Student Voice Matters: How are Malaysian Students Learning Online?

This article is Part 1 of our “Student Voice Matters” series, a collection of articles on Malaysian students’ experience with online learning.

Since the Movement Control Order (MCO) started, teachers across the country took action to continue classes and student learning through online platforms such as Google Classroom, Google Meet and WhatsApp.

For Project ID, we took our workshops online — covering topics such as career aspirations, self-management, journaling, and design thinking — and ran over 20 workshops since MCO started. It was at this time that we heard the challenges that students were facing — some were struggling to acclimatize to online learning, whilst others had to break the MCO restrictions to buy internet top-ups to continue their learning.

Given what we heard, we sought to delve deeper into understanding the problems with “Your Voice Matters” — a student survey designed to find out how students are coping with the switch to online learning. With over 700 respondents (aged 13–18 years old) across Malaysia, we have compiled key insights and observations which we will be sharing through a series of articles over the next few weeks.

This week, we explore the platforms students currently use, where they stand on online vs. offline learning, how they feel about their current experiences, and the challenges they face.

The top 3 platforms being used by students are WhatsApp, Google Classroom and Telegram

Key Findings:

• WhatsApp and Telegram appear the most viable options for educators to teach remotely especially for students with slow internet connection as it does not require high speeds or large volumes of data.
• Google Classroom is also at the top of the list. This is consistent with it being the Ministry of Education’s preferred platform and the resources that have been provided to equip Malaysian teachers with the knowledge and skills to conduct virtual classes via Google Classroom.

Only 25% of students prefer online learning. Why?

“I prefer offline learning because interactions play an important role in learning. Sometimes I ask my teacher questions (in WhatsApp or Telegram) but she interprets it the wrong way and proceeds with the class, leaving my questions unanswered.” — 17-year-old male student from Johor

“Jika saya tidak memahami apa yang guru sekolah saya menyampaikan, saya mempunyai platform lain di internet dan saya boleh belajar sendiri atau dengan bersama video di Internet...” — 16-year-old female student from Penang

Key Findings:

• Majority prefer offline learning because they appreciate the face-to-face interaction with their teachers and peers.
• Other reasons include struggles communicating with their teachers online, and difficulties adjusting to the inconsistent online learning structure
• Students who prefer online learning indicated higher levels of readiness for self-directed learning. The reasons they prefer online learning are because they can learn at their own pace, manage their own time, learn new skills and have access to more information.
• Regardless of preference for online or offline learning, students need clear communication and engaging interaction with their teachers for learning to happen meaningfully.

How are students feeling about online learning?

“Sebab pembelajaran secara bersemuka lebih senang untuk saya terus faham dan bertanyakan soalan yang sukar difahami berbanding pembelajaran online dan hal pembelajaran online juga banyak rakan-rakan saya ketinggalan kerana segelintir mereka tidak mempunyai handphone dan internet di rumah mereka” — 17-year-old male student from Sabah.

Key Findings:

• 45% of respondents indicated feeling either calm/steady/excited/joyful towards their online learning experience, while 35% of them feel tired/frustrated/stressed/anxious/insecure/lost.
• Students from East Malaysia indicated higher levels of negative feelings towards online learning compared to other states [51% East Malaysia vs 32% Other States].
• Deep-diving into the qualitative responses, many experienced communication issues with their teachers. Some also shared that they are concerned that many of their friends are ‘left out’ and unable to access online learning due to lack of resources.

Comparing student feelings between exam and non-exam classes

Key Findings:

• We also observed higher indications of tiredness, frustration, stress, anxiousness, insecurity and feeling lost towards online learning amongst older students (17–18 yo) compared to younger students (13–16 yo).
• Additionally, a higher proportion of older students preferred offline over online learning, citing direct communication and opportunity to ask questions easily as the main reasons. This frustration could stem from their sense of urgency in preparing for their upcoming exams.

Challenges students face with online learning

“Pembelajaran bersemuka lebih senang untuk beri perhatian pada cikgu. Masalah teknologi seperti tiada data, telefon rosak dan kena berkongsi telefon dengan orang lain membuatkan susah untuk pelajari pembelajaran atas talian” — 14-year-old male student from Kuala Lumpur

“The schedule is too complicated and some teachers are teaching at the same time. The fact is many teachers give us a lot of homework at the same time. Besides that, the homework is given from two different platforms such as Whatsapp and Google Classroom. It is mixed up and sometimes I might miss out on some homework.” — 15-year-old female student from Penang

“… Some students like myself are not privileged enough to be able to afford a study desk at home and the environment at home isn’t the best as some students experience domestic problems and such, thus interfering with our ability to learn effectively.” — 16-year-old female student from Selangor

Key Findings:

• Poor connectivity, inconsistent learning structures and a lack of engaging interaction are some of the biggest challenges to online learning.
• Students also attribute some of their online learning struggles to conflicting class schedules and unclear class organization systems.
• Some students face impediments in having a conducive learning environment at home. Many reported that it is difficult to focus, especially with distractions like household responsibilities and other entertainment at home.

What’s Next

The truth is, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all method because different students have different needs and different communities require different solutions. However, we can start making incremental changes in the way we help students learn (and not just in the way we teach).

So, the question is: what can we as educators do to help our students learn online?

In Project ID, we constantly try new approaches to build a fun, safe and trusting online environment for our students to learn effectively. From our experience, we found a few strategies to be effective in engaging students while allowing learning to happen. Some of them include:

1. Run fun energizers before we begin an online session i.e. storyboard how you feel with StoryboardThat (engaging)
2. Provide students with a pre-workshop briefing to set expectations and provide guidance on the online tools used in the workshop (clear structure)
3. Provide space and time for students to process and express themselves during sessions (interactive)

“The session is interactive, fun and the facilitators are supportive” — 14-year-old participant from Penang, Workshop Series #1 Investing in Self to Lead Others

That said, some further questions to explore as educators:

• How can we mobilize resources to support our students without connectivity — be it devices or connection?
• What other platforms can we leverage on to enable meaningful learning for all?
• How can we continue to bring students into the design of their online learning experience?

In Part 2, we dove deeper into survey insights on what students want for an effective online learning experience.

In part 3, we summarised the main challenges from the first 2 articles and gave recommendations that educators may find useful for online learning.

Tell us what you think. We would love to hear your thoughts, stories, and ideas!

Email us at hello@project-id.org for inquiries & potential collaborations.

This article and survey findings were developed and compiled by the Project ID team with additional analyses support from Bain & Company and Teach For Malaysia.

Project ID is an education social enterprise that runs high-impact programs empowering students to lead self and lead others with 21st century skills. Since the MCO started, Project ID has run over 25 online workshops with more than 500 student participation across Malaysia.