Master Students’ Perceptions of Online Teaching and Learning during the Pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.3/616Keywords:
COVID19 pandemic, exploratory study, online teaching, students’ support, students’ feedbackAbstract
During the pandemic, the traditional education system shifted to online teaching and learning. In the time that has passed since the beginning of the pandemic, important changes were recorded in the way that education is thought and delivered, at any level of education. Starting with March 2020, when schools were physically closed, online learning became the only way to continue the educational process, although teachers, parents, students, institutions, and officials from the educational system, as well as decision-makers, were not prepared for such a big change. With advantages and limitations, this substitute for traditional education represented a major challenge and opened up multiple opportunities for transforming education, rethinking pedagogical paradigms in line with changes in education-related fields, and transforming the school ethos into a space for inclusion, promoting values, for access to quality education. This research aims to analyze the perceptions of master students as regard online teaching in two East-European countries: Lithuania and Romania. The focus is on the suitability of online teaching, feedback, and support. The provided feedback illustrates that the online teaching/learning process is strongly influenced by a series of variables related to the teachers’ competencies, their ability to introduce proper didactic methods and adapt the content, their capacity to motivate students, to raise the students’ attention, and to stimulate the students’ involvement. More, providing real support, offering fast feedback, and strongly mediating teacher-student communication represent important issues for creating a successful format for online education.
References
Agarwal, S., & Kaushik, J. S. (2020). Student’s perception of online learning during COVID pandemic. The Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 87, 554 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-020-03327-7
Almusharraf, N. M., & Khahro, S. H. (2020). Students’ satisfaction with online learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 15(21), 246-267. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v15i21.15647
Bączek, M., Zagańczyk-Bączek, M., Szpringer, M., Jaroszyński, A., & Wożakowska-Kapłon, B. (2021). Students' perception of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey study of Polish medical students. Medicine, 100(7), Article e24821. https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000024821
Binshehab, S. M., & Ingle, N. A. (2021). Perception for online learning among undergraduate and postgraduate dental students during COVID-19 pandemic. Annals of Medical and Health Sciences Research, 11(3), 1334-1339. https://www.amhsr.org/articles/perception-for-online-learning-among-undergraduateand-postgraduate-dental-students-during-covid19pandemic.pdf
Blizak, D., Blizak, S., Bouchenak, O., & Yahiaoui, K. (2020). Students’ perceptions regarding the abrupt transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Case of Faculty of Chemistry and Hydrocarbons at the University of Boumerdes—Algeria. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(9), 2466–2471. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00668
Butnaru, G. I., Niţă, V., Anichiti, A., & Brînză, G. (2021). The effectiveness of online education during Covid 19 pandemic - A comparative analysis between the perceptions of academic students and high school students from Romania. Sustainability, 13(9), Article 5311. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095311
Buzatu, A. R., Cojoc, C., Cotovici, E., Spirache, M. C., Trandafir, R., & Paun, M. (2020). Students’ perception of online education in the COVID-19 pandemic framework. Romanian Statistical Review, 3, 3-14. https://www.revistadestatistica.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/RRS-3_2019_01.pdf
Coman, C., Ţîru, L. G., Meseşan-Schmitz, L., Stanciu, C., & Bularcă, M. C. (2020). Online teaching and learning in higher education during the Coronavirus pandemic: Students’ perspective. Sustainability, 12(24), Article 10367. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410367
Comisia Naţională a României pentru UNESCO. (2020). Experienţa sistemului de educaţie în perioada crizei COVID-19 [The experience of the education system during the COVID-19 crisis]. https://www.cnr-unesco.ro/uploads/media/Brosura%20UNESCO%20COVID.pdf
Debeş, G. (2021). Distance learning in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic: Advantages and disadvantages. International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 13(2), 1109-1118. https://ijci.wcci-international.org/index.php/IJCI/article/view/669
Gaber, D. A., Shehata, M. H., & Amin, H. A. A. (2020). Online team‐based learning sessions as interactive methodologies during the pandemic. Medical Education, 54(7), 666-667. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14198
Gorghiu, G., Bîzoi, M., Gorghiu, L. M., & Suduc, A. -M. (2009). Aspects related to the usefulness of a distance training course having Moodle as course management system support. In Rudas, I., Demiralp, M., & Mastorakis, N. (Eds.), DIWEB'09: Proceedings of the 9th WSEAS international conference on distance learning and web engineering (Budapest, Hungary) (pp. 54-59). World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS).
ISO/IEC (2016). Systems and software engineering - Systems and software quality requirements and evaluation (SQuaRE) - Measurement of quality in use
Jin, Y. Q., Lin, C. L., Zhao, Q., Yu, S. W., & Su, Y. S. (2021). A study on traditional teaching method transferring to e-learning under the Covid-19 pandemic: From Chinese students' perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 632787. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.632787
Kulal, A., & Nayak, A. (2020). A study on perception of teachers and students toward online classes in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District. Asian Association of Open Universities Journal, 15(3), 285-296. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAOUJ-07-2020-0047
Lamanauskas, V., & Makarskaite-Petkeviciene, R. (2021). Distance lectures in university studies: Advantages, disadvantages, improvement. Contemporary Educational Technology, 13(3), Article ep. 309. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10887
Lee, E. S. (1966). A theory of migration. Demography, 3, 47-57. https://doi.org/10.2307/2060063
Maatuk, A. M., Elberkawi, E. K., Aljawarneh, S., Aljawarneh, S., Rashaideh, H., & Alharbi, H. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and E-learning: Challenges and opportunities from the perspective of students and instructors. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 34, 21-38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-021-09274-2
Mahmood, S. (2021). Instructional strategies for online teaching in COVID-19 pandemic. Human Behavior & Emerging Technologies, 3, 199-203. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.218
Manea, I. V., Macavei, T., & Pribeanu, C. (2021). Perceived benefits of online lectures during the pandemic: A case study in engineering education. Pro Edu International Journal of Educational Sciences, 3(1), 35-41. https://doi.org/10.26520/peijes.2021.4.5.65-41
Maheshwari, G. (2021). Factors affecting students’ intentions to undertake online learning: An empirical study in Vietnam. Education and Information Technologies, 26, 6629–6649. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10465-8
Martin, F., Budhrani, K., & Wang, C. (2019). Examining faculty perception of their readiness to teach online. Online Learning Journal, 23(3), 97-119. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v23i3.1555
McCarthy, K. M., Glassburn, S. L., & Dennis, S. R. (2022). Transitioning to online teaching: A phenomenological analysis of social work educator perspectives. Social Work Education, 41(4), 641-659. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2020.1869206
Moon, B. (1995). Paradigms in migration research: Exploring moorings’ as a schema. Progress in Human Geography, 19(4), 504-524. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F030913259501900404
Murray, J. (2021). Good teachers are always learning. International Journal of Early Years Education, 29(3), 229-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2021.1955478
Naylor, D., & Nyanjom, J. (2021). Educators’ emotions involved in the transition to online teaching in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 40(6), 1236-1250. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1811645
Nasir, M. K. M. (2020). The influence of social presence on students’ satisfaction toward the online course. Open Praxis, 12(4), 485-493. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1285218.pdf
Nasr, N. (2020). Teachers as students: Adapting to online methods of instruction and assessment in the age of COVID-19. Electronic Journal for Research in Science & Mathematics Education, 24(2), 168-171. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1261622
Paudel, P. (2021). Online education: Benefits, challenges, and strategies during and after COVID-19 in higher education. International Journal on Studies in Education (IJonSE), 3(2), 70-85. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijonse.32
Peimani, N., & Kamalipour, H. (2021). Online education in the post-COVID-19 era: Students’ perception and learning experience. Education Sciences, 11(10), Article 633. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11100633
Priyadarshani, H. D. C., & Jesuiya, D. (2021). Teacher’s perception on online teaching method during Covid-19: With reference to school level teachers at faculty of education, The Open University of Sri Lanka. Shanlax International Journal of Education, 9(2), 132-140. https://doi.org/10.34293/education.v9i2.3662
Ranadewa, D. U. N., Gregory, T. Y., Boralugoda, D. N., Silva, J. A. H. T., & Jayasuriya, N. A. (2021). Learners’ satisfaction and commitment towards online learning during COVID-19: A concept paper. Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/09722629211056705
Sadiku, M. N. O., Adebo, P. O., & Musa, S. M. (2018). Online teaching and learning. International Journals of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 8(2), 73-75. https://doi.org/10.23956/ijarcsse.v8i2.549
Scherer, R., Howard, S. K., Tondeur, J., & Siddiq, F. (2021). Profiling teachers’ readiness for online teaching and learning in higher education: Who’s ready? Computers in Human Behavior, 118, Article 106675. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106675
Stevanović, A., Božić, R., & Radović, S. (2021). Higher education students’ experiences and opinion about distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 37, 1682-1693. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12613
Yulia, H. (2020). Online learning to prevent the spread of pandemic coronavirus in Indonesia. ETERNAL (English Teaching Journal), 11(1), 48-56. https://doi.org/10.26877/eternal.v11i1.6068
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors & LUMEN Publishing House

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant this journalright of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as an earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala Journal has an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND