From traditional learning to e-learning in the context of Covid-19 pandemic; university students' appraisal

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic called for a series of measures to keep the education system active which included suddenly adapting it to the virtual education modality. In order to inquire about university students' appraisal of both teaching modalities and to analyze possible differences related to sociodemographic aspects, an exploratory study was carried out during the first 60 days of preventive and mandatory social isolation. We worked with an intentional, non-probabilistic sample composed of 222 students from National University of San Luis, Argentina, who were assessed using an ad hoc questionnaire, the content of which was distributed in three sections: a) sociodemographic data; b) appraisals regarding the traditional teaching modality; and c) appraisals regarding virtual teaching modalities. The results showed a certain preference of the students for the traditional teaching modality, although a favorable appraisal has been found in the understanding of lessons with theoretical content and in exams conducted in virtual modality. In addition, higher levels of distractibility were found in the virtual modality, both in theoretical and practical lessons; differences between the two educational modalities were not substantiated with respect to the possible difficulties in making queries to evacuate doubts. The extent to which these results may have been influenced by environmental conditions and factors related to the initial precariousness of virtual classroom teaching is also discussed.