Through the “Camera Lens”: How Do Students Grasp the Future of Learning via Online Platforms?

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the academic world came into contact with a virtual learning environment that allows students and educators to leave the boundaries of space and time and maintain academic interactions at unrestricted times and sites. After three semesters of remote learning, there is a feeling that the return to universities and to closed spaces will deter students and that they will prefer remote learning. Studying from home spares valuable time, time otherwise wasted in traffic jams, as well as petrol and other expenses. Remote learning gives a feeling of freedom, comfort, flexible time, and a better sense of control over one’s studies than in the classroom. The current study, conducted about one year after the outbreak of the pandemic, examined students’ background variables: gender, years of schooling, marital status, financial and employment status – with the goal of exploring the association between these variables and students’ preference for either face-to-face or digital teaching. It is evident from the research findings that after this experience of e-Learning neither of these two methods shows a clear advantage over the other. Was the e-Learning experience during the crisis a one-time, incidental event? Or perhaps, in light of the crisis, academic institutions should prepare for a different type of learning, one that combines face-to-face with digital learning? The study illuminates an issue that is confronting educational institutions in general and academic institutions in particular, i.e., preparations for teaching and learning in the post-crisis world, after the considerable upheaval to which we were subjected.