Distance Lectures in University Studies: Advantages, Disadvantages, Improvement

Abstract

Distance learning is not a new subject in university study practice. It is clear that a significant number of universities practiced this way of learning before the pandemic. In the case of distance learning, the emphasis is always not so much on the means used for teaching and learning, as on the very fact of the physical separation of the lecturer and the student. There is a reasonable concern about the quality of studies, their efficiency, the quality of the qualifications acquired by future specialists, etc. The new context creates the need to analyse and assess the distance learning situation that arose during the pandemic.In January-February 2021, a qualitative study was conducted, in which 158 students from three Lithuanian universities participated. Most of the respondents were students of social and humanitarian study programmes. Qualitative data obtained on the basis of open-ended questions were analysed using the method of quantitative content analysis, i.e., semantic subcategories and categories according to four main variables were distinguished: advantages of distance lectures, disadvantages of distance lectures, and distance lecture improvement.It has been established that the main advantages are the convenience of studying and the flexibility of the study process. Meanwhile, the most obvious shortcomings are deterioration of physical and mental health and non-realisation of social needs, deterioration of the quality of academic activities. Improving the design of lectures and improving their planning and organisation are considered the key areas of improvement.

Exploring the Students’ Perceived Academic Value in an Exclusive Online Learning Environment

“…Perceived enjoyment and perceived learning effectiveness have been scored relatively low, a little bit over the neutral value which is explained by the distracting factors when learning from home, that in turn leads to loss of attention and concentration, as well as by the lack of face-to-face interaction, that in turn is reducing the motivation to learn. This is not surprising and is consistent with other findings from the literature (Coman et al, 2020;Lamanauskas & Makaraskaite-Petkevitciene, 2021;Mese & Sevilen, 2021).…”

“…In this case, is the degree to which the online lectures are perceived as attractive, interesting, and enjoyable. Motivation to learn is an important issue in education that has a positive influence on learning outcomes (Lamanauskas & Makaraskaite-Petkevitciene, 2021;Pânisoară et al, 2020;Swan, 2003).…”

The Usefulness of Online Learning During the Covid19 Pandemic as Perceived by Engineering Education Students: A Multidimensional Model

“…The evaluation instrument has been developed based on existing scales in the literature and preliminary research (Lamanauskas & Makarskaitė-Petkevičienė, 2021;Manea et al, 2021). Data has been collected from three universities -one from Lithuania and two from Romania.…”

Exploring the factors making online learning attractive and enjoyable

“…Because of the lockdown restrictions, universities have to shift to online teaching and learning. Maintaining students' interest in exclusively online education is an important issue since there is no face-to-face interaction and there are many distracting elements, thus making the attention, concentration, and engagement with the online lectures more difficult [17,20]. By online lectures, we mean all kinds of activities supervised by a teacher, such as lectures (courses), seminars, or debates.…”

“…The paper ends with a conclusion in section 5. synchronously or asynchronously, using platforms and communication channels between teachers and students. The learning autonomy of students, the developed digital skills of teachers and students, also infrastructure, equipment, and technological endowments facilitated the transition from traditional learning to virtual space, bringing advantages and disadvantages [6,17,20,24].…”