THE LACK OF CONCENTRATION DURING ONLINE CLASS SESSION: UNIVERSITY

STUDENT'S PERSPECTIVE

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2. INTRODUCTION

Online learning is defined as an interactive learning system involving human and non-
human entities working together to achieve both learning goals and learning satisfaction
among students through computer-based educational systems (Eom, Joseph Wen, &
Ashill, 2006). In several developing countries, including Malaysia, it has been claimed that
online learning and Information Communication Technology (ICT) have become an
important part of a national initiative to enhance education in society. Because of the
favourable demand and reaction to virtual classes and courses, the effort is said to have
taken place. Besides, the popularity of the online courses and complete online degree
programmes at both colleges and universities worldwide is also said to be increasing
(Eom. et al., 2006)

2.1. FACTORS
2.1.1 Lack of Time Management In Their Daily Routine

The most factor that leads to students unfocused during their online class
session is about lack of time management in their daily routine. According
to Kumar M. (2013), usually students will use the time at their home to
release their tension, but when the need to have Online Distance Learning
(ODL), they tend to confused in how to manage their time, because of
increasing demands of work from their family and from their lecturers at the
same time. In addition, Heibutzki R. (2017) states that, lack of time
management can make students lack sleep, and this will make the students
stressed and in the worst case, some of them may drop out of their course,
or maybe extend their online learning. Furthermore, because of the
absence of a learning environment, students always get distracted by no
one asking them to do their university work (Kumar M., 2013).
2.1.2 Lack of Students Interaction

Salleh M. et. al., (2020) states in his articles “While online learning can be
interactive these days, especially during the Movement Control Order in
Malaysia, it is still not the same as sitting in a real classroom. It means,
there is no substitute for interacting with, and learning from, a fellow human.
Moreover, in a research made by Tesone D. V. (2008), the student
performance in their course will be affected when implementing Online
Distance Learning (ODL) was placed in the first rank out of 15 more factors.
This shows that when student interaction between their lecturers and also
their friends were mere, this might lead to their total performance in their
studies.

2.1.3 Lack of self-discipline

Most students during ODL session, the daily life of them are very
distracting. Several distractions faced by the students are a learning group
that does not help students because it is very difficult for the students to
adapt it at home.They are not given commitment for their e-learning
because they are not monitored by the olders. According to
Mohanachandran & Sri Ramalu (2013), there is no one around to monitor
the student's learning process and give students the freedom to do their
learning process whenever they like but most of the time, procrastination is
the culprit. Besides, students’ friends are also the reason they cannot
control self-discipline during ODL sessions. Based on Allam et al. (2020),
during ODL session, friend disruption by inviting the student to follow online
conversations such as chatting, online shopping and gossiping affects self-
discipline.
 2.1.4 Lack of motivation

The motivation of students to complete their studies while facing

disruption and home problems is the potential factor that students have a
major effect on online learning. According to Mohanachandran & Sri
Ramalu (2013), the motivational factors are absent due to lack of contact
and competition with other students and immediate support from the tutor
to motivate the students. Because of this, the students may not be
interactive on the ODL session because they lost hope on everything they
do for this session. For example, the students did not get the same vibes
as they were in the classroom. Although these days , especially during
Movement Control Order in Malaysia, online learning can be interactive, it
is still not the same as sitting in a real classroom and this suggestion is no
alternative to engaging with and learning from a fellow human being
based on Mohd Salleh et al (2020)

2.2. EFFECT

2.2.1 Delay in response among students

Several vulnerabilities have also been identified in relation to online

learning. Response delay is one effect recorded. Some participants stated
in the Petrides (2002) study that they felt that the online learning response
among students was not immediate compared to what could normally
happen in formal face-to - face class discussion. Hara and Kling's (1999)
in their research, found that lack of prompt response from the students
contributes to discontent to the instructors. Similar findings have been seen
in recent studies, for example, in the Vonderwell (2003) report, one of the
drawbacks of an online learning was the retardation of the student’s
immediate feedback. One participant in the study said that it might take
several times to get a response to the question asked via online learning
(Vonderwell, 2003).
2.2.2 Lack of a sense of community and feelings of isolation

Lack of a sense of community and feelings of isolation were other problems

that the students identified in online learning. Vonderwell (2003) stated that
participants in online learning indicated a lack of connection with the
teacher, in particular a one-on-one relation to the instructor. As the
participant in the study said, they always feel like they know a little bit about
their teacher, but not like they were in a face-to - face course. Similar
findings have been found in other studies. Woods' (2002) found that online
students recorded their isolation from instructors and other students in their
online courses.

2.2.3 Frustration

Students with different backgrounds are different from one class.

Surprisingly, not only students but lecturers also feel frustrated (Crooks,
Smith, Robinson-Link, Orenstein, and Hoover, 2020). It is hard to interact
and communicate virtually. Many of the students have more in-depth
experience. They are collecting information about how to procure or store
capital. Many students can benefit from advanced technical facilities due
to social and economic dividends. At the same time, no technological
instructors have established a lack of IT awareness as a significant
obstacle. Classroom methods also frustrate the essence of e-learning
(limited time, understanding, and evaluation). Approximately 25% of young
people in low-income families do not have home computers in this technical
setting (Auxier & Anderson 2020) and Internet access (Huffman 2018).
Because of these difficulties, students are frustrated to finish the learning
successfully.
 2.2.4 Fatigue

According to Sharaj et al. (2016), the most significant factor affecting

students because of their demotivation is fatigue, leading to a disinterest in
classes, plausible isolation from friends and family, depression, and
eventually low academic results. The student should be psychologically
challenging to cope with the strain. Fatigue, a mere seven-letter word, but
students feel its effect on a large scale. Reducing exhaustion in the
students' lives will contribute to progress in the students' academic
experience and contribute to essential factors, from the parents to the
teachers to the students themselves. Eyes, neck, and shoulders were the
dominant fatigue areas. Visual fatigue was the most popular video monitor
user concern. (Rocha and Debert-Ribeiro, 2004). Typically, a user's eye is
on the target before the side, and the user pushes the cursor to the eye. A
previous study suggested the cause of visual tiredness could be bad habits
of Internet users. Moreover, the findings are similar to those obtained in
prolonged internet use studies via device or cell phone: if the internet user
is exhausted, musculoskeletal symptoms frequently occur (Assa et al.,
2011). It is crucial to take a break during internet usage regularly or
occasionally to protect internet users' eye health.

2.3 SOLUTIONS

2.3.1 Self-directed learning

Self-directed learning (SDL) is a vital dimension and has been noted for
decades. (D Randy Garrison, 1987) stated that SDL can improve the need
for independent learning, enjoyable than face-to - face traditional learning
and a sense of personal autonomy. (Zainuddin, 2019) highlighted that
students with a self-directed element of learning have a significant degree
of autonomy and self-confidence in order to complete a task in ODL.
(Garrison, 1977) also stated that self-directed consist of self-management,
 self-monitoring and motivation as interacting dimensions towards the
comprehensive model of adult education. It means that student can
become more motivated and more focus during online classes. Successful
students must know how to manage the learning activities but also need to
know how to reach the learning goal for their performance and
achievement. This means that when student have this self-direct learning ,
they can enhance their performance in education. (Carolinda, 2014)
highlighted the 5 key dimension for self-directed learning gained from the
research such as being proactive in class, being proactive with other
students, being proactive outside of class, having good study habits, and
metacognitive factors. Being proactive is like always attend to class, always
take notes, and actively participating in class. Student also need to be
proactive with other students such as always discussing with other students
regarding question that they do not know. When there is no classes,
students also need to have networking with other people. Students also
need good study habits such as build a routine to assess own learning and
minimize excessive socialization. Metacognitive is all about understanding
you own style of study. When you always practice all of this example, you
can always motivated and become more focus when having an ODL at
home.

2.3.2 Increase Motivation

(Paris, 1994) defined that motivation is act as an engine in learning. This

means that when a students does not have a motivation so they could not
gain focus in class. The example is what can you expect if someone does
not have motivation to study can have focus in class. This manufacturing
of learning to take place there needs to be some kind of motivation to make
the process work (Casaló et al., 2010). (Howe, 1998) claimed that for the
student to attend in the learning session, there wishes to be an incentive or
motivation raised in principles of abilities and human learning on the role of
motivation. (El-Seoud, 2016) mentioned that students must adapt from
conventional courses (face-to-face learning) into online classes to
complete them but they tend to fail for many reasons. If a student really on
 it, they will definitely try some proven motivating strategies that will help
them in pushing themselves towards academic performance. (Borderless
Charity, 2017) stated that motivation can affect many things such as
determination, effort, and energy but more important is their performance.
When a student does not have any effort when studying, they will not focus
when in class and it will affect their result. The conclusion here is the
student need to raise their motivation when studying so that they will be
successful person.

2.3.3 Active Involvement During Class

Since lack of interaction and involvement of student during class is one of

the factors student unfocussed during class, students should increase their
involvement during class. Rapanta et al (2020) stated that active
participation of the learners is one of the factors that helps student to focus
during class. Hisham Dzakiria and Anne Althea Christopher (2010) also
mentioned that engaging in active learning and providing quick feedback
to the lecturer is one of the factors that can help student to focussed during
class. Posting questions online in the Learning Management System, the
classroom platform, or the chat group courses will help student to to focus
during class thus help them to understand deeper (Chung et al, 2020).

2.3.4 Organize time wisely and plan ahead to prevent distrubtion during
class.

One of factor of student lack of focussed during class is due to the bad time
management thus cause distrubtion during class. This is due to the reason
that they need to focuss on other matters during online class (Kumar M.,
2013). Dileep and Subramaniam (2013) mentioned that priority should be
given to academic work during online distance learning. They also
mentioned that students need to use thier time as a single resource to plan,
prioritise, and focuss during class. Try to prepare ahead. Students require
the prefect combination of the university's timetable, activities and interests
and social life to work together during online distance learning.
2.4 CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, the are many study that have mentioned many factors, effects and
solution of student unfocussed during online class. However, only four common factors,
effects and solutions were chosen in this study. Those four commons factors, effects and
solutions will be use to develop research question thus to answer research objective.
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