SAUDI ARABIAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF E-LEARNING QUALITY DURING COVID19 PANDEMIC

The quality of the E-learning education in Saudi Arabia has been a major concern by many academicians, especially, and people in general as this platform has not been a priority for education. Not until recently, the world has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which makes every education institution shifted to the online platform to continue the education for the students. Thus, many studies on the perceptions on the online learning have been carried out, and though many are focusing on the perceptions by the education institutions' faculty and administration, there is a lack in the amount of study performed to analyse the students' perceptions of online learning during the pandemic time. The current study is conducted by utilising qualitative methods in order to collect information and investigate the students' perception regarding online learning during the pandemic Covid-19, based on their individual experiences. A number of fifteen (15) students were selected as respondents for the study, in which structured interviews were conducted by using a convenient sampling technique for data collection. Through the discussion, all of the positive and negative perceptions of online learning, as well as the factors contributing to those perceptions were identified. The results of the study found that the positive perceptions were contributed based on the flexibility, cost-effectiveness, availability of the electronic research databases, and well-designed online classroom interfaces. For the negative perceptions from using online learning platforms, the respondents informed that they were contributed by the lecturer's delayed feedback, lack of technical support by lecturers, low in self-esteem and self-motivation, feel isolated, one-way of educational methods, and poorly-designed class materials. Through the findings, the school's administration and lecturers would be able to know the struggles experienced by the students, and eventually come out with better solutions to improve their teaching methods.