The impact of online education due to COVID-19 outbreak as a cause of anxiety among university students in Northern Cyprus using cross- sectional survey: A data driven based approach

Abstract

Introduction: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or severe acute respiratory syndrome is an infectious disease caused by a newly found coronavirus strain. SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is a type of virus that causes respiratory illnesses in people. Online learning system was switched due to the COVID-19 and GAD-7 Scales were used to measure the correlation and impact of online education as a reason for anxiety among university students in Northern Cyprus. Methods: The Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scale was used to assess anxiety level. An e-questionnaire was formed using google form and shared on social media. An online survey was done, it was participated by 209 students of universities in Northern Cyprus in which the data analysis was done using statistical package for social science (SPSS), MLR, ANN, and ANFIS. Results: 209 participants 64.6% of the participants had minimal to mild anxiety and 34.6% had moderate to severe anxiety according to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scale. Almost all Students with medium economic status have minimal to mild anxiety levels. The obtained data driven approach performance results indicates the ability of the hybrid techniques over the single models in simulation of the anxiety level of the students based on the performance evaluation indices used in the current research Conclusion: The COVID-19 Outbreak imposes a serious challenge to university students undergoing online classes in Northern Cyprus as majority of the students with medium income reported to had minimal to mild anxiety which require the attention of the concern authorities to provide a solution. The proposed hybrid techniques prove to have the necessary efficiency in boosting the performance of the single models towards anxiety level of the student’s simulation.