The difference in views of educators and students on Forced Online Distance Education can lead to unintentional side effects

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the different views of educators and students on Forced Online Distance Education during the Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lock-down. Such differences in views can be a source of misunderstanding, leading to unintended side effects. Online open-ended surveys resulted in 1341 comments received from 210 university educators and 347 students. The coding, based on the principles of Grounded Theory, resulted in 35 concepts, organized into 6 categories. The main findings were that students and educators shared most of the negative and positive views; however, there exist unique views that are not shared between the two groups. The negative views outweigh the positive ones, and educators are more negative than students. The category 'Perceived usefulness' is the most positive and 'Technology' the most negative category. Positive views were attributed to the quality of life, not the quality of the study. The most important contribution of the work to the existing body of knowledge is the comparative analysis of the unconstrained views of students and their educators about Online Learning Environments (OLE) as the workhorse of Forced Online Distance Education (FODE). The results of this study can be helpful for institutional evaluators, since they reveal undesirable side effects that are usually overlooked. The study brings a new, deeper look at Forced Online Distance Education and the non-neutral role of digital technology in it.

Surviving but not thriving: Comparing primary, vocational and higher education teachers’ experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown

“…Until recently, we have rarely witnessed large-scale, across the board distance education being practiced in public education for an extended period of time, without a voluntary agreement and preparedness of all parties involved. In their recent study, Dolenc et al (2021) notice that due to the pandemic, educators and students have been pushed into forced online distance education, and this raised a number of shared problems perceived by both groups, including implementation, motivation, hardware and organizational support. Furthermore, their study also concludes that negative views of students and educators outweigh the positive with technology being among most negative categories, "and educators are more negative than students (Dolenc et al, 2021, p. 21).…”

“…However, the transformation promised by technological revolution, did not take place in education in as fast and or as widespread as expected (Brown-Martin & Tavakolian, 2014), and while infrastructure and connectivity coverage were generally improved, use of ICT in pedagogy continued to be a challenge for most. This is mainly because beyond pedagogical content knowledge, teachers needed to understand how to design, facilitate and evaluate meaningful online learning experiences (Dolenc et al, 2021;Rapanta et al, 2020). Literature on massive open online courses (MOOCs) shows a similar conclusion; as an educational innovation that threatened to physically change higher education, MOOCs have only moderately modified the game-play.…”

Pupils’ attitudes toward distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Као што указују Доленц и сар. (Dolenc, Šorgo & Ploj Virtič, 2021), наставници и ученици могу имати различита виђења тог процеса. Будућа истраживања требало би да испитују перспективе и ученика и наставника.…”

“…In the present study, we focused on pupils' views on distance education during the pandemic. As Dolenc et al (Dolenc, Šorgo & Ploj Virtič, 2021) noted, teachers and pupils may have different views on that process. Future studies should investigate both pupils' and teachers' perspectives.…”

Perspectives on Lessons From the COVID-19 Outbreak for Post-pandemic Higher Education: Continuance Intention Model of Forced Online Distance Teaching

“…The word 'forced' reflects the top-down approach to the introduction of distance education into pedagogical practice, where voluntary decisions about pedagogical methods used as part of the teacher's autonomy are largely set aside. Such an approach, especially if rushed, can have several undesirable side effects (Dolenc et al, 2021). FODT should be distinguished from Voluntary Online Distance Teaching (VODT) and Online Distance Teaching (ODT) since the term encompasses both forms.…”