DOI: https://doi.org/10.59321/BAUETJ.V4I1.29
AUTHOR(S)
Pinke Rani Dey1
ABSTRACT
The drastic outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 forced to close all kinds of educational institutions which instantly compelled countries to move from traditional to an online based learning system. However, due to the existence of inequality in access to ICT among the students, online learning has become one of the biggest challenges for many countries, especially for Bangladesh. Conducting an online survey among 390 students from different public and private universities, this study aims to identify the factors responsible for the existence of digital divide among the university students of Bangladesh and also examine how the resulting inequalities affect their academic performance during the period of COVID-19. In investigating the drivers of digital divide, the logistic regression model predicted university type, residence, monthly income and digital skills as significant factors of digital divide among the students. Moreover, the results of bivariate analysis revealed that the academic performance of the students was severely hampered due to the inability to purchase internet packages (55.13%), low speed during online classes (77.44%), and lack of internet access (62.05%). The suggestions of this study are therefore to provide special treatment to the susceptible student groups who terribly faced the severity of digital inequality, and asserted for synergetic initiatives by government and higher education authorities for necessary infrastructural development and skill development training programs.