Virtual Learning and Students’ Connectedness in the Time of Coronavirus

  • Marwan Mohamed Abdeldayem, Saeed Hameed Aldulaimi, Majid Lateef Abdulrazaq Aldulaimi

Abstract

The recent Novel Coronavirus (COVID19) outbreak has caused severe changes in higher education (HE). The closure of university compuses worldwide has imposed virtual learning as the only safe exit for HE institutions. The purpose of this study is to examine whether students are connected with virtual learning in the time of coronavirus. The study is in this manner evaluating the “validity” and “reliability” of the Classroom Community Scale (CCS) created by Rovai (2002) for estimating students' connectedness in virtual learning environment in the Kingdom of Bahrain. 420 postgraduate and undergraduate virtual students reacted to the CCS. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed utilizing AMOS 25 software to analyze the ampleness of goodness of fit to test information and validate the model. The findings reveal that students' connectedness and virtual learning are significantely correlated (R=0.91). The goodness of fit index (GFI), is high (GFI = 0.966), which denotes the most noteworthy purpose of "adequate fit". The CFA furnished legitimate information that the CCS with two subscales in particular: students' connectedness (n=10) and virtual learning (n=10), is a valid scale with sufficient model fit. Connectedness and virtual learning subscales were additionally seen as valid and reliable.

Keywords: Virtual Learning, Students’ Connectedness, Classroom Community Scale (CCS), Coronavirus (COVID 19), Higher Education, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Kingdom of Bahrain.

Published
2020-06-06
How to Cite
Marwan Mohamed Abdeldayem, Saeed Hameed Aldulaimi, Majid Lateef Abdulrazaq Aldulaimi. (2020). Virtual Learning and Students’ Connectedness in the Time of Coronavirus. International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology, 29(05), 12634-12645. Retrieved from http://sersc.org/journals/index.php/IJAST/article/view/25862