Learning behaviour in an extraordinary situation

Abstract

Closures of higher educational institutions and cancellation of in-person classes caused by COVID-19 made ESP teachers in Montenegro find alternative ways to transform the serious emergency into an important opportunity to foster innovation in the area of teaching ESP online. Doing so, the teachers sought to enhance the experience already in place in many countries round the world. This paper deals with students’ responsiveness to employing new teaching methods aimed at increasing learner autonomy in virtual environment during COVID-19 pandemic, which inevitably encouraged the use of technology. The study focuses on two groups of students (19 second-year students of the Faculty of Visual Arts and 43 third-year students of the Faculty of Information Technology, University Mediterranean Podgorica, Montenegro) and their response to the alternative methods of teaching ESP, as well as the results they achieved in mid-term and final exams. The results are compared to those that the same group of students achieved in the previous semester, providing a comparative analysis of an impact of online teaching on students’ learning behaviour and accomplishments in the extraordinary situation.