Students' Perceptions of Online Lecture Delivery Modes: Higher Education During Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond

During the Covid-19 pandemic, universities adopted several learning modes to ensure the continuation of the education activities. They adopted many methods of learning such as online once (online real-time with no recorded lecture; face-to-screen instead of face-to-face), online repeatable (online real-time with recorded lecture), Self (pre-recorded lecture only), and blended (pre-recorded lecture with face-to-face learning). Since all these methods are adopted without any evidence of their acceptance by the students, the purpose of this study is to evaluate each of these modes and identify the most preferred mode of learning. Also, this study tested the new method of blended learning preferred by the students. A questionnaire was shared among the students in two faculties in the University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, and 903 were responded. Accordingly, this study found that the majority of the students preferred online real-time lectures together with the recorded lectures. This method was again tested with a selected student group and confirmed. Thus, this study recommends face-to screen lectures together with the recorded lesson is the most appropriate method to adopt during the new normal context.