfaction with the use of online learning among Pakistanis amid COVID-19. Correlation results suggest that access and use factors of online learning amid COVID-19 were positively associated with satisfaction among both populations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Bruneian is more satisfied with Internet access (r=.437, P<.000) and affordability of gadgets ((r=.577, P<.000) as compare to Pakistanis((r=.176, P<.050) and (r=.156, P<.050). Conclusion: The study suggested that it is crucial for the government and other policymakers worldwide to address access and use of online learning resources of their populace amid pandemic. Implications and future recommendation were discussed