Investigating university students' views on online learning

Online learning is a concept that has received attention due to new technologies in the field of education; But today, due to the sudden spread of the corona virus, online learning has become common, so that most of the higher education institutions organize online learning courses. However, for many students, especially new undergraduate students who are used to the traditional learning environment, it was associated with different experiences. The purpose of this research is to identify and examine the undergraduate students’ views on online learning. The current research was conducted with a qualitative approach and the chosen method in this research was descriptive phenomenology. The field of the new study is the undergraduate students of the University of Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, Allameh Tabatabai, Guilan, Yazd, who were selected based on the determined criteria. Finally, a semi-structured interview was arranged with 22 freshmen. By analyzing and examining the data, the findings were extracted into four main themes and 18 sub-themes. The main themes are: factors related to the university, factors related to professors, students' intrapersonal factors, and students' interpersonal factors. The results indicate that online learning has created many obstacles for students. Therefore, it is recommended that officials, managers and professors of universities formulate appropriate measures and decisions, and the laws required in the current situation. Also, they should provide the platform needed to change the traditional learning approach to learning in the virtual and hybrid environment in order to improve higher education.