ABSTRACT The study investigates the effects of Covid-19 and online learning on the academic performance and mental health of Undergraduate Students in the concept of Taxonomy in the University of Benin. The study make used of simple random sampling techniques to select 25% of the population from each level (100 – 400 Level) from two department (Plant Biology and Biotechnology in Life Sciences) and (Biology Education in Curriculum and Instructional Technology Department) to get a total of two hundred and fifty five (255) respondents. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire, which was developed and administered to Biology students. The data from their responses were analyzed with the use of mean score and standard deviation. The result of the analysis revealed that University of Benin Students were highly dissatisfied with online teaching during the COVID-19 outbreak as they show dissatisfaction on the available materials needed for their online, inability to concentrate during online classes with minimum level of distraction, dissatisfaction on the attention received from lecturer, continuous assessment during online class and their studies during the covid-19 pandemic lock down. There was effect of online learning on the mental health of students during the pandemic lockdown as students feel stressed out about online classes, always anxious about online learning activities as it may affect their exam performance negatively, always worried about the bulky continuous assessment that goes with online learning, depressed due to perceived negative outcome during upcoming examination and hallucinate failure and dropping out of school. The challenges face using online system of learning during the covid-19 include; students experiencing difficulty in communicating with their lecturers, students experienced online distractions such as social media during online classes, financial challenges such as buying of data to subscribe when accessing resources and technology, lack of internet access some times during online classes, technical difficulties in completing assignment, and distractions at home as a learning environment for online classes. The perceived effects of covid-19 on the academic performance of university of Benin Students were both positive and negative. The positive effect on students’ academic performance include; acquisition of more knowledge during online classes thereby improving their performance during examination and ability to manage and organize their time especially in doing their continuous assessment while the negative effect include; some student being complacent or reluctant about their studies, student forgetting what they’ve learnt before the covid-19 11 pandemic lockdown thereby affecting their performance poorly in examination and the unavailability of practical apparatus or use of alternative to practical for practical courses during the online classes which affected students’ academic performance negatively in the topic of Taxonomy. It is therefore recommended that the University of Benin and all the involved stakeholders to provide online teaching applications, provide professional training for online teaching applications and devices, provide Wi-Fi facilities, provide cheap internet packages, and provide virtual resources for online learning. Also, it is recommended for lecturers to provide interactive and comprehensive online services along with supportive guidance and constructive feedback that could enhance the students’ level of satisfaction with online teaching. There should be provision of a mental health unit in every faculty to help students with some mentioned psychological burdens. It is seen as a necessity because the online learning model is still likely to go on longer progress. Besides students’ mental and physical health, it also affects students’ future career and motivation that, of course, will bring greater impact to our society.
