Online community engagement: Exposing information and communication technology among rural learners during the COVID-19 era

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many sectors including education have been familiar with online activities. It has also affected community engagement (CE) or service learning among academicians and university students. This study reports an online intervention programme under a university community project that aims to expose Information and Communication Technology (ICT) among rural students during the COVID-19 era in 2022. It focused on the use of ICT in learning Computer Science and English subjects for the secondary level. A total of 47 secondary students from six rural schools in Southeast Johor region participated in the online programme known as e-THRiL from February to April 2022. The findings reflect positive impacts in students’ knowledge before and after joining the online programme that had also fulfilled their needs. In addition, it also accomplished both targeted changes and sustainability aspects through the activities and the exposed ICT. In brief, despite the key challenge in the Internet access, the online CE could be conducted successfully among the selected rural learners who were exposed with numerous tools, applications, and methods in using ICT for learning English and Computer Science. Students’ experience in online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 could have contributed to the acceptance of online CE.