Impact on Higher Educational Success of Undergraduates during COVID-19 Pandemic in Sri Lanka

Abstract

COVID-19 is a pandemic situation that has been seriously affected the whole world since 2020. Among those sectors, this has highly struggled the higher education system in Sri Lanka because of the long-term lockdown in the country. As they transferred from physical lectures to online lectures, students in Sri Lanka have faced a challenging situation. The main objective of the study is to determine the impact of higher educational success during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. We have used five factors for that. Adaptability Struggle, Computer Literacy, Technical Issues, Time Management, and Self-Motivation. The tools that we have used for the analysis are correlation analysis and regression analysis. And also, SPSS software has been used for this. The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions aimed at identified various issues faced by the undergraduates. The questionnaire was created using a Google form which was responded to by 400 undergraduates of private universities. The majority of students had to log in to the online lectures at home (81.5%) and in the Colombo district (29.3%). The majority of students use mobile phones (50.2%) and laptops (81.3%) to participate in online lectures. Mostly use Zoom (84%) and MS Team (51.7%) participate in online lectures. 41.5% experienced technical issues and self-motivation (31.25%) and 33.50% of responders for time management. This research investigates various issues faced by university students due to the social restrictions and moving into virtual learning.