Understanding barriers to female STEM students’ adoption of online learning during a pandemic: An fsQCA analysis
Mumu, Jinnatul RaihanORCID: 0000-0002-2556-0114, Connolly, ReginaORCID: 0000-0003-3196-2889, McParland, Cliona and Azad, Md. Abul KalamORCID: 0000-0002-2314-1709
(2022)
Understanding barriers to female STEM students’ adoption of online learning during a pandemic: An fsQCA analysis.
Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems., 14
(6).
ISSN 1943-7544
The gender-gap in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an
impediment to the success of digitized education. The causal factors of this gap have remained a
matter of speculation. This study focuses on the STEM gender gap in online learning, seeking to
identify causal factors through an innovative fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA)
that is integrated with sentiment analysis in the Asian context. Findings from the empirical results
reveal two pathways to explain STEM gender inequality in the context of online classes. The study
advances knowledge by providing insight into the causal factors that contribute to the existing
gender gap and by disclosing what demotivates STEM female students in an e-learning
environment. The findings will be helpful to practitioners seeking to address digital exclusion
issues like the gender inequality in online learning platforms.