Online education has been around for many years and it has been growing rapidly in many parts of the world. However, many educational service providers were reluctant to utilise it fully till Covid-19 hit the world. As a result, almost most of these educational institutions have been pushed to adopt this method of teaching as an alternative mode to the conventional approach. They adapted to this new norm very quickly. However, with this new norm there arise inevitable challenges, one of which is the students’ engagement in the learning process, where in normal times it has its challenge. Therefore, the current study was planned to uncover the effects of an organisational factor (e.g. internal crises communication), technological factors (e.g. knowledge quality, interactivity, complexity), and personal factor (e.g. social responsibility) on students’ online learning engagement. Data have been obtained from a convenience sample of 365 business students from a private university in Selangor state in Malaysia. The results of the partial least square structural equation modelling have revealed that the students online learning engagement is positively and directly predicted by internal crises communication, interactivity and social responsibility as well as negatively predicted by complexity. Findings also show that knowledge quality, internal crises communication, and complexity have influenced online learning engagement indirectly through interactivity. Theoretical and practical implications have also been discussed. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Covid-19 and Online Learning Engagement: Effects of Internal Crisis Communication, Technology and Social Responsibility