Over the past years, e-learning has really grown tremendously. This is because most
learning institutions have embraced the different trends of technology into training and education
(Shaw & Williams, 2019). In most learning institutions, learning now takes place electronically
and in some, students take their courses online. The implementation of online courses as an
alternative of physical classes comes about with advantages and disadvantages. This is because
online courses have achieved a number of things that were not possible in physical classes. On
the other hand, there are some costs that have been undergone as a result of the implementation
of the online classes. Research studies that have been conducted in the past in this field fail to
address the perceptions of students regarding the effectiveness of online classes. This is because
most researchers and scholars mainly focus on researching on the effectiveness, benefits and
disadvantages of online classes.
In addition, a lot of research has been conducted on how institutions have gone extra
miles to implement and create solid and effective online courses among other technological
trends that have been implemented (Shaw & Williams, 2019). However, very little research and
referencing has been made to ascertain the specific perceptions of students regarding the
effectiveness of online classes. There is need to do extensive research on the exact thoughts and
perceptions that students have in terms of what they perceive and expect online classes to be in
order to be termed as effective. This is important as it will help instructors and institutions can
create online learning environments that are effective and those that align with perceptions of
students.
Background of the Problem
Perceptions of Students on Effectiveness of Online Course 3
Back in the days, education was all about going to school and piling up a lot of books for
their studies, in which their daily basis was waking up early in the morning, packing these lots of
books and then heading to the nearest bus stop and later gets dropped in buildings (Rueter et al.,
2019). In the structures where teachers had chalks and other writing materials ready for their
lessons to start. Nowadays all that is all gone especially at the start of the 21st century since these
buildings, for example, are no longer even suitable to hold lessons. According to research, this
has been caused by the emerging technology in the sector of education.
As the world changes; the education system should also adopt new trends that will
change it to pace up with the changing world. Each year reports from different media
organizational experts on emerging patterns of technology are released especially those that aim
at developing the education system shortly. The reports highlight a couple of significant changes
in the education system that the people at the educational level concerned should take note of
(Jiang et al., 2019). Most of these statements show that most of the technological trends now
emerging have a very significant impact on education. Many people have been accredited with
developments of the modern classroom technologies.
The classroom and training centers have changed from the start of the 21st century
regarding technology applicable and are still evolving. Currently, the lecturers have evolved
from writing on a wallboard and now use projectors, and there are smart screens in classes for
learning purpose. In the future, however, the technology used in classrooms will be very
different from the one being used right now (Cochran et al., 2016). In the next three to five years
to come, students will have portable devices that they will be using in their classrooms instead of
writing down what the teacher is saying. They will have their notes digitally secured by saving
all the learning information in the cloud.
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As a result, students will participate in classrooms through a backchannel media, which is
a component of the classroom technology, where they can interact with one another and the
teacher. They will be able to post questions, answers, comments, etc. on the devices and they
will be displayed on the screens in their classrooms so that everyone can see and reply through
their digital devices (Shaw & Williams, 2019). In addition to this, new programs will be
developed where students will be able to submit their home works and exams online where the
lectures concerned will mark them and post their results online immediately hence the studen