Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic Regarding the Academic Performance of Tertiary Education (Engineering Discipline)

Abstract

Due to the pandemic of new coronavirus, which has changed to online education,many universities and colleges have globally prohibited teaching in the classroom. Theongoing cross-sectional study is examining the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on theacademic achievements of Electrical Engineering students and academics. Students andscholars of electrical engineering were allowed to invite to answer an opinion questionnaire.The total number of 1,492 attendants (774 (52.0%) and 718 (48.1%) respectively) from thethree different universities in Sri Lanka was encountered and 94.5% of respondentsresponded towards the survey. Data showed that COVID-19 seems to have an influence onthe academic performance of majority of respondents (97,1%) to various engineeringdisciplines. For online training generally, the mean assessment scoring was 5.2 ± 2.5 whilethe practical score was 3.7 ± 2.7. Participants revealed that online study material wasextremely suitable through e-books, YouTube videos, university platforms, continuingeducation websites, and educational applications and via online lessons or rather pdf-lectures. While learning environment provides an opportunity to explore besides themselves,the main challenge facing online education is how to teach practical lessons in electricalengineering. Even though most of the topics are practical, online learning bestraightforward. To enhance online learning generally, online platforms for learning arerecommended, electronic devices for students ought to be available for Internet access,internet acceleration should be improved, Internet packages will be provided cheaper, orperhaps even free, vocational trainings offered to lecturers should be provided, and studentand teacher interaction should be improved. eLearning might be significantly enhancedthrough much more interactive engineering, brief explanation, technical processes, and 3Dvirtual tools to visualize the real situation.