Pupils’ Perceptions and Suggestions for the Improvement of Distance Education in Greece

Abstract

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Greek schools were closed, and for the first time in Greece, distance education has been implemented using mostly technological means. This work aims to capture the Greek pupils' perceptions and suggestions on the transition from a face-to-face educational process to a pure distance synchronous and asynchronous education implementation. Data have been collected by 41 pupils via an online questionnaire on a volunteer basis. The purpose of the questionnaire was to identify the pupils' learning challenges and unforeseen benefits connected to the offered distance education. The assessment revealed that the majority of the pupils, although they consider distance education as necessary and useful, do not want to replace the traditional means of education. The pupils suggested that the entire process should be stricter in terms of class schedule, assignment submission, and presence requirements and should be enhanced by incorporating better and more "vivid" e-teaching tools.