Study on Satisfaction of Students Regarding Online Classes in a Selected College of Nursing, Mangalore

Introduction and Need for the Study

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the whole world to a standstill since March 2020. This has been particularly true in India. The only solution to prevent the spread of this deadly disease was social distancing, and this resulted in lockdowns. Since schools and colleges are crowded areas where the virus could easily be transmitted, all educational institutions had to close their doors, and students remained at home for extended periods of time. These institutions had to devise new and alternative systems of teaching and learning. With technological advancement, it is now possible to organize online courses, making use of Zoom and Google.¹ Medical and nursing students use applications such as Impartus, Zoom, and Google Meet to supplement formal classroom learning. Preventive measures become the best way to prevent infection and are important in saving one from being infected by the virus. Thus, students had experience of online classes in the first wave of the pandemic.²

The transition from formal classroom learning to online learning was a major challenge for medical and nursing educators as well as students, because medical studies are essentially practice-based studies, unlike purely academic college studies. Teachers and students were ill prepared for the impact the pandemic was going to have on education.³ As a result, they had to innovate and were forced to use online learning for a longer period of time. Students' satisfaction can be evaluated on two levels: one, the short-term attitude of each individual, resulting from educational experience, services, and facilities; and two, an emotional psychological response, depending on the students' expectations regarding their academic reality.⁴

The ability of nurses to deal with the absence of face-to-face training was likely to impact their studies. Therefore, an in-depth study into how knowledge is transmitted and absorbed had to be undertaken. In this context, learner satisfaction is an essential element in enabling students to acquire the level of knowledge they will need to provide proper care for patients.

In a world with an ever-expanding workforce, online learning has become one of the most cost-effective ways to educate. In this modern era, it plays an important role in imparting knowledge. Traditional teaching delivery systems are evolving from the classroom setting, where a professor lectures and students listen. Advanced modern technology is now providing simple and flexible educational alternatives for those who are unable to attend traditional classrooms. Through online classes, it becomes easy for students to learn the bulk of the subject matter and fill in the gaps in several areas.⁵

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India announced the total shutdown of schools and colleges in early 2020. Under these circumstances, the Education Department of India promoted the use of online classes for academic studies. Medical and nursing colleges too have adopted this new way of learning through online classes. As this is a new method of both teaching and learning, it is important to be able to gauge the level of satisfaction of students with online classes.

In 2003, Wang developed information and communications technology and he has brought about a significant evolution in the systems for delivering information in education. This study was conducted to evaluate whether the students had a full level of satisfaction with online teaching and learning programs.⁶ The main need and focus for conducting this study was to determine the factors that directly or indirectly affect the students' level of satisfaction.⁷

Therefore, this study will:

• Assist in determining how well students cope with online instruction and how motivated they are to adapt to this new way of learning.

• Investigate methods and means of compensating for a lack of practical experience.

• Investigate how the virtual presence of the lecturer improves students' attention and concentration.

• Attempt to identify and assist in the resolution of problems encountered while taking online classes.

• Prepare lecturers and students to face similar challenges in the future.

Objectives of the Study

• To identify the level of satisfaction of students regarding online classes.

• To find an association between demographic variables and the level of satisfaction score of students regarding online classes.

Hypothesis

Hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance.

H₁: There will be significant association between level of satisfaction score and selected demographic variables.

Materials and Methods

Methodology

Research Design

A descriptive research design was selected for the study.

Population

The study population includes the students who attended the online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic in a selected college of nursing, Mangalore.

Setting of the Study

This study was conducted at a selected college of nursing in Mangalore.

Sample Size and Sampling Technique

• In the present study, the sample comprised of 387 students from Bachelor of Science (BSc) Nursing and Post Basic BSc (PBBSc) Nursing from a selected college of nursing, Mangalore, which was selected through a computer-based online random sampling technique. A proportional random sampling method was used to select the number of samples from each batch of students. Samples were collected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

• Samples were selected in equal proportion from respective batches using the formula: (sample size/population size) × stratum size. (As shown in Fig. 1, sample size = 387, population size = 472, stratum size = as mentioned in the Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1 Sample and sampling. BSc(N), Bachelor of Science Nursing; PBBSc(N), Post Basic Bachelor of Science Nursing.

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Sample size calculation formula:

Following values can be used for estimating the sample size (p = 0.579).²

Total sample size = 387 (5% of attrition rate is considered).

Sample Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Nursing students who attended real online classes during COVID-19 pandemic (samples were selected from first, second, third, and fourth year BSc (N), and first and second year PBBSc (N) batch, respectively).

• Students who were in the age group of 18 to 40 years.

Exclusion Criteria

• Students who made use of offline virtual contents during COVID-19 pandemic.

Instruments

Tool 1: Description of demographic variables consisted of six items to obtain information regarding age in years, gender, education (year of study), Internet accessibility at home and hostel, participation in online classes through, and hours spent online per day for education.

Tool 2: Rating scale on the level of satisfaction of students regarding online classes: The tool consisted of 25 items. It was on a 4-point rating scale with an option of “Highly satisfied” (score 4), “Moderately satisfied” (score 3), “Moderately dissatisfied” (score 2), and “Highly dissatisfied” (score 1).

Interpretation of the Scores

Interpretation	Score
Highly dissatisfied	25–50
Moderately dissatisfied	51–75
Moderately satisfied	76–100
Highly satisfied	>100

Domains

Sl. no.	Domains	Number of items
1	Learner's perspective	9
2	Instructor's dimension	5
3	Technology dimension	6
4	Course organization	5

Results

Discussion

In the present study, the results showed that the majority of the students were in the age group of 20 to 21 years (40.7%) and the maximum number of students were females (91.4%). These findings are supported by a study conducted on “Online Learning in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assessment of Students' Satisfaction at Chitwan Medical College, Nepal.” This study revealed that the mean age of the students was 21.8 years (range: 17–39 years). The majority of students belonged to the female category (77.6%).⁷

In this study, 49.35% of students were moderately dissatisfied, 38% were moderately satisfied, 6.45% were highly satisfied, and 6.20% were highly dissatisfied with regard to online classes. These findings are supported by the study conducted on “Online Learning in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assessment of Students' Satisfaction at Chitwan Medical College, Nepal.” In the study, 53% of students were satisfied. Only 16.8% were dissatisfied with online classes.⁷

Limitations of the Study

• The study was limited to the students who attended online classes during COVID-19 pandemic.

• The study confined to the students of a selected college of nursing in Mangalore.

• This study was limited for selected batches in a selected college of nursing, Mangalore.

Conclusion

The study was undertaken on the “satisfaction of students regarding online classes” and it was found that 38% of the students were moderately satisfied with the online classes. It was also noted that 49.35% of the students were moderately dissatisfied with the online classes. This study clearly shows that online teaching is not highly effective for students. As far as the current situation is concerned, a hybrid teaching model could make it effective for students' learning as it is highly flexible based on the students' skills requirements.