Abstract
We surveyed a convenience sample of 362 Italian university physics students, asking them to retrospectively assess their experience of emergency remote instruction due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We looked at their psychological well being, motivation for physics, academic orientation, attitude towards physics and physicists, and tried to link these factors to their overall perception of the online instruction. Our results show a general appreciation for the organization and effectiveness of online courses. However, online teaching negatively impacted on engagement and interaction between peers and with the instructors. Only 22% of students in our sample complained of the psychological distress due to remote instruction. Nonetheless, we found a significant decrease in motivational dimensions, such as interest and recognition. Emergency remote instruction also challenged the students’ self-regulation, self-efficacy, and engagement. Finally, the uncertainty about the future resulted in a more pessimistic attitude towards physics, academic performance, and job perspectives.3 MoreReceived 25 March 2021Accepted 2 September 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020130Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasEducational policyEpistemology, attitudes, & beliefsLearning environmentPhysics Education Research
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic [1,2,3] compelled many universities worldwide to move from face-to-face to online classes [4,5,6,7]
We note that a negative value on the logit scale means that, overall, students had more than 50% probability to agree with the items
The main conclusion of our study is that the organization of the emergency remote instruction by Italian university physics courses was positively perceived by the students
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic [1,2,3] compelled many universities worldwide to move from face-to-face to online classes [4,5,6,7]. This shift forced university instructors to deliver their courses in a remote modality without a suitable preparation of the didactic materials [8,9]. In the field of physics education, a few papers report about how in-person laboratory approaches were shifted online [13,14]. In a recent study [15] with 578 European physics students, the authors
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
