Attitudes and awareness of regional Pacific Island students towards e-learning

The use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) to deliver educational content and learning support now forms a widespread and accepted norm of many institutes in the higher education sector across the world (Latchem, 2017; Sharma et al., 2020; Wu, 2016). Its growing leverage in developing countries is assisting in bringing the quality, sustainability, accessibility and delivery of education on par with those of the developing countries. The ICT based innovations and tools from the higher education institutes in the developing countries have shown promising and significantly positive results (Reddy et al., 2016, 2020c; Sharma & Reddy, 2015; Sharma et al., 2019a, 2020, 2018b).

Indeed, ICT is now an integral part of most institutes rather than supporting tools (Bhuasiri et al., 2012; Irfan et al., 2018). The use of e-learning is of particular importance for reaching students in geographically remote locations and improving the equity towards the delivery of education systems (Graham, 2019). However, certain barriers remain towards the use of ICT and e-learning as tools for enhancing educational equity (Lim et al., 2020; Yang et al., 2018). Firstly, some students in remote locations or those living in low socio-economic status (SES) situations may not have access to the appropriate technology or resources required to successfully participate and engage in the e-learning process (Yang et al., 2018). For instance, students may not be able to afford equipment such as laptops or desktop computers, or be able to afford internet access plans with sufficient bandwidth and data allowance for video streaming or other data-heavy applications (Chillemi et al., 2020). This is more prominent in developing countries such as those in the Pacific region (Reddy et al., 2017, 2019, 2020a, 2020b; Sharma et al., 2018a, 2018b). Hence in many of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs), government initiatives have been implemented to provide school students with laptops and tablets in order to allow them to access online resources and obtain assistance with their schoolwork (Reddy et al., 2016, 2017, 2020b, 2020c). Similarly, students may only have limited access options for accessing the internet (e.g. through a mobile phone network) (Huang et al., 2017), especially in more remote locations (Beinicke & Bipp, 2018; Milakovich & Wise, 2019), or may be restricted to accessing the internet in certain locations such as local remote campuses and/or education centres, such as in Samoa and Tonga (Reddy et al., 2017; Sharma et al., 2019a, 2020).

In addition, studies have reported a "digital divide" among students of different socio-economic classes, with primary and secondary students from a low SES background typically having poorer ICT literacy (Scherer & Siddiq, 2019), albeit to a lesser degree compared to other domains such as reading and mathematics. It is important to note that this divide is due to differences in their literacy (i.e. familiarity and capability) with ICT devices, not their access to ICT devices per se (Cotten et al., 2014). However, in many instances, their lower ICT literacy would likely result from restricted access to e-technology at home or in rural schools in developing countries. Previous surveys show that over 50% of the population in the South Pacific now has access to the internet as a result of improved network infrastructure and the reduced cost of ICT devices (Reddy et al., 2017). However, these studies also highlight the variation in device ownership amongst the student population as a result of the financial, social and cultural challenges that exist in the PICs (Raturi, 2018; Reddy et al., 2019; Sharma et al., 2019a, 2020, 2019b). Education institutes and governments across the PICs have attempted to assist the students facing such challenges through interventions such as the provision of one free laptop or tablet per child, and equipping schools with adequate internet connections and computing devices (Sharma et al., 2020, 2019b). Similarly, the SchoolNet Project in Samoa and Tonga was funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and implemented by the government to enhance learning outcomes for secondary students and improve knowledge sharing through equitable ICT access (ADB, 2019). Nevertheless, despite such assistance from a number of stakeholders, digital literacy in the PICs remains a challenge. One recent study at a regional university in the South Pacific found 73% of the freshmen to have high to very high digital literacy competencies (Reddy et al., 2020d); whereas another study conducted on high school students in Fiji found 61% to have very low to average competency in digital media literacy. Students will only continue to use digital technology if they have a positive attitude and perception towards technology-enabled learning (Reddy et al., 2020a, 2020d). In turn, the students will only have a positive attitude towards technology-enabled learning if they possess the competencies needed to use the technology in question (Reddy et al., 2020a). Hence the advocacy of digital literacy in the PICs has just begun.

However, challenges remain worldwide with the use of e-learning. Students who participate in e-learning may not necessarily receive the same educational benefits as those who enrol in face-to-face classes. It is typically more difficult and time-consuming to ask the lecturer a question through an online forum than in a face-to-face lecture or tutorial situation (Heirdsfield et al., 2011). Conversely, it may be more difficult for the educator to explain more complex topics online, where it is more difficult to capture non-verbal aspects used in teaching, such as fine hand gestures or annotations on a whiteboard (Arasaratnam-Smith & Northcote 2017; Phirangee & Hewitt, 2016). Additionally, a lack of real-time feedback from the students makes it more difficult for the lecturer to tailor their lecture content to suit the class's overall learning style. In other words, most lecturers must significantly transform their teaching style from that which they use in face-to-face classes in order to deliver the content in an online format effectively (Kebritchi et al., 2017). Similarly, another issue for content providers is the increased difficulty in designing effective online activities and assessments (Kebritchi et al., 2017). This can result in lower student engagement and interaction, combined with an increased chance of online cheating (Olt, 2002). From the perspective of both lecturers and students, it is often more of a challenge to build good verbal and non-written communication skills in an online format (Lalande, 1995), which are typical graduate attributes sought after by prospective employers. Overall, the failure of educators to meet these challenges may result in a poorer learning experience for their online cohort of students, which in turn has implications for student achievement and student loyalty to their education provider (Pham et al., 2019).

Some subjects, such as introductory chemistry units, include teaching certain practical skills to students in order to prepare them for future, more advanced units (Chandra & Sharma, 2018; Naiker et al., 2013; Naiker & Wakeling, 2015; Wakeling et al., 2014). This is typically delivered as a compulsory "residential" or "practicum" block for online/distance students, typically ranging from several days to a week in length, rather than the short, weekly lab sessions typically used with on-campus students. However, in many subjects which do not contain a compulsory practical component, gaining hands-on practical experience may still be quite useful for students to solidify their theoretical knowledge and gain greater insight into the practical implications of what they have learnt. For example, this situation is valid for computer programming courses. Such benefits are not available to students studying solely online.

However, online learning is not without its benefits (Chandra & Sharma, 2018). In many instances, it provides the students with greatly increased flexibility, allowing them to learn wherever and whenever they want (Hollenbeck et al., 2005; Kilburn et al., 2014). There are considerable benefits associated with self-paced (Bhuasiri et al., 2012), self-directed and personalised learning. In addition to the increased equitable access to education afforded by online learning (Graham, 2019), students can replay lectures to solidify their knowledge of the content, and benefit from online peer feedback (van Popta et al., 2017) and peer mentoring (Fayram et al., 2018). Moreover, there are increasing volumes of high-quality resources, including OERs (open educational resources), available for students undertaking e-learning, even if their host institution does not necessarily provide these resources. Other ventures such as MOOCs (massive open online courses) and diagnostic tools, such as the Online Mathematics Diagnostic Tool (Sharma et al., 2019a, 2020) can also increase educational equity for students unable to attend prestigious universities (Gardner & Brooks, 2018; Littlejohn et al., 2016).

The innovations in information and communication technology (ICT) and its integration into the education sector has massively impacted the education process, particularly in higher education. New learning methods such as web-based or Internet-based delivery modes have evolved into a broad range of learning modes, including e-learning, m-learning (mobile learning), tablet-learning and flipped classrooms (Ansong-Gyimah, 2020; Reddy et al., 2020b). In the recent years, e-learning has become one of the most trending learning methods in academia (Bhuvaneswari & Dharanipriya, 2020). E-learning has been defined as the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education which continues to evolve to meet the needs and demands of the students (Bhuvaneswari & Dharanipriya, 2020), E-learning involves the use of technology and web platform to create a two-way platform for communication and discussion between students and teachers, where student-to-student discussions enhance social learning, and teachers provide a scaffolded learning experience for students via timely feedback (Layali & Al-Shlowiy, 2020), E-learning encompasses a broad set of applications and processes such as computer-assisted learning, web-based training, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration (Kashive et al., 2020). is the reason for its popularity results from numerous associated advantages, including (Kashive et al., 2020; Layali & Al-Shlowiy, 2020; Raturi, 2018; Reddy et al., 2020b):

Although e-learning comes with a lot of advantages, there are many barriers that the higher education institutes face in the successful facilitation and delivery of e-learning including the network infrastructure, lack of students’ computer competencies, students’ efficacy in using technology for learning, and the potential for miscommunication between students and facilitators (Layali & Al-Shlowiy, 2020; Mousavi et al., 2020; Rafiq et al., 2020). Researchers have also highlighted that since e-learning is closely linked to technology, and because students must use these communication tools for learning, their competency and efficacy in the use of such technology is extremely important (Arshavskiy, 2017; Henderson et al., 2017; Sakarji et al., 2019). Kashive et al. (2020) and Rafiq et al., (2020) note that positive perceptions and attitudes of students toward technology is a strong determinant factor in a successful e-learning system. In the context of this study, student “attitude” can be defined as the “knowledge, feeling and action of an individual towards learning with technology or e-learning. Bhuvaneswari and Dharanipriya (2020) propose that attitude indicates the degree of potential adaptation to technology, and hence a favourable attitude to e-learning would mean that students would be more likely to accept online learning systems. Similarly, in the present study the term “perception” refers to how an individual feel about the use of technology for learning. Previous researchers have proposed that if students perceive that e-learning is useful and helpful to their studies, they will be more likely to accept it (Dospinescu & Dospinescu, 2020; Mahajan, 2020; Sakarji et al., 2019).

Due to the challenges of student acceptance, digital competency and technological acceptance, it could seem at face value that the learning outcomes of students participating solely in online education could be poorer than those engaging in face-to-face learning. However, the jury appears to still be out on whether there are statistically significant differences between the outcomes between these two modes of content delivery. Beinicke and Bipp (2018) reported that across the entire course content, e-learning was just as effective as in-person learning for procedural knowledge and more effective than in-person learning for declarative knowledge. Baxley (2018) argued for a more integrative approach, suggesting that online learning can successfully be used to augment face-to-face teaching methods and improve cohort achievement. However, most studies on the quality of e-learning services have been conducted in developed countries (Dursun et al., 2014; Machado-Da-Silva et al., 2014; Martínez-Argüelles et al., 2013) and it is unclear if the same underlying factors and trends would be similar in developing nations (Pham et al., 2019).

The South Pacific countries are one such group of developing nations, currently undergoing a technological revolution in order to meet the growing digital demands of the populace (Reddy et al., 2016, 2020a, 2020c; Sharma et al., 2019a). Many higher education institutes in the South Pacific have transited to technology enabled learning to make the learning processes more effective and to meet the demands from the students. However, the phenomena of e-learning in the South Pacific is still developing and there are relatively few studies explored student attitudes and perceptions toward the use of technology, with most studies focused on technology and student acceptance (Raturi, 2018; Reddy et al., 2020b; Sharma & Reddy, 2015; Sharma et al., 2020, 2019b).

Both the potential and challenges of e-learning were recently highlighted by the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. As a result, education providers worldwide were forced to turn to e-learning and emergency remote teaching within extremely short timespans. For universities with a traditionally predominant face-to-face delivery mode, this has resulted in many challenges as they scramble to transfer their unit content online (Miltiadous et al., 2020). Nevertheless, with forced campus closures due to local governmental policies, e-learning and to some extent, m-learning (mobile learning) are the only means left for universities to retain their student base and ensure they can continue learning throughout the pandemic. Universities in more regional areas and in developing nations have also been hit hard. In these situations, a considerable number of students may not have access to suitable ICT and/or internet access at their home location, so risk falling behind their peers when attempting the switch to e-learning. Universities that have a long history of online education, such as CQUniversity and Charles Sturt University in Australia, and the University of the South Pacific in the Pacific region, are considerably better off in this regard compared to many of the well-established "sandstone" universities, as the transition from "mostly online" to "fully online" is considerably easier to achieve. Furthermore, their student base is also likely to be better prepared in terms of organising access to suitable technology and internet access, as even the face-to-face units offered by such universities typically have a considerable online component/presence associated with the unit (CQUniversity, 2020; Rapanta et al., 2020).

Since the beginning of the pandemic, many studies have been published documenting university students' readiness towards e-learning and/or learning from home across the globe (Ali, 2020; Chung et al., 2020; Leacock & Warrican, 2020; Naji et al., 2020). However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no published data available on students' e-preparedness from the South Pacific region. Hence, the present study aims to provide insight into the preparedness of first-year students enrolled at the University of the South Pacific towards e-learning in the COVID-19 pandemic context. The University of the South Pacific (USP) occupies a unique status as one of three regional universities in the world, being owned by its 12 member countries: Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. With a student roll of about 30,000, USP has 14 campuses and 10 study centres spread over an area of 30 million square kilometres, with at least one campus hosted in each member country. The campuses vary in size and student populations, as well as the available support services and facilities, and modality of delivery. The main campus of USP is located in Fiji, which hosts the university's administrative, academic and commercial operations (Sharma & Reddy, 2015; Sharma et al., 2018a, 2019a). The university offers flexible and distance learning programmes delivered through a variety of modes and technologies, although the majority of students are enrolled in face-to-face programmes. While the university is committed to delivering quality education and adequate learning support to students across its member countries, many students have somewhat limited access to computers and broadband internet, making the shift to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic quite a challenge.

The current study aims to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of USP students towards e-learning, their ICT and information literacy competencies, their self-efficacy and their confidence in using technology for learning. It is envisaged that our findings will be useful not only for education providers in the oceanic region but also for regional governments and other education stakeholders in developing nations more globally. Specifically, we aim to address the following research questions:

This study uses data collected as part of a PhD study on eLearning and digital literacy by one of the authors (PR). Research and ethics approval was provided by the USP research office. The survey instrument used in this study was a unipolar Likert scale 1–5 questionnaire administered to the students using Google Forms. A copy of the survey instrument is provided in the Additional file 1. The questions were designed to gain an overview of the e-learning resources available to the students (e.g. type of electronic devices available; type of internet connection), the preparedness of students toward e-learning (e.g. length of time they have been using computers for, amount of time spent on the internet per day, level of ICT troubleshooting skills) and student perceptions or thoughts toward the use of ICT and e-learning. We refer to these aspects as "ICT resources", "ICT literacy" and "ICT perceptions" throughout this paper.

Our study population was first-year undergraduate students enrolled at the University of the South Pacific. Students were surveyed in February 2020 prior to the commencement of their first year of university study. All commencing students at the University of the South Pacific were invited to complete the survey and were given a window of approximately three weeks in which to do so. A total of 313 students opted to provide informed consent and complete the survey. At the closing time of the survey (24 February), there were approximately 83,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, with less than 5000 cases outside of China (World Health Organization, 2020). There were no known cases of COVID-19 in any Pacific Island country or territory at this point, with the first case reported in French Polynesia around 17 days later (Craig et al., 2020). Hence we consider it unlikely that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the student responses in this survey, thus providing an accurate insight into the e-preparedness of first-year students who were predominantly expecting to study face-to-face in the upcoming semester.

In general, the response of USP in moving its teaching and learning online was not a major issue following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many courses offered by the university were already facilitated online for distance students. However, emergency remote teaching was a challenge for the university due to the persisting issues including network infrastructure and student access to suitable e-devices and the internet. The unit facilitators encountered many challenges during emergency remote teaching, including the design of assessments and exams to minimise the potential for online teaching, monitoring students' progress, and adjusting assessment due dates to accommodate students whose study had been disrupted as a result of difficulty accessing the internet or other external factors.

The questions that involved a quantizable response (e.g. "how often do you perform the following activities", "how important are the following", "rate yourself on these skills", or "how much do you agree with these statements") were numerically coded in a similar fashion to a Likert scale, ranging from 1 (never/not important at all/no capability/strongly disagree) to 5 (frequently/very important/excellent/strongly agree). Statistical analyses were performed in R Studio, running R 4.0.2 (R Core Team, 2020). Students who did not respond to demographic data such as their age bracket, country or program were excluded from subsequent data analysis, leaving a total of 295 valid responses. Students who did not respond to a specific question were excluded from analyses pertaining to that question only.

The increasing use of online modes of content delivery has the benefit of increasing convenience for students, by allowing them to choose where and when to learn, but also has the potential to improve equitable access to education by providing students in geographically remote locations with the option to pursue tertiary education without having to relocate to a more urban locality. However, a number of challenges to this approach remains, including ensuring equitable access to suitable technology and internet connections, maintaining high quality in online learning resources and ensuring the learning outcomes of online students are comparable to those achieved through face-to-face classes.

Following the recent outbreak of COVID-19, education providers worldwide have been forced to turn to e-learning to retain their student base and allow them to continue learning through the pandemic. However, in geographically remote, developing nations, many students may not have access to suitable technology or internet at their home location but are rather dependent upon face-to-face classes at their local university campus to allow them to participate in higher education.

This study found that among the commencing 2020 cohort of students at the University of the South Pacific, 88% possessed at least one ICT device and access to the internet. Similarly, most students had adequate to strong ICT skills and a positive attitude toward e-learning. These attitudes among the student cohort, in conjunction with the previous experience of The University of the South Pacific in distance education, are likely to have contributed to the relatively successful transition from face-to-face to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Educational institutes should maintain ongoing awareness of the e-capabilities of the student cohorts in order to be best prepared for future challenges to the educational sector.