Higher Education students' technological characteristics and technological self-efficacy during Covid 19: Implications to flexible learning framework

Abstract

The new normal, to now normal and the next normal will undoubtedly include technological adaption with flexible teaching and learning. This descriptive-survey study describes the technological characteristics and self-efficacy of higher education students on flexible learning. Participated by 2380 consented students of a state university, responses were processed from a data set collected through Google forms. Majority of the participants or 63.9 percent were female. A substantial percentage belong to a family with joint monthly income below 5,000.00 as parents were mostly working as farmers or fishers. Most of the participants use a shared smartphone for learning, and a handful with personal laptops. With the majority considered as digital natives, most of them were familiar with and have used relevant online tools to support learning. The majority of them, however, are regarded as novices when it comes to using online learning management systems, tools for communication, storage, creating and packaging video content, and maintaining and uploading web content. Results revealed that most of the participants generally agree on self-efficacy items towards flexible learning. The research study provided valuable inputs for curriculum designers, educators, and administrators towards a functional and relevant teaching and learning framework that highly considers the current technological characteristics and self-efficacies of students especially in the COVID19 pandemic.