Online Learning During Lockdown: Effect On Mental Health of Higher Education Students
Online Learning During Lockdown: Effect On Mental Health of Higher Education Students
Online Learning During Lockdown: Effect On Mental Health of Higher Education Students
Shubhashree Dash
Master of Education, CIE, University of Delhi
Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic has influenced every aspect of human life including Education and Mental Health
of the learners. Thus, the present study was aimed at assessing the status of online learning and mental
health of online learners and to investigate the relationship between the two variables. The descriptive
survey method was adopted for the present study and the collected data analysed quantitatively. For
collection of the data two self-made tools were used namely Status of Online Learning Scale for
Learners and Mental Health Assessment Scale for Learners. The tools were administered on 140
students. The tabulated data was analysed through the Mean, Standard Deviation, correlation and t
test. The results revealed that learners are moderately active in online learning. Mental health of the
online learners is moderately stable. Online learning is negatively affecting the mental health of the
online learners and there was no significant difference found between the mental health of online
learners in terms of the gender and the locality.
Keywords: mental health, online learning, lockdown, higher education
1
https://en.unesco.org/news/137-billion-students-now-home-covid-19-school-closures-expand-ministers-
scale-multimedia
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11516
(Pg. 11515-11527)
Educating the children at their pace was always a challenging task for teachers. Although online
learning is not a new concept, full implementation of online learning seems impossible because
of so many barriers such as unavailable of resources, digital divide among learners and poor
network coverage etc. but during this outbreak of COVID-19 when the whole country was
under lockdown, the whole education system forcefully shifted into the virtual mode. These
days attending online classes have become so normal for students during this lockdown, and
now it has become a part of students’ new lives which was never expected before. Because of
this online platform, the flow of education did not break and many of the institutions became
able to take timely steps towards educating, assessing and promoting the students to the next
higher class. Another merit of this platform is that learners don’t have to do any physical
activity. They will be more engaged with mental activity and able to stay more academic-
oriented. But these sudden changes in the educational system also come with a lot of problems.
In a report issued by UNESCO on April 21 stated that,
“Half of the total number of learners, some 826 million (82.6 crores) students
kept out of the classroom by the COVID-19 pandemic, do not have access to a
household computer and 43 percent (706 million or 70.6 crores) have no internet
at home, at a time when digitally-based distance learning is used to ensure
educational continuity in the vast majority of countries.2”
Many of the teachers and students have a lacking of digital knowledge. It was very challenging
for teachers in adapting this technique of online classes and the use of digital instruments as
most of them have never used this platform before. Internet accessibility is also the biggest
challenge for students and teachers as well in countries like India. It is also discussed in the
NITI Aayog report of Strategy for New India @75 that,
“The quality and reliability of the internet is a major bottleneck. It also pointed
out that 55,000 villages in the country are without mobile network coverage.3”
Especially students from rural backgrounds are going under these connectivity issues and are
not able to participate in the online class, evaluation, assignment. The University of Hyderabad
conducted an in-house survey with 2500 students, 90% of them have mobile phones but only
63% of students were able to access online classes. In this study when the children are already
2
https://en.unesco.org/news/startling-digital-divides-distance-learning-emerge
3
https://government.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/education/how-lockdown-reveals-actual-state-of-
e-education-in-india/75803841
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11517
(Pg. 11515-11527)
struggling with mental health issues during this lockdown period, are they able to deal with
these problems regarding online classes, and how these online classes are also affecting their
mental health are focused.4
Online Learning
Online learning refers to technology-based education by using World Wide Web, email, text,
multimedia, voice, and video conferencing. It is always available for the learner, so the learner
learns at his own pace and convenience. It can be availed at any time at the learner’s own
convenience by purchasing the subscriptions of different platforms or logging in to access the
courses (Colchester et al., 2017). It hugely promotes self-learning methods and teachers act
like facilitators. E-learning is helpful in optimising the learning outcomes at the same time it
makes the learning process more interesting as learners are able to learn from different sources.
Fully online learning is a form of distance education in which all instruction and assessment
are carried out using online, Internet-based delivery (Picciano and Seaman 2009; & U.S.
Department of Education, 2007).
Mental Health
Adler's theory of individual psychology: mental health means having goals in life, having a
solid philosophy for living, family and social relationships, optimal and sustainable benefit for
fellows, courage, decisiveness, having control over emotions, goal the final realization of
accomplishment and self-acceptance problems and try to solve possible errors (Kord, T., &
Mohammady, F., 2009). Basically, mental health refers to satisfaction, sustainable mind state.
A good mental state helps in adapting and adjusting with the current situation.
Reviews of Related Literature
Status of Online Learning
Microsoft has recorded the number of users increased when on 10th march it was 750 and by
24th march it became 13,698. (OECD, 2020). And also zoom has extended its time limits in
certain countries on a request (Rani, M. 2020). There has been a huge change in methods of
online methods of teaching and learning in global level. (Basilaia, et al., 2020). The
Government of Georgian has started an educational programme named “Teleskola” for better
understanding of lessons (Govt of Georgia, 2020). Giorgi Basilaia and David kvavadze (2020)
in his case study of private schools of Georgia explains about successful implementation of
online learning and these experiences can be used in future. G-suite and Edu-page are the
4
http://herald.uohyd.ac.in/proposal-for-online-classes-elicits-mixed-responses-from-uoh-students-survey/
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11518
(Pg. 11515-11527)
platforms used in the educational process (Google, 2020; & Edupage, 2020). Edu-page cloud-
based portal unity and mobile app have been used by 150000 schools in 173 countries for
management of education. It is user friendly and freely accessible (Edupage, 2020). E-learning
platform has given scope of full much flexibility you can access and use according to your
convenience. It is available according to the needs of the learners (Colchester et al., 2017). E-
learning promotes self-learning by providing a broad area of scope of accessing materials
which covers learners’ doubts and topics as well (Bajaj and Sharma, 2018). The government
of India MHRD and UGC has been giving instructions to universities for online teaching-
learning mode of instruction. Same types of actions are taken by the Chinese government also
by the policy “suspending classes without stopping learning” (Zhang, Wang, Yang, & Wang,
2020). Dr. Wahab Ali in his exploratory study is suggesting the use of technology by the staff
members and online teaching is really necessary in lockdown. Surakhasubedi et al., (2020) has
discussed the challenges faced by teachers and learners due to electricity problem, internet
problem, data pack, and unavailability of resources.
Mental Health during Lockdown
K . Schafera, et al., (2020) found in the study “impact of COVID on public mental health and
buffering effect of a sense of coherence” about no change in psychopathological symptoms.
Some people have experienced clinically significant increases in psychopathological
symptoms and some are facing COVID related traumatic distress. Syed Sajid, & Husain Kazmi
(2020) discusses that depression is found to be more prevalent in the age group of 15-35 years.
Anxiety and stress level is also found high among 21-25 years.
Mental Health and Learning
In the study of the “students’ mental health status” YaghoobNami et al.(2013) found 37.37%
of the students are suspected of having mental disorders by studying from the perspective of
gender. Kshripa Moghel et al. (2020) during this pandemic break there is an increase of
awareness about mental health among the student population and family became the source of
support. In the study of “mental health problems in university students” Sadia Saleem and
Zahid Mahmood, (2013) explains students fall in a very severe category of being dysfunctional,
loss of confidence, lack of self-regulation, anxiety process.
Rationale of the Study
Because of the outbreak of COVID-19 schools, colleges, and universities have to suspend their
institutions. And during these tough situations, teachers have been trying to teach several
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11519
(Pg. 11515-11527)
platforms for the continuation of education as; Education is one of the key factors in building
a good nation (Baiyere et al., 2016). Basically, the teachers are using the online platforms for
conducting teaching-learning practices, sharing views, giving feedback, assigning homework,
and contacting stakeholders. This virtual mode of education has brought a lot of changes in the
whole education process by changing the teaching-learning process, pedagogic style. Many
online applications and software are being used by the teachers, Lectures have been also taken
through We Chat, by sharing audio-visual videos through e-mails, by different online teaching
apps like Voov, Zoom, Superstar, g-suite cloud meeting and so on (Felix, (2020). But after all
the benefits online learning has created so many challenges and so many barriers for the
learners. Brazendale, (2017) has mentioned some of these challenges which are created because
of online learning like “lack of online teaching skills in educators, online preparation of lesson
plans as it is very time-consuming, lack of appropriate support from the technical teams, and
traffic overload in online educational platforms.
Not only the teachers but the students are also facing challenges due to their deficiency of
proper learning attitude, lack of suitable materials for learning, more involvement in classroom
learning, incapability of self- discipline, and the inadequate learning environment at some of
their homes during self-isolation”. Again, some other studies have also discussed other
challenges about online learning such as “students are facing low internet connectivity issues
majorly in few places of the world like India, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Africa etc. Due to lack of
motivation and shaky mental health issues, E-learning is not able to be succeeded”.
(Jimoyiannis & Gravani, 2011; & Khalid et al., 2016). If these challenges of online learning
will be analysed, students are the most sufferers. So, in this study the focus is to find out the
relationship between the online learning and mental health of the learners. As during this
lockdown period of covid-19 whole world was discussing the significance of mental health as
quarantine has affected very much to the people’s activities, routine, and lifestyles as a result
chance of depression, loneliness, drug use, suicidal behaviour has increased.
According to the Indian Psychiatry Society “there was a 20% rise in the number of cases of
mental illness at the end of March 2020”.5 UNESCO suggested that students are in need of
mental health support because the cope up is very necessary especially for the students. As the
5
https://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/article.asp?issn=0019-
5545;year=2020;volume=62;issue=4;spage=354;epage=362;aulast=Grover;aid=IndianJPsychiatry_2020_62_4_
354_286222
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11520
(Pg. 11515-11527)
COVID-19 pandemic has hugely affected the mental health of every human being, the
researcher decided to study whether the mental health of the students is affected or not because
of these drastic changes in the educational process. Researcher tries to focus on studying
acceptance levels and the reaction of the students towards this virtual mode of education.
Objectives of the Study
1. To investigate the status of the online learning of students during the lockdown.
2. To explore the mental health of online learners during the lockdown.
3. To find out the effects of online learning on mental health.
Hypotheses of the Study
1. Learning through online mode is highly followed by learners during the lockdown.
2. Learners learning through online mode are mentally healthy.
3. Learning through online mode affects mental health positively.
4. There is no significant difference between the mental healths of online learners with
reference to gender.
5. There is no significant difference between the mental healths of online learners with
reference to the locality.
Research Approach and Design
Descriptive survey research design was used in the present study for knowing the status of
online learning and the mental health of the learners during lockdown and to find out the
relationship between the both.
Variables of the Study
Criterion Variables 1. Online Learning 2. Mental Health
Background Variables 1. Gender (Male and Female) 2. (Rural and Urban)
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11521
(Pg. 11515-11527)
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11522
(Pg. 11515-11527)
The maximum and minimum score possible in the test was 125 and 25 respectively.
It was inferred from the above table that the mean of Rural Male and Rural female are 76.97
and 76.77 respectively and similarly the mean of Urban Male and Urban female are 74.54 and
78.00 respectively. The total mean of Male and Female found that 75.76 and 77.38, similarly
the total mean of Rural and Urban found that 76.87 and 76.27 respectively.
2. Mental Health of Learners Learning through Online Mode
Table 2: Mental Health of Learners Learning through Online Mode
# Male Female Total
Rural 112.02 119.8 (Rural) 115.91
Urban 105.6 112.83 (Urban) 109.22
Total (Male) 108.81 (Female) 116.32
The maximum & minimum score possible in the test was 175 & 35 respectively.
It was inferred from the above table that the mean of Rural Male, Rural female are 112.02 and
119.8 respectively and similarly the mean of Urban Male and Urban female are 105.6 and
112.83 respectively. The total mean of Male and Female found that 108.81 and 116.32,
similarly the total mean of Rural and Urban found that 115.91 and 109.22 respectively.
3. Learners learning through Online Mode affects the Mental Health
By analysing the product moment correlation between online learning and mental health of the
students the result found -0.054. It was revealed from the result that online learning hampers
the mental health of higher education students, but the result also revealed that the degree is
very low.
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11523
(Pg. 11515-11527)
It is inferred from the above table that the calculated t value was higher than that of the table
value at both the 0.95 and 0.99 confidence levels. Hence the null hypothesis, there is no
significant difference between Mental Health of male and female online learners was rejected
and the alternative hypothesis there is significant difference found between Male and Female
Higher Education Online Learners in their Mental Health was accepted.
5. Difference between Means of Mental Health of Learners with Respect to Locality
Table 4: Difference between Means of Mental Health of Learners with Respect to
Locality7
120
100
80
Male
60
Female
40
20
0
Mean SD
Figure 1
Difference between Means of Mental Health of Learners with Respect to Gender
6
(At 1% and 5% level of significance the table value of ’t’ is 2.60 and 1.97 respectively)
7
(At 1% and 5% level of significance the table value of ’t’ is 2.60 and 1.97 respectively)
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11524
(Pg. 11515-11527)
120
100
80
Rural
60
Urban
40
20
0
Mean SD
Figure 2
From the above table it was inferred that the t value was less than that of the table value at both
the 0.95 and 0.99 confident levels. Hence the null hypothesis there is no significant difference
between Mental Health of rural and urban online learners was accepted.
Major Findings of the Study
1. The entire rural male, rural female, urban male and urban female higher education learners
were (mean= 76.97, 76.77, 74.54, and 78.00 respectively) moderately active in learning
through online mode and the urban females are more active in online learning than urban
males similarly Rural males were more active than rural females.
2. Female higher education learners (77.38) were more active in online learning than males
(75.76) and rural online learners (76.87) were more active in online learning than Urban
online learners (76.27).Higher education learners are moderately active in online learning
as they scored between 61-90.
3. The mental health of rural females (119.8) was better than rural males (112.02) and mental
health of urban females (112.83) was also better than that of urban males (105.6).
4. Female online learners (116.32) were in a better mental health condition in comparison to
males (108.81) and mental health of rural learners (115.91) were better than to urban
learners (109.22) in higher education.
5. Higher education learners have a moderate mental health as they scored in between 91-130
which refers to moderate mental health.
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11525
(Pg. 11515-11527)
6. The correlation between online learning and mental health found that -0.054 means that
online learning hampers the mental health of higher education learners but the degree of
influence of online learning on mental health was found to be very low.
7. There was a significant difference found between Male and Female Higher Education
Online Learners in their Mental Health.
8. There was no significant difference found between Mental Health of rural and urban higher
education online learners.
Conclusion
The results of the study revealed that online learning has affected the mental health of the
learners of higher education during this lockdown period of covid-19. Students’ mental health
situation is not stable, maybe because they are away from their peer group or maybe, they are
facing so many problems regarding theses online learning but not able to share with their peer
group or any of their teachers. Some students are not able to cope up with this situation. People
staying in village areas have network issues and not an appropriate environment for study
purposes. It indirectly affects the mental state of learners. Students are having very little study
material as they are not able to access everything online. Male learners are facing more mental
health problems in comparison to female learners. Students may not have enough ideas about
usability of an online platform so that has an impact on their mind.
Educational Implications
1. Implications for Learners
Students should understand the situation of the COVID so for the continuation of the learning
process they have to cope up with the online learning conditions. They should not be affected
mentally because of learning burdens. They should explore online learning resources. They
must try to cooperate with the teacher and try to explain to them about their situations. And
they should be in touch with their peer groups through text or calling.
2. Implication for the Teachers
Teachers should adopt and explore various learning methods and pedagogy by which learners
should not feel the absence of face-to-face classes. They must have understood the situations
of the learners and try to guide them in coping with these situations. Homework, assignment
and test burden on students should be considered by the teachers.
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language
Shubhashree Dash 11526
(Pg. 11515-11527)
https://government.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/education/covid-19-pandemic-impact-and-
strategies-for-education-sector-in-india/75173099
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-
learning/
https://government.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/education/how-lockdown-reveals-actual-
state-of-e-education-in-india/75803841
https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-health/mental-health/mmap/
https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com
https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/covid-19-pandemic-affecting-mental-
health-of-millions-who/77797582
https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/mental-health-problems-in-students-
covid-19-tips-for-parents-teachers-sudents-1730312-2020-10-10
https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20201023/university-students-at-significant-risk-for-mental-
health-effects-of-covid19-lockdown
https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use
https://dghs.gov.in/content/1350_3_NationalMentalHealthProgramme.aspx?format=Print
https://government.economictimes.indiatimes.com
https://forms.gle/5hN5vpUv9bqL8wxo8
https://en.unesco.org/news/137-billion-students-now-home-covid-19-school-closures-expand-
ministers-scale-multimedia
https://www.ballotnow.com/post.php?post_id=SurbhiGupta110-5f02e748b458d
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/columnists/get-a-healthy-mix-of-online--classroom-learning.html
Copyright © 2021, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language