COVID-19: What are the challenges of online learning? A literature review

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has made countries and organizations around the world to revise their business operations. Some countries took a step further by executing Movement Control Order (MCO) to reduce the spread. During MCO like Malaysia, all non-essential businesses were closed, interstate travel was prohibited, and purchasing of daily needs were limited. This pandemic had rendered Malaysian homebound. The majority of students who are still staying in hostels were not allowed to return home. To prevent direct contact, face-to-face classes were not possible to conduct. Alternatively, online learning was implemented for teaching and learning purposes for safety reasons. Sadly, most were not prepared for online learning due to the unexpected abruptness of COVID-19. Many issues were raised but little guidelines were available to be followed. Therefore, this paper aimed to identify the challenges of online learning, i.e institutional readiness, students’ difficulties, and teachers’ dilemma. Findings would assist organizations to adopt necessary actions for better education. This study was conducted by reviewing previous and recent literature from several journals, conferences, and news focusing on tertiary education. In addition, the study has proposed that organization should adopt the ADKAR framework introduced by Hiatt for transformation and change towards better online transition. The use of Learning Management System (LMS), infrastructure improvements, teaching methods and parents involvement were also crucial factors for online education success.