High School Students' Fully Online Science Learning Barriers During the Pandemic

The sudden transition to fully online technology-assisted science classes transformed teaching and learning methods. High school students had limited time to adapt to these abrupt changes, encountering multiple barriers. This study explored the barriers students faced during fully online technology-assisted science classes in two stages. In the first stage, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 middle and high school students to explore their experiences. In the second stage, a survey instrument—the Fully Online Technology-Assisted Science Learning Barriers Survey—was developed and administered to 320 high school students. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed that students faced various barriers, including external barriers (privacy, technology and environment, and technology familiarity), learning barriers (engagement and self-management), and science-content-specific barriers. Additionally, students reported experiencing fatigue during online classes, leading to its inclusion as a key factor in the study. The EFA identified two types of fatigue– fatigue: overload and fatigue tiring interaction via technology. A series of t-tests were conducted to examine gender differences, revealing that female students experienced higher levels of barriers across many factors. Statistically significant differences were found in engagement, science-content-specific challenges, fatigue due to overload, and fatigue from tiring interactions via technology. Correlation analysis further showed that learning barriers, including self-management, engagement, and science-content-specific difficulties were significantly related to students' overall learning experiences. The results highlighted the need for careful preparation in online science content domains, specifically focusing on engaging the students in fully online technology-assisted science classes.