DETERMINANTS OF STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS ONLINE LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION DURING COVID-19

Abstract

The emergence of online environments due to the COVID-19 outbreak has changed the landscape of educational learning. The pandemic emotionally affected students around the world: some benefited from online/blended learning, others lost motivation. In this paper, exploiting a Structural Equation Model approach, we report on observed characteristics and latent factors impacting students’ attitude toward online/blended learning during the pandemic emergence. The research was carried out at the University of Foggia, Italy, and encompassed 2,420 students after two years of COVID-19 emergency education. The study results have shown how the overall attitude of students is positive towards online learning, but several features have an essential role in influencing this attitude. The main findings are that students with higher motivation and engagement with professors are more prone to favor online learning, while students with higher engagement with classmates and worse pandemic emotional impact exhibit a lower level of satisfaction. Furthermore, considering contingency factors, commuter and working students display a more positive attitude, but the ones enrolled in Scientific-Technological courses show a lower level of satisfaction with online learning. Considerations and implications of these results are provided.