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Can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during COVID-19

Adherents claim that online education mediated through technology can change society for the better, but critics assert that it has failed to produce job- or career-ready graduates. With this in mind, the present study examines the performance of academic and job-readiness of two groups of graduates...

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Main Authors: Alam, Gazi Mahabubul, Parvin, Morsheda
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2021
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/96278/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521004406?via%3Dihub
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spelling my.upm.eprints.962782023-01-31T02:56:59Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/96278/ Can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during COVID-19 Alam, Gazi Mahabubul Parvin, Morsheda Adherents claim that online education mediated through technology can change society for the better, but critics assert that it has failed to produce job- or career-ready graduates. With this in mind, the present study examines the performance of academic and job-readiness of two groups of graduates. One group comprised a pre-COVID-19 cohort for face-to-face teaching mode while the other used the online mode during the pandemic. While the official secondary data are collected from the sampled university, primary data are gathered through an ‘empirical survey’ of 120 students in each group (i.e., before and during COVID-19, a total of 240). Findings suggest that the pre-pandemic group did poorly academically unlike their during-pandemic counterparts. Although both groups achieved well academically, there is a difference when comparing their job-readiness scores which included both aptitude and practicum tests. The pre-COVID-19 students achieved better job-readiness scores than their counterparts. Performance in academy and job-readiness is not proportionately linked. These findings suggest that higher education is generally not that active from the job market perspective, while online learning has in fact made education much more passive. Under any circumstances, the integrity of HE should not be compromised and hence a policy framework is hereby suggested to ensure that it functions well during an emergency period. Elsevier 2021 Article PeerReviewed Alam, Gazi Mahabubul and Parvin, Morsheda (2021) Can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during COVID-19. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 172. art. no. 121008. pp. 1-10. ISSN 0040-1625; ESSN:1873-5509 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521004406?via%3Dihub 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121008
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
building UPM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Putra Malaysia
content_source UPM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://psasir.upm.edu.my/
description Adherents claim that online education mediated through technology can change society for the better, but critics assert that it has failed to produce job- or career-ready graduates. With this in mind, the present study examines the performance of academic and job-readiness of two groups of graduates. One group comprised a pre-COVID-19 cohort for face-to-face teaching mode while the other used the online mode during the pandemic. While the official secondary data are collected from the sampled university, primary data are gathered through an ‘empirical survey’ of 120 students in each group (i.e., before and during COVID-19, a total of 240). Findings suggest that the pre-pandemic group did poorly academically unlike their during-pandemic counterparts. Although both groups achieved well academically, there is a difference when comparing their job-readiness scores which included both aptitude and practicum tests. The pre-COVID-19 students achieved better job-readiness scores than their counterparts. Performance in academy and job-readiness is not proportionately linked. These findings suggest that higher education is generally not that active from the job market perspective, while online learning has in fact made education much more passive. Under any circumstances, the integrity of HE should not be compromised and hence a policy framework is hereby suggested to ensure that it functions well during an emergency period.
format Article
author Alam, Gazi Mahabubul
Parvin, Morsheda
spellingShingle Alam, Gazi Mahabubul
Parvin, Morsheda
Can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during COVID-19
author_facet Alam, Gazi Mahabubul
Parvin, Morsheda
author_sort Alam, Gazi Mahabubul
title Can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during COVID-19
title_short Can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during COVID-19
title_full Can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during COVID-19
title_fullStr Can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during COVID-19
title_sort can online higher education be an active agent for change? —comparison of academic success and job-readiness before and during covid-19
publisher Elsevier
publishDate 2021
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/96278/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521004406?via%3Dihub
_version_ 1756685787725824000
score 13.211869

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