Responses to COVID-19 in Higher Education: Students’ Learning Experience Using Microsoft Teams versus Social Network Sites

Ahmed M. Hasanein,Ahmed E. Abu Elnasr,Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih,Amany E. Salem

doi:10.3390/su131810036

Abstract

The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 forced governments to continue with distance learning. Due to the absence of a formal digital learning management system (DLMS), public universities in many countries adopted social network sites (SNSs), e.g., Facebook and WhatsApp, and/or digital communication platforms, e.g., Microsoft (MS) Teams and Zoom for teaching and learning. This research investigates students’ learning experiences and responses to course/s incorporating SNSs and MS Teams as a sole distance learning platform during COVID-19. An online, pre-tested, questionnaire was used, directed at bachelor students in public institutions in Egypt, offering tourism and hotel programs, who received their courses using both SNSs and MS Teams. The results showed that the usage of both SNSs and MS Teams helped students to access information and learning resources, have good impact on their knowledge construction and critical refection, and report overall positive learning experience. The results of paired-samples t-test showed statistically significant differences between students’ experiences of course/s incorporating SNSs and MS Teams. However, students recorded limited support by their educators and peers and low participation in course activities that adopted MS Teams. They also reported poor assessment and feedback with course/s that incorporated SNSs. Hence, several implications for scholars, policymakers, and educators were presented for achieving better learning experience and to cope with the pandemic or similar crises, especially in universities with poor infrastructure, including unavailability of DLMS.

Highlights

The worldwide pandemic of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has posed unprecedented challenges to traditional or face-to-face education
The proportion of males who participated in the current study was nearly equal to that of females
This is because there is no gap between higher education and secondary school in Egypt according to the Egyptian educational system, which agrees with previous studies [13]

Summary

Introduction

The worldwide pandemic of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has posed unprecedented challenges to traditional or face-to-face education. Governments have shifted education from face-to-face to distance learning. Most public universities in developing nations, e.g., Egypt, are suffering from a lack of technological platforms and formal digital learning management systems (DLMS) for communication with students, e.g., Blackboard. They do not have the full capabilities to support the online learning process [1,2,3]. The initial wave of the pandemic of COVID-19, in December 2019 and first quarter of 2020, has pushed policymakers and public universities in higher education to search

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Conclusion