Problems of emergency distance learning: The point of view of education stakeholders

Abstract

Introduction. The urgent transition to distance learning all over the world during COVID-19 pandemic disclosed the problems of assessing the quality of the educational process, including the effectiveness of its organization, the availability of information for students and the peculiarities of supporting students in the process of knowledge acquisition. The purpose of this article is to summarize the problems that arose as part of the urgent transition to remote instruction experienced by education stakeholders: schoolchildren, teachers, schoolchildren’s parents, undergraduate and postgraduate students. Materials and Methods. In order to obtain empirical data, questionnaires were created for each group of education stakeholders, which were submitted in Google forms and posted online. Responses were received from 307 parents, 114 schoolchildren, 175 undergraduate students, 54 postgraduate students and 14 secondary school teachers from different regions of the Russian Federation. The sample consisted of 664 people. Results. The study revealed a range of problems that arose in the process of an urgent transition to distance learning for different education stakeholders. The schoolchildren were technically the worst off, 35% of whom studied using smartphones and tablets, and 36% shared a gadget with another family member. At the same time, students generally had a positive attitude towards distance learning. The greatest psychological problems were found in parents and teachers. Parents were forced to fulfill the duties of teachers for their children, with many complaining that this process was time consuming. Teachers also noted that they simultaneously played two roles in the process of distance learning: a teacher and a parent. Both parents and teachers described burnout symptoms as a result of participating in an activity that was unusual for them. Conclusions. The study identified 4 types of problems faced by education stakeholders: technical, interpersonal, individual and existential. The students, despite the obvious organizational and technical problems, did not experience a negative attitude towards the distance learning process, perhaps because the whole burden of responsibility for learning outcomes fell on adults. A significant individual problem faced by teachers was role confusion, which led to burnout. It has been suggested that the reason for the existential problems seen in most adults is not due to distance learning but to unresolved family issues brought to light by distance learning.