Abstract:
COVID - 19 pandemic has disrupted traditional/face to face teaching and learning activities of
educational institutes all over the world. With the concept of social distancing and work from
home directed by the government, university teachers and students were forced to shift from
traditional in class activities to the virtual e-learning environment. This study explores the
perception of students regarding the online learning activities during locked down. This study
adopts quantitative method with a self-administrated online survey of 364 questionnaires
distributed among the students of the Faculty of Arts and Culture, South Eastern university of Sri
Lanka. Among the 364 survey respondents, 68.41% had not participated in any type of online
learning activities before the COVID-19 Pandemic. The study shows that even though 30.49% of
them owned a computer/ Laptop/Tablet/iPad, 92.31% of them have used only the mobile
phones to access the online tools for attending virtual lectures. They have chosen Zoom as the
easiest tool (66.48% stated only the Zoom and 26.63% preferred Zoom and at least one of the
other tools) to attend their online classes. Even though, online learning is considered as enjoyable
and fun (58.51%), increased flexibility in time and place in participating for online lectures
(60.99%), and possibilities to clarify questions and doubts (65.66%), the online learning has some
limitations too such as: lack of interaction with lecturers and other colleagues (60.71%), poor
learning environment at home (58.23%), less impact of online learning (53.85%), not secure and
not technically reliable (52.47%).Moreover, the study shows that, even though, e-teaching is not
considered as better than traditional/face to face classroom lectures (31.32%), majority of the
students (57.51%) were interested in participating in the online lectures.
