Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Performance: A Comparison between the E-Learning and Classical Classroom Learning for Arabic Language Department

Abstract

Background:  the learning system in Iraq has been switched to an e-learning system as a taken action to decrease the infections of COVID-19 in Iraq. The question of “to what extent does this system affect the performance of students” has been raised and needed investigation.

Aim: This study aimed to compare students' performance between e-learning and traditional classroom learning.

Method: Data were collected from 183 students at Anbar University in Iraq from the College of Education for Human Sciences. The collected data for students' achievement was scaled to five levels from 1 to 5. The paired t-test and independent t-test were used to determine if there are any significant differences between students' performances according to the learning approaches and to determine if there are any significant differences between students' performances depending on the student's gender.

Results: A statistical analysis of the exam results was conducted using paired and independent t-tests. The results show that the performance was higher when using e-learning while gender is not a significant factor in performance change.

Conclusion: The outcome of this study demonstrated the existence of the differences between the performances of students in the two semesters; their performance was higher when using the e-learning system. This indicates the significant effect of the use of e-learning on the performance of students.