EVALUATING THE ONLINE LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS AMID COVID-19: A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS

Abstract

COVID-19 has brought unprecedented effects on academics and learning institutions as it has dramatically changed the norm of educational operations. The disruption caused by this pandemic has resulted in the enforcement of virtual learning which is also known as online learning or e-learning. This study was conducted to evaluate a virtual learning system's effectiveness based on the DeLone and McLean model. Data were collected using questionnaires distributed to the accounting degree programme at the Faculty of Business, Economics, and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). We analysed our data utilising the SPSS 26. We presented our results in a form of descriptive analysis. Our preliminary findings suggest that although the online system learning is acceptable in terms of the system quality, information quality, and service quality and that the system is easy to use. Nevertheless, our early insight revealed that most of the students were agreed that it is not easy to learn online. Hence, most of the students preferred the traditional way of teaching and learning (face to face learning). This may indicate no intention to use online learning amongst the students post COVID-19. Besides, the majority of the students agreed that they did not learned well and thus, not score well in their quizzes or exam as well. We provide a discussion for plausible reasons for this early insight.