Knowledge, Perception, and Practice of Student’s Challenge faced towards COVID-19 at Selected Higher Education Institutions in Ethiopia. A cross-sectional web survey

Abstract

Covid-19 affects most of higher education group of peoples; students at higher institutions must be equipped with knowledge, perception, and practice on anticipation measures and ways of transmission. The point of this investigation is to determine the level of knowledge, perception, and practices of students toward COVID-19 at selected Ethiopian higher education institutions. A cross-sectional web survey was conducted from August 10, 2020, to August 30, 2020. The instrument consisted of 8 items on Demographic characteristics, 15 items on knowledge, 4 items on perception, 15 items on practices, and 3 items information usages, changed from a formerly published survey on COVID-19. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted. The result revealed that from the total 342 participants, the majority of students (59.6%) were females, and most of them are young aged below 30 (84.2%). Similarly, most of them were living in Addis Ababa city government 298 (87.1%) and had a degree level of education 244 (71.3%). Most members were likewise playing it safe, for example, staying away from swarms 158 (46.2%) and 83.6% of respondents approached water to wash. In any case, just 37.4% of the respondents have access to infrastructures such as the internet, and 78.4 of the respondent’s approach to laptop or smart-phone. Knowledge, perception, and practice of students play a great role in understanding student’s readiness towards the pandemic of Covid-19. It is also crucial to take actions that help to fight the pandemic. Most of the respondents have access to water for washing, while the majority of them have no sufficient infrastructure for online learning, including the internet, access to laptop, and/or smart-phone during Covid-19. Besides, television and radio, and social media are the most frequently used sources to obtain information about the pandemic.