Students’ Challenges In Asychrouns E-learning In Rwandan Higher Education

This study aimed to investigate the students’ challenges in asynchronous E-learning in Rwandan higher education and to recommend possible solutions to overcome those challenges in order to improve the online education in Rwanda.The asynchronous E-learning refers to the form of online education that offers delayed interaction between students and instructors,The learner can access the course at any time at his or her own pace(Takalani,2008).E-learning refers to the learning facilitated and supported through the use of information and communications technology(Jenkins and Hanson,2003).Rwanda Vision 2020 aims at moving Rwanda from "an agriculture based economy to a knowledge-based society "and middle-income country" by 2020.Education is a key sector to this social and economic transformation,tapping into the limitless potential of an empowered population.At the same time,the Rwanda Vision 2020 places ICTs at the heart of the transformation across all sectors.The use of ICT in education is seen as a strategic lever for achieving this transformation(ARIANE,2016).Some Rwandan universities both public and private have adopted the asynchronous e-learning as the medium of teaching and learning,Most of them are currently using MOODLE as a Learning Management System(LMS).However,the students are facing challenges that might affect their learning performance.Having an in-depth examination on students’ challenges is meaningful to overcome these challenges,and to improve the online education quality in higher education in Rwanda.To undertake the research objectives about the students’challenges in asynchronous e-learning in higher education in Rwanda,this study has employed the following research questions:Research question 1:What are the challenges do students face in enrolling their courses in asynchronous e-learning in Rwandan universities?Research question 2:What suggestions do the students and instructors provide to improve online learning in higher Education in Rwanda?This study is a survey based study with descriptive research design.Semi-structured interview was used to support the quantitative data and to support for clear understanding on student’s challenges of asynchronous e-learning in higher education in Rwanda.The survey was conducted in two universities those are University of Rwanda(UR)College of Education which is a public university and Mount Kenya University Kigali Campus which is a private university.All those universities have been using asynchronous e-learning in course delivery for more than 10 years.The questionnaire and interview were used for data collection.Thus the questionnaires were sent to the students through the emails with the assistance of the instructors.A total number of 148 students responded to the questionnaire properly among 173 students who got the questionnaires that was selected thought a random sampling.All the interviews were conducted online by using "ZOOM application and WeChat" by the researcher,the interview length were between 15 and 20 minutes.The-interview data was audio recorded with the permission of the interviewees.To develop the questionnaire the researcher examined Rwandan and Foreign literature,and made use of various theories and research.The first draft of the questionnaires was developed in accordance with topic.This questionnaire was revised by my supervisor and other experts.They provided feedback concerning both the content and structure of the questionnaire.In term of conten+6t,the items were reworded so that they became clearer and more direct.The Questionnaire had two sections,the first section design for demographical information and technical experience,the second section was designed in the form of a five-point Likert scale for measuring the level of agreement on the factors affecting learning performance in asynchronous e-learning.The data was analyzed using SPSS version 26,keeping in view the objectives spelt out.Then,the data collected on student’s challenges in asynchronous e-learning was presented in different tables and figure form descriptive analysis and correlation analysis and regression for facilitating the interpretation.After the analysis of quantitative data from the survey and interviews with the instructors the study found that the major challenges included:lack of direct feedback to students’ learning,low course quality,students’ negative attitude toward online learning,and lack of collaboration,low quality of E-learning course,inactive learning environment,low level social interactions,and poor technical conditions.A Pearson Correlation analysis was conducted to examine whether there is a relationship between factors influencing student’s performance and student’s performance scores..The results revealed a statistical significant and positive relationship,and the hypothesis was confirmed at p<0.01.Student’s attitude toward online learning(r=0.90,N=148,p<0.01).Computer literacy(r=0.80,N=148,p<0.01).Student’s interaction(r=0.89,N=148,p<0.01).Instructor presence(r=0.88,N=148,p<0.01).Instructor’s timely feedback(r=0.79,N=148).Active learning environment(r=0.85,N=148,p<0.01),communication and Collaboration(r=0.82,N=148,p<0.01)Course flexibility(r=0.85,N=148,p<0.01)Quality of E-learning course(r=0.93,N=148,p<0.01)and finally weak correlation of technical condition(r=0.63,N=148,p<0.01).Moreover,the results showed that there is a positive significant relationship a cross domains.Thus,all factors have been verified and confirmed at p<0.01.In order to test the influence of independent variables to the dependent variable,the test of regression has been conductedThe results of regression analysis shows that the overall model explained 89%of variance in the outcome,R2=0.89 almost equal to adjusted △R2=0.88)which was revealed to be statistically significant,as shown by ANOVA table F(12,147)=92.476,p=0.001.Besides that,on examination of individual predictor,the results exposed the effects of each individual independent variable to the dependent variable.Apart from 9 direct predictors which are significant predicators of direct factors influencing the student performance,the age has also a significant impact in the students’ performance.This result shows that the Demographic factors have the least impact on the student performance,whereas variables related to technical condition will have the most effect and significant positive association between all 9 factors and the student performance.As shown by results,technical condition is highly positively statistically significant related to Student’s performance compare to other predictor variables(β=0.70,p=0.001),followed by Student’s interaction(β=0.18,p=0.05)and Instructor’s timely feedback(β=0.15,p=0.05).Furthermore,other variables will have insignificant impact of student performance compare to the mentioned factors that have highly significant impact to the student performance.This study has both practical and theoretical implications E-learning adoption is increasing in most universities and institutions of higher learning all around the world including developing countries.Firstly this study contributes to studies on challenges of online learning in developing countries like Rwanda,and it will help other researchers to understand the factors affecting students learning performance in asynchronous online learning.The instructors and all the educators involve in online learning can use the study to meet the students’ desires to make them more comfortable and effective in online learning.Secondly this study contributes to the higher education institution and government on the theory of implementing the policies and other measures to improve the quality of online learning based on the students and instructors needs.This study focused only on challenges that students are fronting in E-learning asynchronous mode that is been used by most of the universities,the survey was conducted in online programs only.The interviews were conducted on instructors with more than 5years of teaching experience in online program.The survey was conducted in those two universities the University of Rwanda College of education(the former Kigali Institute of Education KIE),and MOUNT Kenya University Kigali Campus.The sample was selected among the online program students and instructors to get the self-reported data,the interviews were conducted only on instructors in those two universities.The study is limited only in higher education.High schools and other education levels was not covered.The traditional face-to-face teaching in higher education(universities),together with financial and infrastructures issues were not be exposed in this study.Dimensions that influence online learning have been investigated by researcher under different experimental traits.In this study,we gathered items from different literature and tested the validity of these items under the use of an online learning tool context.We acknowledge that implications of our findings are only confined to the limits at which we interpret the results,and that these limitations must be acknowledged.To accomplish this study the researcher has met several difficulties especially in data collection because I couldn’t go to the field myself because of COVID-19 pandemic therefore the communication was a bit difficult.Also I have met financial difficulties in the accomplishment of this study.As conclusion the findings of this study supported and extended the previous research that there are factors influence learning performance in asynchronous learning,and this study has found lack of direct feedback to students’ learning,low course quality,students’ negative attitude toward online learning,and lack of collaboration,low quality of E-learning course,inactive learning environment,low level social interactions,and poor technical conditions.provide training to instructors about the online instructional design,ensure technical help desk is available all time and provide training on the students about how to use the online learning platform effectively were put forwarded.This study had theoretical and practical implications for enhancing the online education in Rwanda,and could provide suggestions for other African countries to improve their higher education in the digital age.