Starting university life online: what do students say? / Siti Norliana Ghazali

Most secondary students dream of being offered the chance to further tertiary education in universities. Starting university life is an exciting phase for these students as they experience a different environment and meet new people. However, due to Covid-19, new UiTM students are forced to register and begin this next phase of their lives online. This paper sets out to examine whether students are equipped to participate in online classes, their challenges, and how they cope with these problems. Data collected from 600 new Diploma students showed almost all the students have access to a computer and a smartphone. After 14 weeks of studying online, the majority would prefer a combination of online and face-to-face classes. Students agree that they keep quiet during class, find it difficult to understand the lecture due to internet problems, and mainly cope with their studies by asking their classmates for help and looking for online materials. The findings suggest that UiTM’s effort of gradually implementing blended learning which started a few years ago is the right move to educate these millennials.