The Future of Education

Abstract

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus COVID19 outbreak a global pandemic. This fact had an immediate effect on our lives since many governments decided to decree the confinement of their population in their houses. As a result, different aspects of our daily life were severely affected such as leisure, social interaction, celebrations, and a fundamental aspect of any society like education. Due to the lockdown, schools and universities were closed and students were forced to continue their education at home. To do this, schools and universities implemented online teaching (see DeCoito & Estaiteyeh, 2022; Lee et al., 2022; Svihus, 2023). In Spain, for example, due to the different waves caused by the coronavirus in the academic years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, university teaching fluctuated between two modes of online teaching: fully online teaching (i.e., all the students followed the classes at home) and hybrid online teaching (i.e., half of the students attended the lesson in person in the classroom while the other half were following the lesson virtually at home). The major aim of the present paper is to analyse, by means of a questionnaire, 30 undergraduate students’ attitudes towards virtual/online teaching (both fully online teaching and hybrid online teaching) after the pandemic and their beliefs about its impact on their learning and, based on these findings, to discuss how online teaching can be improved in higher education. The content analysis of the data revealed that most of the students had a negative perception of online teaching as they pointed out that the classes were very monotonous and demotivating and lacked interaction with other classmates, which led them to distract easily and get bored. In this respect, the paper discusses the pedagogical implications of the findings and specific strategies (e.g., group discussion and teach-back) and tools (e.g., Mentimeter, Zeeting, and PollEverywhere) which can be implemented to make online teaching an engaging activity for learners.

Keywords: Learner engagement, higher education, online teaching

References

DeCoito, I., & Estaiteyeh, M. (2022). Online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: Exploring science/STEM teachers’ curriculum and assessment practices in Canada. Discip Interdscip Sci Educ Res, 4(8). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43031-022-00048-z

Lee, K., Fanguy, M., Bligh, B. & Lu, X. S. (2022). Adoption of online teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A systematic analysis of changes in university teaching activity. Educational Review, 74(3), 460-483, DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2021.1978401

Svihus, C. L. (2023). Online teaching in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Educ Inf Technol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-11971-7