Teaching and Learning in Survival Mode: Students and Faculty Perceptions of Distance Education during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Maram Meccawy,Zilal Meccawy,Aisha Alsobhi

doi:10.3390/su13148053

Abstract

(1) This study demonstrates how a Saudi university has responded to the COVID-19 lockdown in order to examine the success factors and highlight any challenges. The main purpose was to determine the perceptions of students and faculty towards emergency online distance learning from a teaching and learning perspective; (2) A cross-faculty study was conducted: two different self-administered questionnaires were developed for students and faculty, respectively. In addition, data was collected from official reports; (3) The results show that students had a more positive perception of e-Learning despite the difficulties that they may have faced, while faculty results leaned slightly towards a negative perception. However, there was not a definite positive or negative perception, depending on the aspect of teaching that was being evaluated. The study also indicated that faculty and students’ gender had no significant effect on their perceptions. Overall results showed that the university performed well in accordance with three of the five pillars of online learning quality framework in terms of student satisfaction, access and scalability. On the other, improvements are needed to achieve better results for faculty satisfaction and learning effectiveness; (4) The findings present a number of suggestions for increasing satisfaction to improve the online learning experience post COVID-19.

Highlights

Distance learning is a form of learning in which learners who are geographically distant have access to the learning process and materials [1]
This indicates a more positive perception of their experience with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. This is further confirmed by the answers to the question about their overall experience with online distance learning, where only 11.9% found it to be negative
Online distance learning started from the first day of lockdown, and as soon as the university shifted to online learning, the university increased its support to its faculty and students through training sessions, technical support, support for students with special needs and financial support for underprivileged students in the form of laptops delivered to them at home

Summary

Introduction

Distance learning is a form of learning in which learners who are geographically distant have access to the learning process and materials [1]. KAU was forced to apply online distance teaching in order to survive the pandemic and not compromise the learners’ quality of education in the process. This situation resembles what is known as ‘survival mode’ in digital video games. In such games, the player must continue playing for as long as possible (the remaining period of the semester) without dying in an uninterrupted session (failing to deliver), while the game (the learning environment, government health regulations and resources) presents the players with increasingly

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Conclusion