Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19 among undergraduates during emergency remote learning

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic paralyzes the education sector. To minimize the interruption of teaching and learning, most universities in Malaysia shifted to virtual mode during this unprecedented period of the pandemic. With an ever-increasing number of Malaysians fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the education system is expected to switch back to face-to-face mode this year. It is crucial to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of COVID-19 among emergency remote learning undergraduates before reverting to physical teaching and learning. Hence, a study was conducted with this aim in mind.

A total of 299 Malaysian undergraduates were recruited through a snowball sampling approach. The online questionnaire encompassed three main segments: informed consent, sociodemographic information, and KAP questions on COVID-19.

The mean scores for knowledge, attitude, and practice were 4.05/6, 11.14/12, and 5.07/7, respectively. The results of the present study showed that year 1 respondents had significantly higher levels (p < 0.05) of KAP scores than year 4 respondents. In addition, the attitude score of science majors respondents was significantly greater (p < 0.05) than those of nonscience majors. The KAP scores showed no significant difference among groups with different sexes, ethnicities, and COVID-19 histories. Partial correlation analysis revealed that the overall knowledge score was positively correlated with attitude (r = 0.193, p = 0.001) and practice (r = 0.343, p < 0.001) scores whereas the total attitude score was positively correlated with the total practice score (r = 0.149, p = 0.010).

Our current results suggest that COVID-19 workshops, seminars, or training programs for year 4 students could be conducted to enhance their KAP levels.