Faculty perceptions of extra-cognitive factors in virtual teaching during the pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic obliged Argentina to adopt distance learning to continue university classes during 2020. In this article, a study is presented on the perceptions and perspectives of the faculty in the School of Education Sciences of the Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos regarding this emergency educational virtualization. The methodology regards a case study. For the collection of information, a virtual survey was used that led to a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the responses. A statistical analysis of language patterns was implemented through the program Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count in order to examine affective, cognitive, and social processes linked to the use of technologies during the pandemic. The results indicate that, whereas the faculty had available technologies, abilities to use them, and an appropriate institutional environment, in that moment emerging difficulties manifested related to the conditions of livability and the possibilities of spatial-temporal organization for carrying out telework. It is concluded that extracognitive factors, such as domestic conditions and perceptions of virtuality in teaching, are two unavoidable aspects for moving towards modalities with a higher degree of mediatization during the post-pandemic period.