NetFun Bot: An Aide for Delivery of Learning Materials in Computer NetworkingFundamental Course during Online Learning

Abstrak

COVID19 pandemic has replaced traditional classes with online learning. The dramatic shift to online learning for educators and learners has become a new norm in the year 2021. In online learning, learning materials are delivered through many platforms such as Google Classroom and Learning Management System (LMS). Students need to access the resources and download them from the designated platform. These resources will be kept in physical storage such as their mobile phone storage or external drive. Physical storage has a limit and students are likely to delete files to clear the storage to store other resources. The deletion process will cause students to lose precious resources for reference and need to redownload the resources. The process requires students to access a certain website and the server may encounter high traffic and cannot be reached. This leads to delay in getting the learning materials. Hence, the existence of NetFun bot, a customized Telegram bot built for students who have enrolled in the Computer Networking Fundamental (DEC30023) course in the Electrical Department of Politeknik Kuching Sarawak has become crucial in delivering learning materials during online learning. Therefore, research was conducted on 109 students to study the level of acceptance, readiness, and effectiveness of the teaching aide. A major finding from the research shows that the majority 71.7% of the students who had enrolled in DEC30023 have good perspectives toward NetFun bot usage and 89.9% strongly agree that the bot is very convenient to acquire learning materials during online learning. For future study, it is recommended that the research on the usage of Telegram Bot can be conducted in other courses to determine students’ acceptance, readiness, and effectiveness as a teaching aid for online learning.