Open Access

ARTICLE

COVID-19 and Learning Styles: GCET as Case Study

by Mazhar Hussain Malik^1,*, Sid Ahmed Amjed¹, Sulaiman Al Hasani²

1 Department of Computing and Information Technology, Global College of Engineering and Technology, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
2 Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Global College of Engineering and Technology, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

* Corresponding Author: Mazhar Hussain Malik. Email:

Computers, Materials & Continua 2021, 68(1), 103-115. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2021.014562

Received 28 September 2020; Accepted 18 December 2020; Issue published 22 March 2021

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused higher educational institutions around the world to close campus-based activities and move to online delivery. The aim of this paper is to present the case of Global College of Engineering and Technology (GCET) and how its practices including teaching, students/staff support, assessments, and exam policies were affected. The paper investigates the mediating role of no detriment policy impact on students’ result along with the challenges faced by the higher educational institution, recommendations and suggestions. The investigation concludes that the strategies adopted for online delivery, student support, assessments and exam policies have helped students to effectively cope with the teaching and learning challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic without affecting their academic results. The study shows that 99% of students were able to maintain the same or better level of performance during the 1st COVID-19 semester. One percent of students had shown a slight decrease in their performance (about 1%–2%) with respect to their overall marks pre-COVID-19. The no detriment policy has succoured those 1% of the students to maintain their overall performance to what it used to be pre-COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the paper provides the list of challenges and suggestions for smooth conduction of online education.

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Keywords

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