Impact of Online Learning on Student Engagement and Academic Performance

Abstract
The present study has been trying to demonstrate the effect of online
learning on student engagement and their academic performance. It
has been found that e-learning presents a serious obstacle that both
students and teachers have to encounter, as it needed the adaptation
of new teaching strategies. Introducing virtual learning would require
some aspects from the teachers’ side as well as the students' side.
From the students’ aspect, it includes online access to information and
lectures, whereas, from the teachers’ aspect, it comprises adaptation
new learning approach to compass the curriculum content. This study
has gathered the related data by primary data collection method. The
main finding of this study is that the approach of online learning is
beneficial for students in many aspects though there are some
challenges regarding this. The main aim of this study is to evaluate
the impact of online earning on students’ academic performance.

Keywords: E-learning, Online learning, Academic Performance,

Student Engagement

Introduction

Online education is a process of achieving knowledge and skills through different electronic devices such as
mobiles, computers, and laptops with the help of the internet. Online learning makes it conceivable for
mentors or tutors to reach all students more resiliently and educate them about related skills more
effectively. Engaged students identify better learning results and also improved academic performance
through online learning including enhanced emotional-social well-being, academic success, and greater
connection with their schools. Whereas disengaged students see negative results of online learning such as
dropping out, violence, and cutting classes. Due to the pandemic and shutdown of all the educational
institutes, authorities have to take necessary steps to adopt modern teaching approaches, mainly online.
Technology has played a vital role in online learning and influenced students’ activity in different ways.
Hence, e-learning is becoming an integral part of a virtual teaching condition where every student can
manage their own learning and maximize it later. The main aim of this research paper is to identify the
effect of online learning on student engagement and academic performance.
Literature review

Experience with online learning

Today students have easy access to much information through the web and modern technology also can
control their own knowledge acquisition through online learning. Due to this traditional learning and
teaching methods are becoming less efficient at appealing to students, who do not depend exclusively on the
teacher as the only knowledge source. It has been seen that 90 percent of overall students utilize the internet
as their crucial source of information that improves their academic performance (Hamdan and Amorri,
2022). Now the roles of the teachers are not only bounded by educating students, also they must help
students to reflect on their knowledge and formulate their thinking about that. Another purpose for accepting
e-learning is that higher academics did not temporize to use this as a basic tool of education (Paulsen and
McCormick, 2020). As a result, it changes the conventional program and present process of learning into an

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online education concept. E-learning is also defined as a virtual education process using technologies of
wireless computing and mobile in a way to encourage learners’ learning capabilities.

Active instructors play a huge role to generate a learning process within the virtual classroom to engage
learners in education. They also encourage students to participate in structuring their own content type and
design the parameters of learning assessment to improve academic performance. Active learners can use the
course content anywhere, anytime, and also engage with their peers within a collaborative environment (Al
Rawashdehet al. 2021). They can compose their opinions continuously, communicate with other study
communities, interact efficiently, publish, and share their overall findings with others within an online
environment.

Both learners and instructors decide on which topic has to learn and how the learning can be achieved
successfully to result in greater academic performance. This experience is mainly structured to nurture
inquiry and learning models which are challenging based, where students and teachers work together to
gather knowledge about compelling issues. This strategy includes learners reflecting on their knowledge, the
effect of their actions, and spreading their unique solutions to a global audience.

Impact of e-learning on student engagement and academic performance

Online learning can be in various

formats such as fully
asynchronous, blended, or
synchronous. Each of these
different formats provides different
opportunities and challenges for
time management, pacing,
technological ease, and
community. Fully asynchronous
education is quite time efficient,
though offers less scope for
communication that naturally
occur in person (El-Sabagh, 2021).
Students and teachers might feel
underwhelmed due to the absence
of instant feedback that can occur
in face-to-face class time. Whether synchronous e-learning is less flexible for students and teachers that
need reliable technology though permits more feedback and real-time engagement. Teachers have to
organize and coordinate both the inperson as well as online lessons, which is not time efficient in the
blended learning process. In the courses of online learning, mainly fully asynchronous, learners are more
responsible for their studying, which might be challenging for those who scuffle with self-managing their
work pace (Khodaeiet al. 2022). Students can feel isolated as they do not get to communicate with their
peers or instructors might become disengaged in the online learning process resulting in poor academic
performance. Teachers should use technology wisely to encourage student engagement to fully maneuver
the power of
information technology (Elshareif
Figure 1: Conceptual model of learner’s online learning environment parameters and
Mohamed, 2021). It has been (Source: Hamdan and Amorri, 2022)

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observed that there are many advantages related to online education for students such as better engagement,
and time management. Also, there are major complications that students encounter with e-learnings are
technical problems, less attention span, lack of encouragement, and getting distracted easily.

The figure 1 represents the closed loop of content mapping factors and their engagement in relation to
learners’ intake and performance. The initial feedback loop starts at the node termed Students. The second
one started at the node which entitled as a teacher; there are two significant feedback loops. It has been
identified that a good team enhances creativity and cooperation which improves learning experiences and
academic performance. Setting interactive strategies and clear goals will increase online learning as well as
performance results.

Methods

Research methodology is the significant techniques or procedures utilized to select, analyze, identify, and
process data about a study topic. It is important as offers research legitimacy and gives scientifically sound
results (Patel and Patel, 2019). A researcher’s methodology permits the reader to know the methods and
approaches used to reach conclusions. There are two types of data collection methods such as primary and
secondary data collection. In this study, primary data collection procedures have been used to collect the
information related to the study. The main reason to use this method, it is more reliable and accurate as it
gathers from a direct resource (Sileyew, 2019). Here in this study, an inductive research approach has been
taken as it permits researchers to modify their research techniques and topics on the collecting data. This
study methodology has been based on the positivism philosophy as the data provided by this is trustworthy.
The main motive to use the explanatory research design in this study as it assists researchers to better grasp
of a subject (Toyon, 2021). Primary information can be gathered in real-time, which makes it easy for
monitoring processes or tracking events. A research population is a well-structured collection of individuals
who have similar characteristics. In order to gather relevant data participants have been chosen from the
study area (Stratton, 2021). Here, a total of 31 participants have been chosen to complete the data analysis
process through a survey. All the data that have been collected here are relevant, and no participants have
been forced to take part in this survey.

Discussions and Findings

From the above study, it has been found that online learning assists students in identifying the significance
of their personal responsibility and improves academic performance. Teachers can simply guide and monitor
the learning process comprising material understanding along with task progress.

Figure 2: Age of the participants, (Source: MS-Excel)

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The above data set represents the age of the participants, which are from 25 years to 56 years; they are
mainly teachers who have experience in online tutoring. The maximum numbers of respondents are age
group between 31 years to 48 years.

Figure 3: Participant’s opinion on the attendance of students in virtual classes

(Source: MS-Excel)

From the above data set, it can be observed that most of the participants strongly agreed with the statement
that student attendance in virtual class settings is maximum rather than in traditional classes. This is mainly
due to the students being able to attend classes from anywhere, also when they are sick they also can get the
chance to attend class from their homes.

Figure 4: Respondent’s opinion on students can create their own customized learning environment
(Source: MS-Excel)

From the above data figure, it can be noticed that a maximum number of the participants strongly agree on
the fact that virtual learning offers a platform where students can create their own customized learning
environment. Students’ academic performances are improving day by day with the help of this. Students
also can be dependent by creating their own study routine, and they can better manage overall activities.

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 Figure 5: Participants' opinions on the students encounter a lack of motivation in virtual class settings (Source:
MS-Excel)

From the above data figure, it can be stated that a maximum number of the respondents agreed that students
face a lack of motivation in the virtual learning process. This can adversely impacted on the academic
performance of the learners.

Figure 6: Respondents’ opinions on the students feel isolated due to the lack of interaction with teachers and peers
(Source: MS-Excel)

From the above data figure, it has been found that most of the participants strongly agreed that due to the
elearning process, students feel isolated from their peers and teachers. This mainly occurs as a result of the
lack of face-to-face interaction, which did not happen in traditional classes.

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Figure 7: Respondents’ opinions on students can get insights into vast knowledge through e-learning rather than traditional
classroom settings (Source: MS-Excel)

The above data set represents that the majority number of the participants strongly agreed with that students
can get vast knowledge through e-learning. Students can gather different information regarding their study
by utilizing internet sources; this directly improves their academic performance.

Figure 8: Participants’ opinions on due to a lack of face-to-face communication, teachers face difficulties to educate
students (Source: MS-Excel)

The above data figure presents a maximum number of respondents who strongly agreed that the teachers
face difficulties due to a lack of face-to-face interaction. This also can be adversely impacting the student’s
academic performance as teachers do not understand the learning gap.

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 Figure 9: Respondents’ opinions on online learners have better scope to collaborate with classmates through virtual
networks (Source: MS-Excel)

The above data figure presents that the maximum number of participants disagreed on the fact that online
learners have a better advantage to collaborate with peers through virtual networks. They can initiate a
meeting or interact on different internet meeting platforms, though they do not actively communicate in this
process.

Figure 10: Participants’ opinions on virtual networks of learning permit students to post their reading feedback.
(Source: MS-Excel)

From the above data figure, most of the respondents strongly agreed that virtual networks of learning offer
students to post their reading feedback. This activity also helps other students to know about the topic, also
initiates others to learn about that and in this way, their academic performance can be enhanced.

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 Figure 11: Participants’ opinions on online learning permit learners to develop independent study practice
(Source: MS-Excel)

The above data set presents that the maximum number of the respondents strongly agreed that online
learning offers students the chance to develop independent study practices. In this study process, students
engage themselves to clear doubts on their own without depending on teachers, in order to clear their study
doubts they also get help from internet sources, in this way, they can broaden their knowledge.

Conclusion

From the above study, it can be concluded that there have been positive as well as adverse impacts of online
learning on students’ academic performance. This learning process can benefit learners in different ways
such as by enhancing their classroom participation and learning independence. It is a better experience for
learners’ transitional preparation to go after higher education and at the same time seek employment.
Students are no longer dependent on their students for information; they can mitigate their thirst for
knowledge by using internet education sources. They have manifested that they can presume their
responsibilities, donate to the personalization of the learning process and course structure assessment. In this
way, they can thoroughly improve their academic performance in these e-learning settings.

References

Al Rawashdeh, A.Z., Mohammed, E.Y., Al Arab, A.R., Alara, M. and Al-Rawashdeh, B., 2021. Advantages and
disadvantages of using e-learning in university education: Analyzing students’ perspectives. Electronic Journal of
Elearning, 19(3), pp.107-117.

El-Sabagh, H.A., 2021. Adaptive e-learning environment based on learning styles and its impact on development
students' engagement. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 18(1), pp.1-24.

Elshareif, E. and Mohamed, E.A., 2021. The Effects of E-Learning on Students' Motivation to Learn in Higher
Education. Online Learning, 25(3), pp.128-143.

Hamdan, K. and Amorri, A., 2022. The impact of online learning strategies on students’ academic performance.
Elearning and digital Education in the twenty-first century, pp.1-19.

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Khodaei, S., Hasanvand, S., Gholami, M., Mokhayeri, Y. and Amini, M., 2022.The effect of the online flipped
classroom on self-directed learning readiness and metacognitive awareness in nursing students during the COVID-19
pandemic.BMC nursing, 21(1), pp.1-10.

Patel, M. and Patel, N., 2019.Exploring research methodology. International Journal of Research and Review, 6(3),
pp.48-55.

Paulsen, J. and McCormick, A.C., 2020. Reassessing disparities in online learner student engagement in higher
education. Educational researcher, 49(1), pp.20-29.

Sileyew, K.J., 2019. Research design and methodology. Cyberspace, pp.1-12.

Stratton, S.J., 2021. Population research: convenience sampling strategies. Prehospital and disaster Medicine, 36(4),
pp.373-374.

Toyon, M.A.S., 2021. Explanatory sequential design of mixed methods research: Phases and challenges. International
Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), 10(5), pp.253-260.

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DOI: 10.51879/PIJSSL/060703
Appendix

1. What is your age?

A. 25-32

B.33-40

C.31-48

D. 49-56

2. Attendance of students in virtual classes is maximum rather than in traditional classes, do you agree? A.

Strongly disagrees.

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

D. Agree

E. Strongly agrees.

3. Students can create their own customized learning environment to study better in e-learning process, do
you agree?

A. Strongly disagrees.

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

D. Agree

E. Strongly agrees.

4. Students encounter a lack of motivation in virtual class settings that impacted academic performance, do
you agree?

A. Strongly disagrees.

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

D. Agree

Praxis International Journal of Social Science and Literature [Volume 6, Issue

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 E. Strongly agrees.

5. Students feel isolated due to the lack of interaction with teachers and peers, do you agree? A. Strongly

disagrees.

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

D. Agree

E. Strongly agrees.

6. Students can get insights into vast knowledge through e-learning rather than traditional classroom
settings, do you agree?

A. Strongly disagrees.

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

D. Agree

E. Strongly agrees.

7. Due to a lack of face-to-face communication, teachers face difficulties to educate students, do you

agree? A. Strongly disagrees.

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

D. Agree

E. Strongly agrees.

8. Online learners have better scope to collaborate with classmates through virtual networks, do you agree?

A. Strongly disagrees.

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

D. Agree

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 E. Strongly agrees.

9. Virtual networks of learning permit students to post their reading feedback, which can enhance their

academic performance, do you agree? A. Strongly disagrees.

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

D. Agree

E. Strongly agrees.

10. Online learning permits learners to develop independent study practice, do you agree? A. Strongly

disagrees.

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

D. Agree

E. Strongly agree.

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7, July 2023] Page 40 D 10.51879/PIJSSL/060703
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