RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Submitted by:
Kiran Ashraf 2335108
Muskan Talreja 2335111
Siraj Hussain 2335250
Wajahat Ullah Siddiqui 2335257

Date: 17th December 2023

MBA 1-C (36-E)

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Effectiveness of online education on the performance of university
students

Introduction and Background

Over the past years the trend has been changed students as well as teachers are interested for
online education because it saves a lot of time and students have different views on this, like
some says online learning have advantages but other says it has disadvantages, so there are
mixed results for that. 37% of Americans agrees with the point that universities provide high
education when it comes to online education and students are satisfied with that. In the past few
years, ratio of taking online classes and enrollment of students has grown from 6.1 million in
2002 to 7.1 million. World is moving towards the online learning because internet has made it so
easy and students just have to login and they are good to go. Also, less resources are needed for
online learning and cost can be reduced. COVID-19 made us think that how online education can
do wonders and how students can learn too many things even when they are at home students
just need to have the internet availability and all universities have done that online system and
students who were serious eager to learn they performed good but there were also students that
choose shortcuts over effectiveness so it totally depends on how students perceive that. But it
totally depends on how students perceive it and utilize this because researches say that students
are not serious at all when it comes to online learning they make excuses and knowledge is not
transferred properly, there is also no face to face meetings as students can enjoy more and learn
more things about the course. so online education has its pros and cons it depends totally on
students how they are taking it and receiving the knowledge in proper way.

Literature Review:
With the passage of time the way of learning has quit evolved. Online learning which
encompasses both hybrid and pure online format has been an important component of education
system.

There is positive as well as negative impacts of online students on students. Online education
provides time flexibility to the students along with easy accessibility. Moreover, online education
is beneficial for those students who want access to international courses. Students who live in the
distant far away areas can also save their costs of transportation through online education.
According to some researcher online education can be an effective way to educate youth because
it can be easily accessed by lower class because it is studied that the earning gap between high
school students and college students is increasing (Dynarski, Page, & Scott-Clayton, 2022). And

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cost of education is rising so it is best to implement online education as it will be cost effective.
According to (Nguyen & Tuan, 2015), there is evidence which is indicating that online learning
is as effective as the traditional way of learning.
There and many discussions related to online education, one of the discussion and researches are
related to effectiveness in educating students. Online education is effective in for students, it is
cost effective and it will be very useful in combating inflation situation, and it will be available
to everyone by providing world class education (Ng, et al., 2014) & (Lorenzetti, 2013). There are
many number of studies which are showing need of online education, according to (Moore &
Kearsley, 2011) the main reasons that student want online education is to increase their access to
trainings and learning, getting opportunity to update their skills, cost saving and cost
effectiveness, improved standard of traditional educational sources, reducing inequalities
between age groups, expanding the capacity of education in new areas of subject and increase in
education experience. With the advent and advancement in technology we see changing trend in
education. The evolution and expulsion of internet and social media have an increasing impact
on education. The study from (Evans, 2013) emphasizes the importance of incorporating social
media in classroom. There was a study that has emphasized the importance and significance of
social media, in that study the effects of Facebook usage on academic performance and success
of student is analysed. In study (Ainin, Naqshbandi, Moghavvemi, & Jaafar, 2015) it was
discovered that the usage of Facebook have a positive impact on student’s academic
performance. Moreover, there are further evidences showing the importance and emphasizing
the need to tailor online education for mobile phones by saying that full time employed and
young students are much likely to use mobile version of learning system (Han & Shin, 2016).
More than 60% of educational institutions in USA said that online education is import for long
term strategy (Allen & Seaman, 2013). Moreover, there are institutions which offers blended
learning i.e face to face plus online education has also become common at student level.
(Drysdale, Graham, Spring, & Halverson, 2013). So on and so forth in online/distance education there
are potential and chances for students to purse higher education as well as increased diversity of
students because distance/online education give opportunity to everyone regardless of their age,
gender and race (Traxler & Lally, 2016). So universities are adopting technologies to adopt to
online education in order to compete in the market which are more distant. So these study shows
that how online education have significance and advantages and how are they demanded by
students who can’t access traditional education.

So, these are the researches which are emphasizing the positive impact of online education.
However according to some studies there are negative impacts of online education as well which
reduce performance of students. One of the major criticisms faced by online education is that
there is no interaction between people face to face which will negatively impact a person’s social
skills. A study from (Zhonggen & Liheng, 2021) suggests that extroverted students like offline
classes whereas introverted students like online classes. One of the disadvantages as pointed by
(Arkorful & Abaidoo, 2015) in their study showed that online education is remote and it results
in lack of student’ interaction and focus. (Rawashdeh, Mohammed, Arab, Alara, & Al-

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Rawashdeh, 2021) in their study concluded that students who want to increase their abilities and
enhance their learning then online learning method is best because it makes communication
between teacher and students easy.

According to (Kizilcec, Pérez-Sanagustín, & Maldonado, 2017) the self-regulated students can
achieve different performance in online learning. The online learning outcome is dependent on
student self-regulation. Moreover, according to (Eom & Ashill, 2016) another main factor which
can improve the learning outcomes of e-learners is course design, if the course is designed in a
better way then the outcomes of online learning will be better.
Moreover, (Eom & Ashill, 2016) also showed that student motivation and instructor activity are
also main factors in determining the outcomes of online learning.
So, in conclusion there are many studies showing advantages and disadvantage of online
education. And in this study, we will select these four variables which will determine outcome
and effectiveness of online learning. Those previous studies discussed above are not conducted
in Karachi so our study will be conducted in Karachi on targeted universities to find out how
students of Karachi are affected by online education. How these variables affect outcome of
online learning on our targeted audience and are students badly effected by online education or
they are getting advantages from online education.

Autonomy is one of the most important factors of self-learning. And self-learning is vital for
distance education students. Learners take action toward becoming lifelong learners when they
take responsibility for their own learning. So, determining autonomy of distance education has a
critical importance (Firat, 2016; Jacobs, Renandya & Power, 2016).
(https://ijreeonline.com/article-1-132-en.pdf)

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Conceptual Framework:

This literature review explores the landscape of online learning,

considering both purely online and hybrid/blended formats, with a
focus on postsecondary education. The review highlights the potential
benefits of online learning, including cost-effectiveness, accessibility,
and credit equivalency, aiming to address challenges such as rising
education costs and student loan debt. Key players in this domain,
such as Coursera, Udacity, edX, and Khan Academy, offer platforms
built on the premise of providing education to anyone with internet
access.

However, concerns and gaps in the literature are evident. These

include uncertainties about credit equivalency acceptance, potential
dilution of traditional degrees, and mixed findings on the effectiveness
of online learning compared to traditional formats. The literature
identifies variability in learning outcomes based on student
characteristics, such as sex, race/ethnicity, and ability, and
emphasizes the importance of methodological rigor in study design.

Several studies suggest positive outcomes for online learning, such as

improved learning, engagement, and community building. However, a
meta-analysis by Means et al. (2010) finds a modest but significant
difference in favor of online learning, while Lack (2013) concludes that

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there is insufficient evidence to definitively support or refute its
effectiveness.

The literature also discusses the impact of educational tools and

gamification, highlighting their role in enhancing student engagement
and learning outcomes. However, the review emphasizes the need for
a nuanced understanding, as certain studies show negative outcomes
for specific groups or contexts.

Furthermore, the review acknowledges the issue of self-selection bias

in online learning studies, where students choose their learning
environment. Studies by Anstine and Skidmore (2005), Brown and
Liedholm (2002), and Coates et al. (2004) highlight the potential
impact of self-selection bias on learning outcomes, indicating that
when corrected, the effectiveness of online learning may be inferior to
the traditional format.

In summary, while online learning offers potential benefits, including

cost-effectiveness and global accessibility, the literature reveals a
complex landscape with mixed findings. Factors such as student
characteristics, methodological rigor, and self-selection bias
contribute to the variability in outcomes. Ongoing research and
nuanced analyses are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of
the effectiveness of online learning in different contexts.

Research Problem
When the Covid 19 hits many universities come to know that they can also go for online
education and deliver knowledge to students in best way possible and they came to know about
many ways and students utilize their time and their time were not wasted because there were no
concept for online learning. The time of Covid 19 will be wasted because at that time no one
knows that when this virus will end and students will go to universities so to utilize their time as
they can complete their timely universities came up with different solutions, even now when the
Covid 19 is no more there we can go for online education as it solves many problems students
who are at that places where there is no presence of university they can go for online education
and complete their degree in this way cost of travelling will be minimized. and effectiveness of
online education depends totally on the course design how the course is designed and how
students are learning their capacity their seriousness and learning attitude one more thing is that
through online learning universities can cut their costs also so these are some issues that will be

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discussed in our research and we will be able to know about how things are done by students as
well as universities.
Our Research problem is to find out advantages and disadvantages of online learning on
effectiveness of students and factors which are responsible for improving online learning
outcomes of students.

Research Questions

1. What is your age?

2. What is your gender?
3. What is your year in university?
4. What is your area of study?
5. Are/were you enrolled in an online course at this University? If so, please give feedback
on just ONE online class you are/were enrolled?
6. Are you taking online course other than your university and what is the purpose of taking
that online course?
7. Please rate your online learning experience as compared to offline learning from scale of
1 to 10? (1=worst and 10=best)
8. Do you think that online classes have advantages or disadvantages please explain briefly?
9. Is the quality of the learning experience in online classes is better than in face-to -face
classes? (Y/N)
10. If yes, then please explain why?
11. Do you think that your motivation to learn increase your online learning performance?
(Y/N)
12. What should be done in order to increase student’s motivation in online class? Please
give your opinion.
13. How instructors were guiding in online class. Is it better than offline class or not?
14. Do you think that your learning performance is affected by instructor activity? (Y/N)
15. If no, then please explain how?
16. Do you think that instructor should change their way of learning in online class to
increase student’s learning outcome? (Y/N)
17. What do you think is student’s self-regulation results in better outcomes of online
learning? Explain it.
18. Rate your self-regulation on the scale of 1 to 10 (1=worst and 10=best)
19. Does your current self-regulation give a different outcome in online and offline class or
are outcomes in both types of learning same? Explain it.
20. Did the course’s objectives and procedures clearly communicate in your online class?
21. Did course materials of your online class interesting and have they stimulated your desire
to learn?

Methodology

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Research design
Our study is deductive in nature. We have collected theory through literature review then after
that we will be collecting data for data analysis and interpretation.
We will collect data from two sources which is through online google form and face to face
interviews. So, to check the consistency and reliability of the data we will use Cronbach’s Alpha
to check internal reliability and consistency of our surveys collected from two different sources
(Online and Face to face Interviews).
Research questions are both qualitative and quantitative in nature. For both types of questions
different methods of data analysis is applied.

Data Collection
Our research will be qualitative and quantitative both in nature because some of our questions
are asking experience and opinion which are answered in sentences (qualitative) and some
question are asking to rate from scale of 1 to 10 and Y/N response are also asked which are
quantitative.
Our work deals with questioners such as online interviews through google form as well as face to
face interviews which will collected from different universities of Karachi for example IBA,
SZABIST and IQRA etc. Our sample size will be 350 students. (300 online google form and 50
face to face interviews)

Sampling
We will collect data from sample of around 350 students from the population. We will be
distributing online google forms to students in order to get 300 responses. Face to face interviews
will be conducted by visiting universities and through that we will collect responses from 50
students. The sampling method will be simple random sampling.

Data Analysis
Our data analysis will be through thematic grid method. We will draw different thematic grids in
excel file and collect our data in those grids. As seen in questionnaire some of our questions are
asking opinion and experiences of candidates and this data can’t be analyzed by statistical
software.
There are other questions which are quantitative in nature. So, to analyze these questions we will
use SPSS software in order to determine outcomes

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Timeline
First two weeks we will focus on the research problem what we are going to research we will see
different research papers and see if our topic has some prior research done or not after analyzing
all these will move to variables and hypothesis and this will take another week which is week 3
And then questionnaire will be formed this will take 2 days.
After making questionnaires we will circulate the questionnaire in different universities and wait
for 20 to 23 days till 300 responses are collected. And in the same time frame, we will be visiting
universities to collect 50 responses through face to face interviews.
And after that one week will be for data analysis with interpretation and conclusion. We will
submit our research two days before last date as if our research is lacking something then we can
change accordingly.

Limitations
Time constraint and fuel cost are reason because of which we can’t travel much so our face to
face interviews are limited to 50 people and few selected universities.
There are certain limitations to conduct this research like collecting data on this topic can be
difficult because everyone has their own experience and totally depends on how they self-report
themselves.
Timing can be an issue research may not capture the long-term benefits and harm of online
learning as time for data collection will be limited.
Ethical considerations like students may not give proper insights of what they feel about online
learning.
Dynamic nature of online learning as online learning techniques is changing day by day so what
we have done in our research may be outdated soon.

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academic performance. Computers & Education , 64-73.

Allen, & Seaman, J. (2013). Ten years of tracking online education in the United States. Pearson.

Arkorful, V., & Abaidoo, N. (2015). The role of e-learning, advantages and disadvantages of its adoption
in higher education. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning .

Drysdale, J. S., Graham, C. R., Spring, K. J., & Halverson, L. R. (2013). An analysis of research trends in
dissertations and theses studying blended learning. The Internet and Higher Education , 90-100.

Dynarski, S., Page, L. C., & Scott-Clayton, J. (2022). College Costs, Financial Aid, and Student Decisions.

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Kizilcec, R. F., Pérez-Sanagustín, M., & Maldonado, J. J. (2017). Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Predict
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https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12528-018-9179-z

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