Investigating Online Learning Readiness of Indian Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Online teaching and learning has alternated from being ancillary to primary and back through the course of the last few years. From discussion on the use of technology and online learning being a secondary fall back mechanism before COVID 19 to being the only means of education during the pandemic, the importance and impact of online modes of learning has seen many deliberations. Post pandemic, the status changed with the need for online teaching and learning methodology being established pragmatically. This pragmatic acceptance needs to be further investigated to understand the factors influencing learning and teaching. The current study was conducted to develop an instrument to measure online learning readiness of students with specific focus on learning motivation, computer/internet self-efficacy and self-directed learning variables. 18 items focusing on three competencies, namely motivation for learning, self-directed learning, and computer/internet self-efficacy were included in the initial instrument. EFA (exploratory factor analysis) shows that the instrument has three factor structures of online learning readiness with 63.75% variance in relationship among the items. All factors had high reliability as Cronbach’s  α> .823. The final instrument had 16 items as two items which cross loaded on multiple items were not considered for the study. Motivation for learning, self-directed learning and computer/internet self-efficacy had 8 items, 5 items and 3 items respectively. Three of the factor structures of the Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS) instrument have been conformed through the current study. Academicians and researchers can employ Online Learning Readiness instrument to get better insight about t learning motivation, computer/internet self-efficacy and self-directed learning competencies of students pursuing undergraduate education.