E-learning During COVID-19 Pandemic: Obstacles Faced Nursing Students and Its Effect on Their Attitudes While Applying It

Abstract

Background: E-learning is the use of the internet and its related devices for educational purposes without geographical restrictions, especially after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to a disruption of education in the classrooms in Egypt and around the world. Teaching and learning via the internet is a novel experience for most teachers and students. Aim: to investigate the effect of obstacles faced nursing students on their attitudes towards e-learning while applying it during COVID-19 pandemic. Design: A descriptive correlational research design. Setting: The study was conducted at Faculty of Nursing, Menoufia University, Egypt. Subjects: A stratified random sample technique was employed for the selection of 30% from the students in each of the four academic years enrolled in Faculty of Nursing, Menoufia University during the academic year 2019/2020. Tools: Interviewing questionnaire, attitude towards e-learning scale, and obstacles of e-learning questionnaires. Results: The results revealed that overall, 61.6% of students had negative attitudes towards e-learning. There was the highest level of total obstacles present among academic students in the first year were (67.6%) and the lowest level of total obstacles present among academic students in the fourth year was (55.7%) that faced nursing students during using e-learning. the most common dimensions of obstacles to e-learning were infrastructure and technology, technical and management support, and instructors' characteristics (87.1%, 85.2%, and 82.9%, respectively). Conclusions: There was a high statistically significant negative correlation between obstacles facing nursing students, and their attitudes toward e-learning. Recommendations: The Board Directors of the Faculty of Nursing must take the necessary measures to improve electronic learning and teaching during the closure. Also, a systematic strategy should be followed to implement e-learning since it is a new experience for Menoufia University.