Students’ Perceptions of Gained and Lost Value: A Case Study of a Summer School That Had to Suddenly Move Online

Abstract

The COVID-19 lockdown induced a sudden migration of traditionally presential learning activities to online domains, as was the case of inter-institutional summer schools. This research corresponds to a case study in which our organization had to reformulate, in less than three months, one of its traditional summer schools while trying to keep the original goals. Through qualitative and quantitative surveys, we aimed at identifying the impact of our reformulation through students’ perception of gained or lost value regarding four topics: (a) online teaching, (b) pre-recorded business cases, (c) online social events, and (d) technical solutions. By analyzing these four topics with emphasis on participants’ knowledge and learning experience, we identified some “tensions” leading to loss of value (i.e., belonging, performing, and organizing). These tensions suggest that future reformulations should be conducted considering students’ backgrounds and motivations.