Online learning has grown exponentially during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic. The disease forced educational institutions to implement online learning through virtual platforms to prevent the spread of the disease. Although both students and instructors are currently well-trained, prepared, and familiar to use the available digital technologies, studies have shown that online instruction has a limited effect on supporting classroom interaction, particularly for the case-study-based and lab-based courses that require in-depth teacher-student interaction. It has also involved difficulty in maintaining academic integrity, and other problems that hindered the learning process, including disengagement, distraction, and inequity of internet connection among different geographical regions. As a result, many universities are currently considering switching into complete face-to-face instruction or blended learning, face-to-face combined with online learning if the pandemic restrictions are successfully lifted. This study aims to investigate faculty perceptions on adapting the face-to-face method with laptops and wireless internet. The benefits and the limitations of this method will be discussed based on previous studies before the outbreak of covid-19, and the feedback of a survey data from faculty members. Participants of the study were 34 faculty members from different disciplines, including statistics, econometrics, and finance, at United Arab Emirates University that mainly use mathematical modeling. Most of the participants unanimously agreed that wireless internet could cause distraction during the lecture time and possibly help cheating. They recommended to control the use of the laptops and the wireless internet, particularly during lectures and examinations.

online learning, blended learning, non-probability sampling, convenient sampling, purposive sampling.

Received: June 7, 2022; Accepted: July 25, 2022; Accepted: August 22, 2022

How to cite this article: Mohamed Y. Hassan, Advantages and disadvantages of the most popular pre-Covid-19 learning method of integrating laptops with wireless internet in teaching and learning, Far East Journal of Mathematical Education 23 (2022), 9-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.17654/0973563122010

This Open Access Article is Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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