E-learning Challenges Faced By Students During the Covid-19 Pandemic; A Study of University Students From Rural and Urban Areas of Pakistan

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered the global educational system, bringing an emergency shift from on-campus learning to e-learning practices all across the globe. E-learning was adopted as an emergency response strategy by universities in Pakistan to prevent educational loss in such grim times. Although e-learning has significantly helped in the continuation of education for many, a lot of students still face a wide range of challenges while adopting and implementing these new educational systems. This research aims to explore and identify the e-learning challenges faced by university students across Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic, as no previous research has been conducted on this issue in accordance with Pakistan’s digital divide. This research also presents an account of how e-learning is being conducted in Pakistan, elaborating on the major factors that hinder its successful implementation to date. This research is quantitative and qualitative in nature and employs a thematic analysis technique to analyse the e-learning challenges faced by university students in Pakistan. The findings of this research identify factors like access to technology, communication services, electricity, and online learning mediums, which determine the ability of a student to successfully participate in online learning. In addition to this, challenges like high academic workload, difficulty in adapting to these new mediums, lack of access to adequate resources for e-learning, and the lack of learner’s motivation were identified as some of the major issues which are hindering the implementation of successful e-learning systems in Pakistan. So, the factors affecting e-learning and the challenges faced by students during the implementation of e-learning in Pakistan were identified with the aims of creating awareness about these issues and paving the way for positive changes in the educational policies and strategies adopted by the government, universities, and the faculty members in Pakistan.