Students’ Perception and Gender Differences in Digital Learning During COVID-19: A consensus Based Approach

Abstract

Abstract Although online learning is not a novel phenomenon in education institutions, especially at higher levels, but the onset of covid-19 utterly disrupted the traditional mode of learning and forced a hasty shift towards its wider adoption. In the developing countries like India, while on the one hand, it has led to a significant surge in the use of online learning tools and softwares, on the other hand, it has also brought to fore the ill-preparedness of institutions for such a mode of learning. Further, given the country's current scenario, the readiness of all the stakeholders (instructors, students, parents) and the effectiveness of online learning cannot be assumed to be the same at all levels, for all age groups, and across gender. In this study, we focus on understanding secondary school students' perceptions and preferences regarding online learning. Besides looking for possible gender discrepancies in the impact of Covid 19, we tried to identify major benefits and bottlenecks from students’ perspectives. To overcome the limitations of Shenon entropy and other measures of dispersion for ordinal data, we made use of consensus/dissention measurement for a meaningful comparison of mean ranks. For the robustness of rankings in case of major benefits and bottlenecks, we used Friedman’s ranking along with Garret ranking. The results reveal, with a good degree of agreement/consensus, online learning improves technical skills, saves time, and encourages more self-study. Nevertheless, respondents highlighted a number of challenges during their online courses, including weak internet connectivity, insufficient number of devices at home, and disruptions caused by family members. Also, females were more affected than males as they had fewer learning resources at home, and in some cases, the burden of household chores prevented them from studying. We suggest a greater focus towards the bottlenecks (identified in this study) while making online learning an integral part of school education so as to reap its benefits.