SYNOPSIS

IMPACT OF COVID 19 PANDEMIC ON THE STUDY

HABITS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE STUDENTS AT
UNIVERSITY LEVEL

Submitted by:
Qausir Ali
Roll NO: 18814
Reg#F20A14G69028
Submitted to:
Honourable Supervisor:
Dr.Rizwana Bashir Zia

M.Phil Education

Department of Education
RIPHAH INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
CAMPUS, FAISALABAD.

September, 2021
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 INTRODUCTION

The novel coronavirus pandemic COVID-19 was started in the Wuhan city of China in
the last month of 2019. The said virus was spread in China as well as in 209 countries of
the world including Pakistan. The whole world announced the closure of educational
institutions which affected the education system across the world. The lockdowns have
put an unprecedented challenge on the governments to ensure that there should be
continuity of learning. But most of the universities failed to continue the online teaching-
learning process in the whole country due to a lack of technological awareness and
support. It also affected all educational institutions across the globe particularly the
Pakistani education system (Adedoyin & Soykan, 2020). The government of Pakistan,
like many other countries, has decided to close all educational institutions to stem the
massive spread of the COVID-19 virus (Orfan & Elmyar, 2020).

Because all academic institutions including universities in Pakistan were closed and most
of the public and private sector universities has opted to compensate for the teaching
process by using an online teaching system through various online applications like zoom,
Google meet, and Whatsapp. The transition from face-to-face instruction to online
teaching began, with thousands of university teachers and students able to use the
platform. Since then, online teaching has become a new phenomenon at public and
private sector universities across the country, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,
when there was no prior planning for such an emergency (Orfan, 2021).

Due to a variety of factors, online education has progressed and transformed substantially
in several states of the world during the last two decades (Bayrak et al., 2020). Colleges
and universities professors are more interested in online approaches to teaching and
learning, where the learning process may be done more efficiently and at a reduced cost
(Green, 2010). Furthermore, according to Green (2010), online teaching can provide more
options for saving time and money because no one is driven to acquire information.
Despite the increased interest in online education, student happiness remains the most
focused measure of online teaching experience. Students' levels of satisfaction can be
linked to a range of aspects, including student-teacher interaction, student-student
interaction, course assessment quality, internet quality, self-efficacy, and the learning

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process of students (Harsasi & Sutawijaya, 2018; Kirtman, 2009). As a result, online
teaching played a significant role throughout the pandemic’s critical phase and achieved a
good reputation.

Distance learners have specific and established ways of using learning technologies, such
as mobile devices, but these ways of studying may also have been affected by the
pandemic (Cross et al., 2019). According to Son et al., (2020), the sudden increase in
workload resulted primarily from students increasing their own efforts to catch up with
modules without the in-person support they previously received from tutors and teaching
assistants, demonstrating their participation to their tutors by delivering more assignments
than were requested previously. Furthermore, research on the problems of studying at
home suggests that difficulties in forming study habits may be a contributing factor to
feelings of job overload (Adnan & Anwar, 2020; Bao, 2020; Handel et al., 2020).

The investigations conducted by (Beltekin & Kuyulu, 2020; Surahman & Sulthoni, 2020)
discovered that online taught courses were not as effective as traditional face-to-face
teaching. They found in their studies that students preferred face-to-face teaching instead
of online teaching to achieve better performance. While Khan et al., (2021) and Novikov
(2020) discovered that online teaching for its freedom and ease of use had been preferred
over traditional teaching during the pandemic of coronavirus outbreak, which exposed
negative effects of COVID-19 on students’ academic performance.

Elhadary et al. (2020) investigated the effects of COVID-19 on the academic performance
of Turkish science and social science students. Many factors influenced pupils' academic
performance during the COVID-19 crisis, according to their research. Despite this, their
research found that both teachers and students are pleased with the use of online learning
and teaching. Loton et al. (2020) also investigated the satisfaction and performance of
online learners during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 outbreak, their
data revealed that online teaching and learning had a substantial impact on students'
performance as well as their level of satisfaction. Another study was conducted in the
Indonesian environment, and the researcher looked into the solution, benefits, and
drawbacks of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. They talked about how
satisfied their participants were with their pupils' achievement during the COVID-19
outbreak (Fatoni et al., 2020). As a result of the aforementioned researches on the impacts
of COVID-19 on student performance, one may infer that COVID-19 has a significant
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impact on student academic performance based on the literature. So, it is pertinent to
investigate impact of COVID-19 pandemic on study habits and performance of the
students at university level in Pakistan.

1.1 Statement of the problem

After the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic, the study of the students has become
worse. Many strategies were implemented to continue the teaching-learning process
through an online teaching system. But, most of the students who are unfamiliar with
online methods of teaching faced many hurdles to participate and focus on their studies
actively. Due to this sudden change, students’ habits towards their studies decrease.
Therefore, this investigation aims to discover, the study habits and performance of
universities’ students who have experienced teaching-learning in the context of COVID-
19 located in Faisalabad.

1.2 Research objectives

The undermentioned objectives are prepared for this investigation:-

1. To explore the study habits of university students during COVID-19

2. To discover the performance of university students during COVID-19
3. To discover factors influencing study habits and performance of university
students during COVID-19
4. To investigate the relationship between study habits and performance of the
university students during COVID-19

1.3 Research Question

The below research questions are developed in the light of objectives of the study and to
complete the present study: -

1. What are the study habits of university students during COVID-19?

2. What is the performance of university students during COVID-19?
3. What kind of factors influencing study habits and performance of university
students during COVID-19?
4. Is there any significant relationship between study habits and the performance of
the university students during COVID-19?

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1.4 Significance of the study

The present study is significant as it will discover the study habits, university student's
performance, and factors influencing study habits and students’ performance during the
pandemic of COVID-19. Moreover, it will also explore the significant relationship
between study habits and the performance of the university students during COVID-19.
The outcomes of this investigation may be helpful and beneficial for university students,
teachers, heads of university, and various stakeholders involved in university education
for understanding the study habits of the students, their performance, and factors affecting
study habits and students’ performance during the pandemic of COVID-19. Furthermore,
the results of the present investigation will provide some guidelines for designing
appropriate teaching-learning activities to increase the study habits and performance of
university students. The results of this exploration will also discover various factors
influencing the study habits of the students which can be minimized accordingly.

1.5 Delimitation of study

Due to limited time and resources, the present investigation will be delimited to the
followings:
1. Public and Private sector universities
2. Students of BS programs
3. City Faisalabad
1.6 Definitions of Key Terms
The below key terms used in this investigation are defined as blow: -
1.6.1 Study Habits
Students’ actions toward their study is called study habits. These action are known as
reading, taking notes, participate in study group which learners do regularly and habitually
to complete the task of learning.

1.6.2 Student’s performance

Students’ academic performance is the outcome of learning, prompted by the teaching
activities by an educator and produced by the learners.

1.6.3 COVID-19
COVID-19 also known as pandemic is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2
virus. Many people who become ill due to this infection will experience mild to moderate

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indications and recover without special treatment. While some people who experience
high indication become seriously illness and require proper medical treatment and
attention.

1.7 Research Methodology

In research study, a research methodology is comprising of research design, population
and sample of the study, sampling techniques, instruments for data collection, validity
and reliability of the instruments, procedures of data collection and data analysis
techniques. The said components are described as follows: -
1.7.1 Research design
The present study will be completed by using descriptive research design. In this method
the research will use survey approach to complete the present study. In survey approach
the research will use an instrument in the form of questionnaire for collecting data from
the students and teachers of universities.
1.7.2 Population of the study
The students, and teachers of BS programs of all public and private sector universities
located in the Faisalabad district will form the population of this investigation.
1.7.3 Sample of the study
The researcher will select 300 universities’ students of BS program (150 from public
sector universities and 150 from private sector universities), and 100 university teachers
teaching at BS programs (50 from public sector universities and 50 from private sector
universities). In this way a sample of 400 respondents will be selected by simple random
sampling method.
1.7.4 Sampling technique
The researcher will use simple random sampling technique for the selection of public,
private sector universities. After it students and teachers will also be selected through
same sampling technique i.e., simple random.
1.7.5 Instrument
The researcher will design two instruments which will be based on five point Likert scale
starting from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The researcher will study previous
literature and will select various indicators and statements will be prepared on the
indicators for students and teachers’ questionnaire.
1.7.6 Demographic Performa

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In the questionnaires, a demographic section will also be added which collect students and
teachers’ gender, class, marks of BS last semester passed, and other important
demographic variables.
1.7.7 Validity of the instrument
After developing the instrument, the researcher will contact the supervisor and experts to
confirm the face, content and construct’s validity of the instrument.
1.7.8 Reliability of the instrument
Reliability of the instruments will be ensured through the collection of data in pilot testing
phase. Data collected in pilot testing will be analyzed in SPSS and scale reliability test will
be used to confirm the reliability (Croanback alpha value) of the instruments.
1.7.9 Data collection
The data will be collected through standardized instrument after confirming the validity
and reliability of the instrument by the researcher herself.
1.7.10 Data Analysis
The researcher will use descriptive and inferential statistics to describe the population of
the study and variables of the study. In descriptive statistics relevant tests such as
frequency count, percentage, mean, and standard deviation will be used. Moreover,
Pearson r test will be used to discover the relationship between independent and dependent
variable. Data will be analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS
version 20).
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