Abstract
Due to COVID-19, university students continued their academic training remotely. To assess the effects of emergency remote teaching (ERT), we evaluated the expectations and, subsequently, the experiences of university students about online education. This study employed a simple prospective design as its method. We assessed the expectations of 1,904 students from different discipline areas (1,106 women and 798 men; age M = 21.56; SD = 3.07) during the beginning of the first semester, March 2020 (T1), and their experiences at the end of the same academic period, September 2020 (T2). We used convenience non-probability sampling. Participants responded to the questionnaire on Expectations toward virtual education in higher education for students and the questionnaire on virtual education experiences in higher education. The results showed that students’ responses reflected low expectations regarding peer relationships and comparison with face-to-face education (T1). This perception was maintained during the evaluation of experiences (T2). Students reported positive experiences regarding online teaching and learning, online assessment, and their self-efficacy beliefs at T2. Statistically significant differences between measurements were found, with the expertise presenting higher averages than expectations. Furthermore, differences by gender were identified, reporting a positive change in the scores of women. In addition, results reflected differences according to the disciplinary area, showing Social Sciences and Medical and Health Sciences students a more significant size effect. Findings regarding the empirical evidence and the implications for future teaching scenarios in Higher Education are discussed.
Highlights
Higher education institutions had to face the challenge of providing continuity to the educational process remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic
This study focuses on the importance of learning about students’ expectations and experiences during the implementation of the emergency remote teaching (ERT) for the COVID-19 pandemic
A simple ex post facto longitudinal quantitative research design was used. Researchers find it impossible to manipulate the independent variable in ex post facto studies, describing the associations between variables. It is longitudinal since two measurements were performed, starting by measuring the expectation (March 2020; T1) and the experience (September 2020; T2) of the students with online education during the ERT, to subsequently study the relationships found between the variables (Montero and León, 2007)
Summary
Higher education institutions had to face the challenge of providing continuity to the educational process remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This scenario implied a drastic transformation without the possibility of preparation, having both teachers and students quickly develop online education competencies (Hattar et al, 2021). Emergency remote teaching (ERT) is the name given to this instructional response (Bustamante, 2020; Hodges et al, 2020). One of the characteristics of ERT is the lack of time and skills of instructors to adequately prepare and implement their course syllabus in a virtual format (Hodges et al, 2020). ERT differs significantly from online teaching, in which the focus is on delivering a quality learning experience following a predefined instructional design (Miramontes Arteaga et al, 2019)
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