Students’ pre and post COVID-19 perception of Higher Education switch to online: An exploratory study in Portugal

Carlos António Alves Dos Reis,Maria Flores-Tena,Maria Simões

doi:10.18844/cjes.v16i5.6352

Carlos António Alves Dos Reis, Maria Flores-Tena + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v16i5.6352

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Abstract

The corona virus crisis has exposed the many inadequacies and inequities in our education systems. This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the relation between the pandemic caused by COVID 19 (SARS-COV 2) and the changes experienced in Higher Education (HE), namely the shift to online teaching mode. The research used a survey questionnaire to collect data. The study focuses on a Portuguese Higher Education institution (HEI). Institutional teacher’s performance indicators regarding quality assessment system were used, referring to the 2nd semester of 2018-19 until the 1st semester of 2019-20. The total number of pre-Covid19 students who participated 227 . As to the post-covid19, 288 answered the questionnaire. Overall, the “U of Mann-Whitney test” has found no differences between the two moments, pre- and post-Covid19. Hence, results seem to indicate that the student’s perception of the lecturer’s performance was not affected by the regimen shift from face-to-face to online. Keywords: COVID-19; Higher Education; Students’ Perception; Online teaching performance.

Highlights

Since the first person was diagnosed with illness symptoms and fallen ill, in December first of 2019, it was not necessary to wait long for The World Health Organization came to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in January, 2020, and very quickly proclaim a pandemic on March 11, 2020
Subjects and sampling The study focuses on a Portuguese Higher Education Institution, relying on data obtained from students’ voluntary and anonym answers to the quality assessment system, at the end of each Semester under the allowance of the Dean within the institution’s Code of Research Ethics
Results seem to point out that the students’ perception of the lecturer’s performance was not affected by the regimen shift from face-to-face to online. It suggests that the shift for online or partial online mode didn’t change the way students perceive the teaching/learning experience

Summary

Introduction

Since the first person was diagnosed with illness symptoms and fallen ill, in December first of 2019, it was not necessary to wait long for The World Health Organization came to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in January, 2020, and very quickly proclaim a pandemic on March 11, 2020. In the short span of three months the pandemic severely affected everyday life, the economy, cultural activities and the whole of society, including education systems around the world. It leads to the widespread closure of schools and universities, which react by switching to an emergency online education mode. As of April 12, 2020, approximately 1.716 billion students were affected due to school closures, according to UNESCO (Rubin, 2020), and 188 countries implemented nationwide closures, while 5 implemented local closures, impacting approximately 99.4% of the world's student population. If the Covid pandemic affected people from all countries, level of education, income and gender, it is true it impacted heavier in those of disadvantaged conditions, namely in the case of education, where they got shut out when their schools shut down

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