The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic among Undergraduate Engineering Students in Jordanian Universities: Factors Impact Students’ Learning Satisfaction

Abstract

The emergence of the recent COVID-19 pandemic has led to the migration of traditional learning to distance learning platforms which have become the common teaching method among educational institutions. The effective implementation of this online learning method depends on various factors affecting learners’ satisfaction. The current study examines the relationship between learners' satisfaction on distance learning and factors (online learning self-efficacy, anxiety, fear of COVID-19) that impact students’ remote learning experience among undergraduate engineering students in Jordanian public and private universities. Data was collected via an online survey measuring students’ baseline of distance learning satisfaction, online learning self-efficacy, anxiety, and fear of COVID-19 which was distributed between June to August 2020. The participants in this study were 505 undergraduate engineering students (353 males, 152 females) who were mostly Jordanian (92.6%) with an average age of 21 (SD = 1.86). There were 298 participants from public universities (59%) and 207 from private universities (41%). Findings reported a significant gap between public and private universities students’ distance learning satisfaction, online learning self-efficacy, and anxiety level while the students’ scores on fear of COVID-19 was insignificant. Students in private universities were also reported to have higher baseline rates for all the constructs involved in this study. Furthermore, the online learning self-efficacy scores significantly predicted the distance learning satisfaction level among undergraduate engineering students when other constructs were treated as a constant. The findings of this study offer important implications for instructors in considering self-efficacy skills when working with undergraduate students. Limitations and recommendations for future research were also outlined.