Students’ approaches to learning from physical to online environments: an assessment with exploratory factor analysis

This study discusses changes in the student learning strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. It first provides a validation study with an exploratory factor analysis. A survey based on the Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ) and Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) by Biggs (1987b) and the Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) by Vermunt (1992) was sent out to 237 sub-degree students in a Hong Kong tertiary institution. Four factors, namely the choice of subjects, study methods and contents, the seeking of teachers’ support, and the sense of competition, are found to be important in determining students’ approaches in online learning environment. The results reveal that students’ approaches to online learning fit into the traditional learning approaches. However, contradicting previous research that teachers are not accountable for students’ deep learning in online courses, our finding suggests that the importance of course instructors has increased when students shifted to online learning during the pandemic.