UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF BLENDED, ONLINE AND FACE-TO-FACE LEARNING APPROACHES

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a new phase to learning in the world. Online learning existed before the pandemic but was uncommon among full-time undergraduate students, especially in public institutions. The study sought the public and private universities' experience during COVID-19 and their preferred learning mode among blended, online, and face-to-face teaching. This study showed the population's perceptions of which mode of learning was preferred and which made learning more student-centred, considering their experience during the Covid-19 lockdown. Some authors reported that some learners performed well academically during the lockdown. The study adopted an analytical survey research design. Simple random sampling method was adopted to pick respondents from the Faculties of Science and Arts who had experienced the three learning modes from the University of Lagos and Mountain-Top University. A self-developed validated questionnaire was used to collect data. The data collected were analysed using frequency, percentages, and mean. The hypotheses were tested statistically at a 0.05 significance level with the chi-square test of independence. The findings of the study showed that face-to-face interaction was the preferred choice. Recommendations include the creation of an awareness of the need for Higher education to consider the preferred mode of learning by the learners to improve the output from the University system and be future-ready in the 21st Century.