The Role of E-Education in Preserving Educational Outcomes During Covid-19 Pandemic

This study aims to examine the role of e-education in preserving educational outcomes during the Covid-19 pandemic and to explore factors that were associated with these outcomes. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between August and September 2020. A sample of Saudi Electronic University (SEU) students was asked to participate in this study. The study questionnaire is composed of seven main domains; demographics domain, attitudes towards e-education, others influence on e-education perception, contents of education and participation in the online discussion, challenges of e-education, effects of e-education, and finally a comparison between e-education and traditional education. One hundred and thirty eight students participated in this survey. The students reported that e-education is appropriate and they indicated positive views towards using e-education tools in their daily study. The majority of study participants reported low participation in an online discussion. In addition, the participants reported limited ability to overcome e-education challenges. The participants stated that e-education improves their overall performance. The majority of the students reported that e-education is superior to the traditional educational methods and half of the participants reported that they would recommend e-education to others. Based on study results, it is recommended to find motivation and monitoring tools to encourage the students to participate more in the online discussion, which could eventually enhance the achievement of students enrolled in the e-education. In addition, more support is needed to eliminate challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic and maintain students’ positive view towards the e-education process.

pandemic and to explore factors that were associated with these outcomes.

Methodology
This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between August and September 2020. A convenient sample of Saudi Electronic University (SEU) students was asked to participate in this study. Inclusion criteria were any student who was enrolled at any of the undergraduate or postgraduate programs at the time of data collection. Exclusion criteria were those who refused to give informed consent on participation in this study.
The study questionnaire was based on a modified version of Devisakti & Ramayah and Diab & Elgahsh questionnaires (Table I). The study questionnaire is composed of seven main domains; demographics domain, attitudes towards e-education, others influence on e-education perception, contents of education and participation in the online discussion, challenges of e-education, effects of e-education, and finally a comparison between eeducation and traditional education (Devisakti & Ramayah, 2019;Diab & Elgahsh, 2020).
The study invitation was sent by WhatsApp and Facebook groups to potential participants. The data was collected electronically on Google Forms, then exported as an Excel sheet.
The questionnaire included a short briefing about the nature of the study and the procedures of filling out the questionnaire. An online written, voluntary informed consent was obtained from all study participants. No identifying data were collected in the questionnaire and this study was according to SEU ethical regulations for studies involving human participants. It was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki (Williams, 2008).
The anonymous survey data were numerically coded in an Excel sheet (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA). The data was imported into an SPSS statistical spreadsheet (Statistical Data Analysis Software, SPSS version 23.0) and analyzed. Descriptive statistics analysis of the demographic characteristics of the study participants was prepared. The five-point Likert scale data were expressed as means ± standard deviation (SD). The students' response was recorded on from 1 'strongly disagree' to 5 'strongly agree'. The overall mean score was calculated by the summation of all scores and converting the number into a percentage. If the overall score was more than 50% then it was considered as a positive perception towards e-education. Data were interpreted as statistically significant when p-value < 0.05.
The internal consistency coefficients (reliability test) were adequate for the questionnaire. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) of the questionnaire was .714. This Cronbach's alpha value is considered adequate because they exceed the threshold of 0.6 (Zhong, 2020).

Results
One hundred and thirty eight students participated in this survey. Almost 60% of the study participants were male students and around half of the participants were between 18 and 20 years old. The characteristics of the study participants are described in Table 2.
Both male and female students reported that e-education is appropriate with a mean score of 2.9±1.2 and 2.7±1.2, respectively. Male students were more confident in using e-education tools (2.5±1.4) compared to female students (2.2±1.5), but the difference between the two genders was not statistically significant (p-value 0.181). Similarly, male and female participants reported positive views towards using e-education tools in their daily study with a mean score of 2.7±1.1 and 2.6±1.3, respectively. On the other hand, encouragement and support from others vary greatly; the encouragement and support ranged from 2.5±1.4 scores for support received by male students from university employees to 1.9±1.4 score for encouragement of female students by family members.
Meanwhile, female students reported that the e-education contents are informative with a mean score of 2.7±1.3 compared with a mean score of 2.3±1.4 for male students; however, the mean difference between the two genders was not statistically significant. Nonetheless, both genders reported low participation in an online discussion. Also, the participants reported limited ability to overcome e-education challenges yet female students reported a score of 2.6±1.5 for finishing registered courses and male students reported a 2.3±1.4 score with no statistical significant difference between the two genders.
Undoubtedly, male and female participants reported that e-education improves their overall performance, with a mean score of 3.0±1.2 and 3.1±1.1, respectively, while the reported encouragement of e-education for the exploration of additional information in the area of study had a mean score of only 1.8±1.5 between female students. The reported encouragement of e-education for time management was limited for both genders. Almost half of the students from both genders agreed that the e-education decreases students' educational expenses.
The majority of the students reported that e-education is superior to the traditional educational methods and half of the participants reported that they would recommend e-education to others. Table 3 and Figure 1 demonstrate the details of students' mean scores towards e-education.
Four out of each ten participants reported a positive perception towards e-education. Around one-third of participants between 18 and 20 years old had positive perception compared with half of the participants 23+ years old. Both genders were almost equally divided between positive and negative perceptions towards e-education and the difference was not statistically significant. While the positive perception ranged between 35.1% between  • Less than an hour • 1 -7 hours • 7 -14 hours • 14+ hours Please select the answer that best fits your feeling (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree)