Exploring the Advantages of Using Home-Based Learning in Malaysian during the COVID-19

At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak affected the whole world. It has caused many problems and affected numerous sectors. The education sector encountered a profound impact on student learning progress during the outbreak. Since face-to-face learning could not be carried out, the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) launched a new online learning programme so that students would not fall behind. The programmes were classified (HBL) for primary and secondary school students and the open distance learning (ODL) for students in higher institutions. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore the advantages of online HBL based on the findings of previous studies. The findings showed that there are eight advantages of online HBL. Overall, online HBL helped Malaysia keep pace with developed countries that follow the trend of modernisation


Introduction
At the beginning of 2020, the world was hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, which caused various problems faced by the whole world.As a result, World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic as dangerous and even deadly.Various measures were taken by the whole world to deal with this pandemic.Malaysia was no exception.With that, Malaysia launched a Movement Control Order (MCO), which forced various sectors to close down, in an effort to reduce the rate of cases.The education sector was amongst the sectors affected as learning and teaching activities in schools and campuses could not be operated (Rahmawati et al., 2021).
Vol 13, Issue 15, (2023) E-ISSN: 2222-6990 Therefore, MOE has implemented online learning platforms to sustain the learning and teaching activities (Rahmawati et al., 2021).This online platform uses technology as an electronic medium that connects teachers and students (Rahmawati et al., 2021).Through this approach, it is possible to ensure that the COVID-19 virus does not spread and that people's education is not neglected (Ali, 2020).
Amongst the technology used in online classes were laptops, tablets, computers and mobile phones with internet access in synchronous and asynchronous environments (Singh & Thurman, 2019).The technology served as a tool help utilise teaching and learning session (Singh & Thurman, 2019).The MOE, used online learning as an alternative to continuing learning sessions (Wen et al., 2021).Online learning based on the concept of Open-Distance Learning (ODL) is used in institutions of higher learning, while for school students the MOE provides a platform called Home-Based Learning (HBL) (Wen et al., 2021).HBL refers to a learning platform conducted at home or in any suitable location (MOE, 2021).The MOE implemented HBL to replace teaching and learning sessions that cannot be carried out during the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak which causes students to be unable to attend school (MOE, 2021).

Research Background
Online learning uses technology as a platform for online teaching and learning has long been used in Malaysia since 1969 (Dzakiria et al., 2005).Nevertheless, HBL is new for school students in Malaysia (Mansor et al., 2021) and it was only implemented for primary and secondary school students when the COVID-19 outbreak occurred (MOE, 2021).The HBL concept is similar to home schooling used in studies abroad or private schools (Asadullah, 2021).The method used in HBL is the same as home schooling, the difference is only in terms created by the MOE for country-specific programmes (Asadullah, 2021).Therefore, the MOE has released the first manual in version 1.0 released in 2020 for the reference of schools and teachers in applying the HBL system (Asadullah, 2021).
The use of the manual issued by the MOE becomes a school reference in conducting HBL, although the HBL programme is considered a temporary programme run as an alternative by MOE to continue teaching and learning sessions (Asadullah, 2021).Many schools still conduct HBL through the use of DELIMa platform in order to get students familiar with the online learning (Asadullah, 2021).
The full use of technology in teaching and learning activities is different if conducted face-to-face (Dzakiria, 2004).The challenges faced are different as online is more challenging when compared to face-to-face classes (Dzakiria, 2004).This is because there is an interaction gap between teachers and students (Dzakiria, 2004).So, this will contribute to a weak level of communication that causes teachers to not fully know the students' learning progress (Rahmawati et al., 2021).
Learning without face-to-face interaction would present significant challenges to educators in ensuring the existence of appropriate feedback to help students achieve learning objectives (Putra et al., 2020).In fact, this online learning will result in no specific observations made by the instructor (Putra et al., 2020).This will affect the monitoring activities to be difficult to measure the level of student understanding (Putra et al., 2020) where, the quality of education may be affected and not the same as the face-to-face learning system (Coman et al., 2020).
Full implementation of technology in teaching and learning has caused challenges and various perceptions for all parties, particularly school students (Ni, 2020).As the use of technology is becoming more widespread and Malaysia follows the development of developed countries, online learning needs to be applied and used (Ni, 2020).Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore the advantages of HBL and to open the public's eyes to the challenges and weaknesses of this programme, also there are advantages that can be gained through online learning methods in the future.

Methodology
In this section systematic review served as the literature review.Meta-analysis is a method for conducting a systematic review of research findings.Journal article related to the advantages of online learning in learning and teaching were collected.The researchers searched 16 research journal articles published from various networks, such as Scopus, PubMed, Scribd, Science Direct Journal, and so forth.The researchers also conducted a manual search using Google Scholar.
The journal articles were searched and compiled by using terms such as advantages of "online learning", "HBL", "students' perceptions of online learning" and "online learning during COVID-19."These terms were used to search for empirical studies in order to answer the objectives of this study.These articles were collected commencing from 2015 to 2022.Based on the results obtained, the researcher found 16 articles that met the objectives of the study.Table 1 shows the articles used in this study which are related to the advantages of online learning.1 shows a list of journals used in this study based on search terms used to explore the advantages of home-based learning.Sixteen journals displayed the advantages of using technology in learning and teaching.The journals consist of studies conducted by previous scholars in relation to Online Learning research (Anwar & Wahid, 2021;Mukhtar et al., 2020;Tay et al., 2021;Maatuk et al., 2022;Wang et al., 2021;Syafiq et al., 2021;Mardiah, 2020;Agormedah et al., 2020;Igai & Yunus, 2022;Ishak et al., 2021;et al., 2021;Gilbert, 2015;Bahasoan et al., 2020;Ismail et al., 2020;Coman et al., 2020;Rasmitadila et al., 2020).
Online learning gives an advantage to students and teachers where all learning materials can be provided on a platform that is suitable and easily accessible to students (Coman et al., 2020) This is because teachers can provide learning materials through google classroom, DELIMa, WhatsApp, Telegram, e-mail or through Video conferences and so on (Maatuk et al., 2018).Therefore, the learning materials provided by teachers using the internet technology can enable students to control the content and time of learning, where they can access the materials provided whenever they want (Suresh et al., 2018).Coman et al (2020) agreed that when students could access learning materials at any time, would be easier to revise and understand the information conveyed through the materials.Furthermore, the other advantages of using online learning during COVID-19 was that it could help students become more confident (Coman et al., 2020).
Online learning that fully uses technology can help students with self-confidence problems to discuss with teachers about topics they do not understand in learning or any problems they can convey through WhatsApp or other application platforms (Mukhtar et al., 2020).This is because they do not need to face the public (Mukhtar et al., 2020).This can be seen through the study of Mukhtar et al who showed that students with introversion problems prefer online classes because they do not have to face people.All the activities that students need to do to make a presentation would be done online (Syafiq et al., 2021).This, would help students become more active in learning activities (Syafiq et al., 2021).Next, another benefit received by students when fully using online platform in teaching and learning activities was to help students become more independent.
Self-concept learning, such as online learning, could be able to help students to become more mature where they would be more independent (Igai & Yunus, 2021).Compared to traditional concepts in the classroom, such as face-to-face, teachers will organise student learning and school activities created to ensure students are active, which would cause them to encounter problems in the future when they are in a university environment where the university environment is more self-concept that requires students to be more independent (Igai & Yunus, 2021).Online learning that uses the concept of independent learning style will be able to help students display or develop their creativity in completing tasks and so on (Rasmitadila et al., 2020).
Furthermore, amongst the advantages obtained through online learning when COVID-19 occurs was that it would be able to highlight talents where the students would become more creative than during traditional classes (Agormedah et al., 2020).This can be seen in Figure 1, which shows amongst the presentation templates used by students during online learning.Figure 1 shows the use of presentation templates based on the Netflix interface that students created during COVID-19 where the use of templates was more interesting than face-to-face classes that still used paper as a medium for the students to perform a presentation (Wang et al., 2021).This is not inline with the rapid development of technology that requires students to be more creative (Wang et al., 2021).Through online classes, students can explore various digital platforms and produce an interesting presentation by placing various pictures and engaging in transitions to attract the audience (Syafiq et al., 2021).Even online learning can help students get information faster than face-to-face classes (Syafiq et al.,2021).This is because when the class is in a face-to-face system, the source of information that students would use were books and teachers itself which consumed more time compared to online searches (Igai & Yunus, 2021).Online uses provide web-based applications that have a variety of information, as well as up-to-date information (Igai & Yunus, 2021).The examples of web-based used in searching information or data was Google which displayed the answers and information needed in a few seconds compared to face-to-face classes (Igai & Yunus, 2021).Amongst other things, the benefits received through online classes was online classes practice affordable education (Wang et al., 2021).
Online learning allows less capable students to participate because, they only need the internet and technology access as a learning medium (Wang et al., 2021).As compared to face-to-face classes that require students to attend school, this would definitely cause parents to spend money to buy school clothes, school books, school fees and pocket money expenses (Wang et al., 2021).According to Fauzi and Suryadi (2020), various efforts were made by the government to ensure that all groups of students can get adequate learning.Amongst them were by providing tablets, laptops and internet plans with cheap fees (Fauzi & Suryadi, 2020).In addition, online learning would make it easier for school students who live outside the city or who need to get public transport services to go to school (Fauzi & Suryadi, 2020).Finally, with the use of online learning during COVID-19, bullying cases in schools could be decreased (Fauzi & Suryadi, 2020).
According to Gilbert (2015), online learning could reduce the cases of bullying at school because they would be in a safe zone (Gilbert ,2015).It can be seen that the number of bullying cases at school increased during face-to-face classes as compared to the number of bullying cases during online learning classes (Gilbert, 2015).This is because they cannot be the target of bullies, which helps the students to be more comfortable when they obtain the opportunity to learn at their own pace (Gilbert, 2015).

Conclusions
In conclusion, this study showed that home-based learning that fully utilised technology could be beneficial to continue learning and teaching sessions.With that, the researcher believed that using online learning would help to keep pace with developed countries that follow the trend of modernisation.Therefore, the researcher hoped that more research would be carried out online to make learning more effective, especially by using the best pedagogy for online classes.Therefore, the weakness could be reduced by implementing the right pedagogical method.

Table 1
Advantages Online Learning

Table 2
Summary of Article