International Education Studies; Vol. 15, No.

3; 2022
ISSN 1913-9020 E-ISSN 1913-9039
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education

Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Benefits and

Challenges for EFL Students
Rama Abdulkarim Alsayed1 & Abeer Sultan Ahmed Althaqafi1
1
English Language Institute (ELI), King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Correspondence: Abeer Sultan Ahmed Althaqafi, English Language Institute (ELI), King Abdulaziz University
(KAU), Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Received: January 14, 2022 Accepted: February 26, 2022 Online Published: May 22, 2022
doi:10.5539/ies.v15n3p122 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v15n3p122

Abstract
Online learning has been a vital tool to be used during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many research studies have
been conducted on this topic from different perspectives. However, it can be argued that it is important to
identify and evaluate the students’ experience especially those of them who are experiencing online learning for
the first time. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate Saudi EFL learners’ experience towards the
rapid shift to an entirely online learning environment. Specifically, this study aimed to identify the benefits and
the challenges of online learning during COVID-19 and compare the traditional way of face-to-face learning to
online learning from the students’ perspective. The research method employed for this paper was a quantitative
method in terms of a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained 15 items and was utilized to identify the
benefits and challenges that the students have faced during their online learning experience. Participants were 72
Saudi EFL learners in their preparatory year at a Saudi higher education institution. Major findings revealed a
number of benefits of online learning, such as: “Easy access to online material”, “Ability to record meetings and
sessions”, and “Retrieve information”. On the other hand, technical problems were the most reported challenge
for students, in addition to lack of interaction with teachers. Based on the research findings, several suggestions
and recommendations were presented to enhance the effectiveness of online learning.
Keywords: online learning, digital classroom, virtual classroom, students’ perception during COVID-19
1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction to the Problem
During the crisis of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak of 2020, most of the countries around the world
shifted the teaching and the learning process virtually as the pandemic caused all the educational institutions
across the globe to shut down to follow the social distancing (Alahmadi & Alraddadi, 2020). For example, online
learning has been considered a solution for all the schools, colleges, and universities in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia since March 2020. Online learning can be defined as “learning that takes place partially or entirely over
the Internet” (Aud et al., 2010). The unexpected shift to online learning is clearly a serious challenge for the
learning community although there might be some benefits. Some of the challenges could be: lack of students’ IT
skills which could affect their online learning. Accordingly, one might argue that students who did not have the
chance to participate in any online learning programs before the pandemic might have a negative experience.
The aim of this paper is to investigate Saudi EFL students’ perception of the benefits and challenges of online
learning. Getting to know students’ perception toward online learning can aid us in recognizing some of the
challenges that students face, and then we will be able to try to find some solutions to make the online learning
experience more fruitful for students.
1.2 Research Hypotheses
‐ Due to the sudden shift to online learning, there might be some challenges that students have faced despite the
benefits, which this study aims to investigate based on the following hypotheses:
‐ Students’ lack of IT skills could affect their online learning.
‐ Students who did not participate in any online learning programs before the pandemic would have a negative
experience.

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1.3 Research Questions

‐ What are the benefits and the challenges of online learning for EFL students?
‐ How effective is the online learning experience compared to the traditional way?
2. Literature Review
2.1 Online Learning Background and Definition
Many people might think that online learning is a recent medium or technology that we use today. In fact, it has a
very long history, and it is one of the first seeds of the invention of e-mail (Harasim, 2000). Hodges et al. (2020)
described distance education as “all arrangements for providing instruction through print or electronic
communications media to persons engaged in planned learning in a place or time different from that of the
instructor or instructors”. Online learning is effective, accessible, and provides flexible timing to schedule
classes, however, learners need to use the internet technology to communicate with their teachers (Rao, 2019).
Online learning as a medium of teaching and learning has been a necessity for many learners over the past 10
years due to many factors. In the 21st century, the demand of online learning has increased as it can reach a large
number of learners which increased diversification and globalization (Ibid.). Barbour and Reeves (2009) argued
that the benefits of online schooling could be classified into five main areas: expanding educational access,
providing high-quality learning opportunities, improving student outcomes and skills, allowing for educational
choice, and achieving administrative efficiency (Cavanaugh et al., 2009).
2.2 Challenges of Online Learning
Besides all the benefits, there are many challenges. Some of these challenges are the high start-up costs
associated with virtual schools, access issues surrounding the digital divide, the approval or accreditation of
virtual schools, and student readiness and retention issues (Cavanaugh et al., 2009). However still there are many
debates about the sufficiency of online learning. For example, Pomerantz and Brooks (2017) stated that Faculty
members have a love–hate relationship with online teaching and learning: They do not want to do it, however,
they think that they would be better instructors if they did. Most faculty agree that online learning makes higher
education available to more students, but few agree that online learning helps students learn more effectively.
Faculty predominantly teaches courses with not sufficient knowledge about the digital world.
2.3 Impact of Online Learning on Students
Additionally, today we can see the global impact of the online learning process during the outbreak of the
COVID-19. As almost all the global activities have been paralyzed due to the social distancing and the
implementation of the lockdown, especially in the education systems. The education is one of the main building
blocks to create a good nation (Baiyere et al., 2016). Accordingly, technology has played a major role in the
sudden shift that has happened, and it provided a solution to the learners who are unable to access the traditional
schooling due to the present situation (Soni, 2020). Many researchers have investigated the impact of the sudden
change, discussed the role of the online learning during the crisis of the CODVID-19, benefits and challenges,
and tried to identify the gaps in the virtual learning systems. Although virtual classes have been the solution for
different educational systems and has many tools that offer effective content, still it is difficult to compare their
effectiveness to the traditional classes in precise language classes which needs direct interaction (Alahmadi &
Alraddadi, 2020).
The evaluation for most of the faculties is based on three main attributes teaching, publications/research, and
service, and these attributes were used to evaluate during the traditional teaching (Ruth, 2018). Even though we
have shifted to the online learning, the evaluation system for this educational tool is achieved very little publicity
(Ruth, 2018). Therefore, this paper aims to find the benefits and challenges of the online learning for the EFL
Saudi students in their preparatory year.
3. Methodology
3.1 Type of Research Method
The research method employed for this paper was a quantitative method in terms of a questionnaire. The
questionnaire contained 15 items and was utilized to identify the benefits and challenges that EFL students have
faced during their online learning experience due to the pandemic.
3.2 Participants
The participants were 72 Saudi EFL learners in their preparatory year both male and female, their ages range
from 18 years old up to 25 years old. Their native language is Arabic, and they have different IT skills. Some of

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the participants never participated in any online learning programs before.

3.3 Research Tool
The implemented research tool was a questionnaire which was adapted from (Bączek et al., 2021) on ‘Students’
perception of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic’ a survey study of Polish medical students. The
questionnaire was modified and translated into Arabic in order to ensure full understanding of the students. This
questionnaire consisted of three parts. In the first part, demographic details were asked such as (age, gender, and
educational field), also students were asked to describe their IT skills, and state whether they had previously
participated in any online courses. While the second part included the following questions:
A. What are the advantages of e-learning? Pick all that you consider true.
‐ Access to online materials
‐ Learning on your own pace
‐ Ability to stay at home
‐ Classes interactivity
‐ Ability to record a meeting
‐ Comfortable surrounding
B. What are the disadvantages of e-learning? Pick all that you consider true.
‐ Reduced interaction with the teacher
‐ Technical problems
‐ Lack of interactions with colleagues
‐ Poor learning conditions at home
‐ Lack of self-discipline
‐ Social isolation
The Third part consisted of seven questions using Likert scale to compare between the online learning and the
traditional learning in terms of increasing knowledge, social competence, and students’ activity during classes. In
addition to a question that evaluates the students’ learning classes during the pandemic.
3.4 Procedure
First of all, an ethical approval was requested from ELI for the data collection. Secondly, a Google form was
used to construct the survey, and then the electronic survey was distributed online to the students via WhatsApp.
3.5 Data Analysis
The method used to analyze the data from the survey was frequency and percentage response using SPSS to
identify percentages and find the relation between different variables.

4. Results

Table 1. The students’ age

Age Frequency Percent
18-20 64 88.9
21-25 7 9.7
+25 1 1.4
Total 72 100.0

The 72 participants included 77.8% females (n= 56) and 22.2% males (n=16). As shown in Table 1, almost
88.9% between 18-20 years old, 9.7% are between 21-25, and 1.4 older than 25 years old.

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Figure 1. The students’ perception of their IT skills level

The students’ IT skills varied 62.5% rated their skills as good while 20.8% have low IT skills. Only 16.7% said
they have high IT skills.

Figure 2. The students’ participation in any online learning before the pandemic

The result showed that the 77.8% of the participants haven’t participated in any online learning courses before
the COVID-19 pandemic and only 22.2% have been involved in online learning.

Table 2. The number of male and female who have participated in this study and shows if they have been
involved in any online learning before the pandemic
Students’ participation in online learning before the Pandemic
Gender
yes no Total
male 4 12 16
female 12 14 56
Total 16 56 72
Percent 22.2% 77.8% 100.0%

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Table 3. Relation between the students’ participation in online learning and their IT skills
Students’ participation in online learning before the Pandemic
yes no Total
high 4 8 12
IT Skills moderate 11 34 45
low 1 14 15
Total 16 56 72

Table 4. The Students’ Perceptions about the benefits of the online learning
Responses
Benefits of the online learning Percent of Cases
N Percent
Access to online material 40 18.4% 55.6%
Ability to stay at home 49 22.6% 68.1%
Classes interactivity 5 2.3% 6.9%
Ability to record a meeting 61 28.1% 84.7%
Comfortable surrounding 37 17.1 51.4%
Learning on you own pace 25 11.5% 34.7%
Total 217 100.0% 301.4%

Each of the benefits was selected multiple times as the students were asked to pick all the possible answers that
they find as a benefit of the online learning. From the table above we realize that the “Ability to record a
meeting” was pick 61 times by the students and was the most rated benefit. Unlike “Classes interactivity” which
was only picked 5 times.

Table 5. Most of the challenges that students have faced during the online learning
Responses
Challenges of the online learning Percent of Cases
N Percent
Technical problems 62 26.1% 86.1%
Lack of interactions with teachers 43 18.1% 59.7%
Lack of self-discipline 40 16.8% 55.6%
Social isolation 25 10.5% 34.7%
Poor learning conditions at home 38 16.0% 52.8%%
Lack of interactions with colleagues 30 12.6% 41.7%
Total 238 100.0% 330.6%

Technical problems were the most rated challenge that 86.1% of the participants have faced during their online
learning experience. Also 59.7% of the participants reported that “Lack of interactions with teachers” as a
challenge that happened frequently with them.
The following Figure 3 shows the students’ perception about the online learning in term of increasing the
knowledge.

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Figure 3. Students’ perception about the online learning

Figure 4. Students’ evaluation for the traditional learning in term of increasing their knowledge and experience

Table 6. The Students’ evaluation for their experience of the learning during the pandemic
IT Skills
Frequency percent
high moderate low Total
Extremely unenjoyable 1 10 6 17 17 23.6
Unenjoyable 1 4 3 8 8 11.1
Online Learning Evaluation during Pandemic Neutral 1 15 1 17 17 23.6
Enjoyable 2 7 3 12 12 16.7
Extremely enjoyable 7 9 2 18 18 25.0
Total 12 45 15 72 72 100.0

25.0% of the participants evaluate their online learning as “extremely enjoyable” and most of them have
moderate or high IT skills while 23.6% have “extremely unenjoyable” experience and these learners have
moderate or low skills. Additionally, 23.6% have neutral experiences.
5. Discussion
This study focused on the benefits and challenges of the online learning at a Saudi university in Jeddah, Saudi

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Arabia, from the perspective of preparatory year students. The results showed that most of the students have no
previous experience with the online learning as seen in Table 2, and the students’ IT skills shown in Table 3
varied which can be a factor that might have an impact on their online learning experience which can be listed
under students’ readiness supported by (Cavanaugh et al., 2009).
Furthermore, the results showed a number of benefits of the online learning as reported by students. Some of the
picked benefits of the online learning were “Access to online material”, “Ability to stay at home”, “Ability to
record meetings and sessions”, “Retrieve information”, and “Having comfortable surrounding” which supported
by (Rao, 2019) that online learning is effective, accessible, and provide flexible timing to schedule classes,
however, learners need to use the internet technology to communicate with their teachers. Moreover, the highly
rated benefit as seen in Table 4 is “Ability to record the meeting” which enables the students to recheck the class
or the lecture in case of facing any technical issues or time management issues. Despite of all the reported
benefits, there are many challenges such as student readiness and retention issues. Also, as shown in Table 5
“Technical problems” has been the most rated challenge for almost all the students. In addition, “Lack of
interaction with teacher” has been a challenge for most of the participants. Moreover, the “lack of
self-discipline” was a challenge for students through their learning process, students complained of the behavior
of other students. In fact, students might struggle during their learning due to these challenges, and they need to
be equipped with proper training to avoid such issues.
Additionally, learners evaluated online learning and traditional learning in terms of increasing the knowledge and
social competence. As shown in Figure 3, 40.3% of the participants have neutral opinion about the effectiveness
of online learning while in Figure 4, 40.3% evaluated the tradition learning as effective. In regard to this, more
studies are needed to investigate the effectiveness of the online learning which is also supported by Mahyoob
(2020) still it is difficult to compare online classes effectiveness to the traditional classes in precise language
classes which needs direct interaction. This also was suggested by Pomerantz and Brooks (2017), who stated that
few people agree that online learning helps students learn more effectively.
The students’ evaluation of their experience of the online learning during the pandemic had very close
percentages as seen in Table 6, 23.6% evaluate their experience as extremely unenjoyable, 23.6% have neutral
opinion about their experiences, and 25% believe it was extremely enjoyable. It can be argued based on these
findings that there might be a relationship between the students’ readiness and their IT skills, however, further
studies are needed in this field, and more standards are needed to evaluate the online learning accurately.
6. Conclusion
In conclusion, this study aimed to identify the benefits and the challenges of the online learning from the
perspective of preparatory year students at a Saudi university in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The results have showed
that students agreed on the online learning benefits and challenges. The ability to record a meeting had the
highest rate according to the students besides the ability to stay home with comfortable surroundings. On the
other hand technical problems were the most rated challenge for students, in addition to lack of interaction with
teachers. Despite of the benefits that could help the learners, the challenges could have a negative impact on the
online learning experiences as students still agree that traditional way of learning is more sufficient and effective.
This research had some limitations, one of which was the small sample size. Moreover, the number of female
participants was larger due to access issues related to culture. For further studies on online learning, researchers
could find rigorous standards to measure and evaluate the online learning accurately at different contexts to
highlight all the benefits and challenges in order to improve the online learning environment and make it more
enjoyable to learners. Moreover, applying more qualitative methods with the participants and teachers could
have a deeper view of the evaluation of the online learning.
For the pedagogical implementation for this study, a short technical course includes all the expected problems,
and its solutions should be given at the beginning of each semester.
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Appendix
The Arabic version of the questionnaire
Retrieved from https://forms.gle/dRuUxtX8bES5BjD9A

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Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
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