Students’ perceptions concerning emergency remote teaching during COVID-19 a case study between higher education institutions in Thailand and Finland

Abstract

The sudden shift from physical classroom education towards emergency remote teaching (ERT) in higher education during the unprecedented global pandemic SARS-CoV-2, or more commonly known as COVID-19, caused an abrupt change in the learning environment for students and educators alike. The disruptive overnight change to convert entire courses to emergency remote teaching caused distress for not only educators, but also students as they had little time to adapt to the new circumstances. While the embedment of technologies in the classroom is not a new concept, this quantitative research examined the impact on perceived student engagement as a result of the sudden change, and how students in higher education in Finland (n = 121) and Thailand (n = 137) responded to this change. One of the primary findings of the research was that students in Thailand indicated difficulties completing group assignments digitally, while, contrary to that finding, students in Finland consented to ease in digital collaboration concerning their group works. As a logical next step, it is recommended to conduct qualitative research to gain a more comprehensive insight into how the views on this particular statement differed significantly between both focus groups of students.