Virtual Learning for Trainee Teachers in the Institute of Teacher Education Technical Education Campus during Movement Control Order (MCO): A Survey

: This study aims to identify the level of knowledge, attitude and readiness of students of the Institute of Teacher Education, Technical Education Campus (IPGKPT) on virtual learning. Correspondingly, a study was administered to a sample of 988 trainee teachers. Likert-based questionnaires which was distributed through google forms were utilized as the instrument in this descriptive study. Findings revealed that the level of knowledge is at a high degree with an average mean value of 3.02 (sd = 0.78), while the level of attitude of trainee teachers towards virtual learning is at a moderate degree with an average mean value of 2.94 (sp = 0.88) and likewise the level of readiness of the trainee teachers is high with an average mean value of 3.32 (sp = 0.78). Based on the questionnaire conducted online and the findings of the study from the respondents it was found that virtual learning entails positive implications but some improvements are required in order to increase the quality of virtual learning in IPGKPT.


INTRODUCTION
In line with the development of information technology and the advent of the industrial revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0), education today is more focused on the use of information technology as a tool in teaching and facilitation (PdPc). Prior to the commencement of Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia, learning in a virtual environment (virtual learning) was considered a latent learning approach for students and pupils. However the numbers of educational institutions embracing an online approach to teaching and learning are increasing specifically during the COVID 19 pandemic. According to Shariman (2013) in developed countries such as Singapore, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Hong Kong virtual learning has long been a practice.
Reflecting through time, it is evidenced that the government's efforts in virtual learning are seen to be consistent. In 2011, the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) introduced VLE Frog platform which was an education system transformation project under the 1Bestari.Net project. Through this project, schools were equipped with integrated solutions on school administration, teaching and facilitation (PdPc) through virtual methods and the latest information on students' educational progress was obtained through internet accessibility.
Coronavirus contagion was first detected in Wuhan, China around December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the virus Covid-19 as an abbreviation of Corona Virus Disease where the virus was detected in 2019. Formerly, before the Covid-19 outbreak, virtual learning elements were not fully employed in our country. However, when the Covid 19-pandemic began to propagate, the education system in primary, secondary, college, skills centres, Institute of Teacher Education (IPG) and universities, began to engage virtual learning approaches widely. As a result, during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period, the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) had initiated learning programmes from home through the Okey TV channel (Chin, 2020).

BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
The Movement Control Order (MCO) phase one commenced on 18 March 2020 to 31 March 2020. The Malaysian Institute of Teacher Education (IPGM) disseminated a letter of IPG operational management during the MCO dated 17 March 2020 (Centre for Academic Excellence, 2020). As the Covid-19 pendemic has not yet shown a decline in infection cases during that period, the government extended the MCO to phase two from April 1 to April 14, 2020. On March 21, 2020, MCO was extended to phase Table 1 illustrates the distribution of trainee teachers by intake which indicates the June 2020 intake to comprise the highest number of students which is 450 trainee teachers and the total number of students for the three programmes, Preparation of Bachelor of Teaching Program (PPISMP), Bachelor of Teaching Degree Programme (PISMP) and Postgraduate Education Diploma Programme (PDPP) respectively are 1156 trainee teachers. Apparently , the need to embark on a study to determine the implication of virtual learning towards the trainee teachers of IPGKPT emerged due to the Covid 19 pandemic since the trainee teachers have to conform to virtual learning which is still considered the new norm. The adaptation to the current situation too became a mandatory to the trainee teachers.

LITERATURE REVIEW Virtual Learning
Virtual learning is a learning method or approach that uses computers and is supported by internet lines. According to Lai (2017), Design and Technology (RBT) teachers, especially in rural schools, have not yet fully mastered the virtual learning approach. In rural areas, internet access is still poor. It indicates that virtual learning either for teachers or students is still latent and has not attained an adequate degree. This is due to various factors such as the internet access and the concept of virtual learning that has not yet been fully mastered by teachers. Meanwhile, Kok (2020), teaching and learning for the subject of Professional Medium Studies during the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) is at a moderate level and students are more satisfied with the implementation of teaching and learning face to face.
According to Harison (2004), the effectiveness of virtual learning depends on the elements of high knowledge, skills and personality while doing practical work. This is in accordance with the objectives of this study which looks at the level of knowledge, readiness and attitude of the respondents. The installation of 1BestariNet in schools was inaugurated in stages since 2012. This project targeted 10,000 primary and secondary schools to be equipped with 4G high speed internet access. The VLE project aimed to pave way to school community to interact, access and share learning materials as well as to communicate virtually.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The increasingly sophisticated information technology intrigued the urgency for the trainee teachers to grab the opportunity to learn and acquire something new in their preparation in emerging as a teacher at some point in the future. The advent of Covid19 has transformed completely the teacher training system in the Institute of Teacher Education (IPG).
According to Kok (2020), learning satisfaction is stimulated by a conducive learning environment and encompasses the physical and social conditions in a classroom. The ability of a teacher to boost the spirit, motivation and performance in a classroom contributes to the escalation of satisfaction in learning in the classroom. Therefore, the elements of knowledge, attitude and readiness of the trainee teachers in virtual learning render an important role in ascertaining a smooth navigation of the learning process. The virtual learning approach is capable in measuring the ability of virtual learning in moulding and producing skilled trainee teachers whose skills are applicable in accommodating to the demands and the responsibilities as a teacher in the future. The prerequisite personal qualities and technical facilities are vital for academic achievement and personal fulfilment within this environment.
Hence, a study was conducted to investigate the extent to which this virtual learning is feasable since the 1156 trainee teachers, are required to adhere to virtual learning but the study to identify the effects of virtual learning is scarce. Accordingly, this study was conducted to see the extent to which this virtual learning could be accomodated by trainee teachers of IPGKPT.

METHODOLOGY
Research methodology explains the form of the framework for conducting a study (Baharin Abu, Othman Md Johan, Syed Mohd Shafeq Syed Mansor, & Haliza Jaafar, 2007). Research methodology is an important part to ensure that the study is conducted with the appropriate methods, procedures and approachess. In addition, objectives of a study are achieved through the research methodology based on valid and reliable data (Mohd Najib Abdul Ghaffar, 1999).

Research design
Survey method is a plan or blueprint to collect data and to conduct the analysis in order to obtain information to answer research questions (Foong, 2018). This study uses a quantitative approach which is a survey as the research design. According to Creswell (2008), quantitative research approach is a technique to answer research questions. The mentioned approach is able to strengthen the findings of the analysis that would be discussed later. The data obtained are analyzed statistically to obtain the results of the study.
The questionnaire was distributed to be answered on google forms as an instrument to collect data. The collated data is obtained as 'data sampling' to explicate and to establish the tangible result related to the knowledge, attitudes and readiness of the trainee teachers towards virtual learning. The population of this study were obtained from the Students Affairs Department (HEP) IPGKPT. They are 1156 trainee teachers from the 2017 June to 2020 June intake, The term trainee teachers here is applicable to the students who are undertaking training at the Institute of Teacher Education (IPG) who are trained to be future teachers in the primary school after obtaining their degree. The trainee teachers who were selected as the sample in this study consisted of trainee teachers of PPISMP, PISMP and PDPP programmes from semester 1 to semester 8. A pilot study was conducted on 37 PPISMP trainee teachers. The data for analysis was obtained from 988 IPGKPT trainee teachers or respondents from the total population of 1156. This adheres to the terms of quantitative sample selection methods for sample-based research (Krejcie & Morgan 1970). According to the sample selection requirements, the number of respondents (988 students) who had responded is above the mandatory stipulated number of respondents as a sample for a study.

Instrument of the study
This study uses a questionnaire as the instrument. According to Sulaiman (2002) questionnaires are the most convenient method to obtain information and some advantages are prevalent compared to other methods in obtaining quantitative information. The instrument used in this study is an online questionnaire. This questionnaire was distributed in order to identify the level of knowledge, attitudes and readiness of teacher teachers towards virtual learning.
The instrument of this study consists of four parts, namely part A demographics, Part B teacher trainees' knowledge on virtual learning (virtual learning), Part C teacher trainees' level of attitude towards virtual learning (virtual learning) and Part D teacher trainees' level of readiness towards virtual learning. Part A consists of 5 items, Part B consists of 23 items, Part C has 18 items and Part D consists of 10 items.

Descriptive Analysis
This study employed descriptive analysis to answer the research questions. The descriptive analysis of this study consists of percentage, mean and standard deviation (SP) which were utilized to identify the level of each variable. The interpretation of the mean score used in this study refers to the study of Zolkepeli (2017) taken from Alias Baba (1992) stated as in Table 3 below;

Data Collection Procedures
The survey method using the questionnaires were utilized to obtain information to achieve the purpose of the descriptive study. This method is appropiriate to obtain information about an occuring event . Wiersma (1991) states that questionnaires are used to measure attitudes or opinions with any number of variables in a natural conditions. For the purpose of data collection, the following procedures were performed: i) The participants of the study were informed regarding the purpose of the study and their consent to participate in this study voluntarily was obtained. ii) Questionnaires were distributed online via link https://forms.gle/ifWA41PPX2cbZEyJ8

Data Analysis Procedures
The quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 22. The level of agreement was determined based on mean and percentage scores. Overall, the design of this study is a survey study and a quantitative approach. This study was conducted with the focus to obtain descriptive information to answer the above stated research questions.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Demographic Analysis of Respondents
Based on Table 4 below, it is apparent that a total of 988 respondents were involved in this study. From the total, 223 respondents (22.6%) are male trainee teachers while 765 (77.4%) are female trainee teachers. The respondents' gender information demonstrates that the number of male trainee teachers involved in this study is relatively less than the female trainee teachers.  Table 5 below refers to the field of respondents involved in this study. The highest number of respondents who answered the questionnaires is from the Islamic Education field which are 256 respondents (25.9%), followed by respondents from Malay Studies and Technology Design 168 (17%) respondents . Meanwhile, PDPP trainee teachers in agriculture and hospitality were the least likely to answer this questionnaire, which is (0.1%).  Table 6 below refers to the respondents' semester of study. 530 respondents (53.6%) were from semester one while , 458 (46.4%) respondents from semester 2 were involved in this study.  Table 7 below refers to the intake year of the respondents. The 2020 intake was the most involved in this study which was 774 respondents (78.3%) while the respondents from the 2017 intake was the least in answering the questionnaire of this study which was only 4 (0.4%) respondents.  Table 8 below, refers to the respondents' study programmes. Most of the respondents who participated in the study were of PISMP programme which were 602 respondents (60.9%), followed by PPISMP (307) which is (31.1)% and PDPP 79 respondents (8%).

Findings based on the questionnaires Research Question 1: What is the trainee teachers' level of knowledge of the current virtual learning during the MCO period ?,
In order to determine the answer for research question 1, 23 items were used in this section. Table 9 illustrates the mean values and standard deviations for each construct to establish the level of knowledge of virtual learning among the trainee teachers. The findings of the study illustrate that the mean for the construct I submit my assignment using the google classroom application obtained the highest mean which is 3.84 and s.d = 0.38. Overall, the level of the teacher trainees' knowledge on virtual learning is at a high level with an average value of mean = 3.02, s.d = 0.78.

Research Question 2 Research Question 2:. What is the trainee teachers' level of attitude towards learning during the MCO period?
In order to determine the answer for research question 2, 18 items were established. Table 10 shows the mean values and standard deviations for each construct which exhibit the level of teacher trainees' attitudes towards virtual learning. The findings of the study revealed that the mean for the construct I enjoy accessing virtual learning using the Google Classroom application because it is easy to access anywhere, is at the highest level which is at mean = 3.50, s.d = 0.67. Generally, the level of teacher trainees' attitude towards virtual learning is at a moderate level with an average value of mean = 2.94, s.p = 0.88.  The results of the study depict that primarily ,the level of knowledge of teacher trainees on virtual learning is at a high level with an average value of mean = 3.02, s.d = 0.78. The key findings emerge as such because IPG students represent the high digital literacy group who belong to the very high computer group, who are also referred to as 'digital natives'. The term refers to the young generation that grew up in the digital age and have close ties to computers, the internet, video games, mobile phones, social networks and tablets (Marc 2001). Correspondingly, the fact was also highlighted by Jones, C.; Shao, B. (2011). Their research clearly illustrates that students in higher education or university students prefer the use of ICT in their courses. This is supported by a study conducted by Yu, Backman & Backman (2010) who quoted Oblinger's (2003) statement that the current generation which is better known as the 'net generation' is vulnerable to the latest technology and uses a variety of the latest technological tools in the learning process.