Going digital as a result of COVID-19: Insights from students’ and teachers’ impressions in a Swedish university

Emergency Remote Learning in Higher Education in Cyprus during COVID-19 Lockdown: A Zoom-Out View of Challenges and Opportunities for Quality Online Learning

“…Instructors' lack of familiarity with online learning: Instructors' discomfort or lack of familiarity with online technological tools and e-learning pedagogy was considered to be a serious challenge for a sizeable proportion of learners in our study, as it did in many other studies investigating students' experiences with ERL [9][10][11]50,[54][55][56][57][58]. As stressed in the literature, the sudden and forced nature of the transition to ERL resulted in many educators being ill-equipped for the pedagogical and technical challenges ahead of them.…”

“…As these studies stress, unlike theoretical content which is easier to teach online, teaching practical knowledge and skills in online environments is more challenging [24,86,87]. Students tend to feel less enthusiastic about learning activities such as practical work and projects delivered online, since these require more interaction among students as well as with the instructor [54]. In their systematic review of international literature that examined the ways in which the transition from face-to-face education to online distance education impacted academia and students, [50] identified several research papers that concluded that knowledge gained from simulations or demonstration videos alone cannot act as a complete substitute of practical training, particularly in fields that require hands-on training in laboratories or operation rooms.…”

“…Our study participants mentioned various instructor-related pedagogical/practical issues (e.g., educational material not being properly organized, online activities being challenging, difficulties in understanding what the instructor was asking them to do during online sessions or for homework). Time constraints and limited prior exposure to e-learning tools and pedagogy prevented most instructors from delivering well-designed online courses promoting social presence, active student engagement, student motivation and collaboration [19,27,54,88].…”

“…Conducted research [38][39][40][41][42][43] suggests that the necessity to employ ERL was extremely challenging for institutions and for all stakeholders involved: educators, students, parents, policymakers, etc. The lack of preparation at institutional, technical [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][44][45][46][47][48][49] and human resource levels [9][10][11]28,45,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] intensified the challenges and obstacles revealed.…”

“…The pandemic exposed significant gaps and variation in educators' level of preparation and readiness to use technology and teach at distance, as well as to design and deliver in distance learning environments [43]. Along the same lines, gaps in educators' and students' digital literacy level and accessibility to technology were also revealed [9][10][11]28,45,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Technology accessibility barriers were more pronounced for educators and students who did not have access to appropriate and/or enough technological devices in their homes, lacked adequate technological background knowledge and skills and depended on non-reliable internet access.…”