Edited by: Tecnológico Superior

Corporativo Edwards Deming

January - March Vol. 6 - 1 - 2021

https://revista-edwardsdeming.com/index.php/es

e-ISSN: 2576-0971

Received: March 14, 2022

Approved: June 4, 2022

Page 1-8

Students’ perceptions of online education during

Covid pandemic

Percepciones de los estudiantes sobre la educación en línea

durante la pandemia de Covid

Gabriela Geovanna Guevara Enríquez

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this research study is to describe

the perceptions of an undergraduate group of students

regarding virtual education in times of COVID-19. Taking

into consideration the factors that were evaluated in this

study, a quantitative approach was carried out by applying

a Likert-type questionnaire with items divided into four

categories: Resources and conditions for online education,

experience between face-to-face and virtual lessons,

relationships with partners and teachers, and teachers’

digital abilities. The result shows that virtual education

due to Covid-19 has gotten a generally favorable

perception from undergraduate students since they

considered their teachers to have assumed their roles in

order to fulfill their educational needs.

Keywords: COVID-19; perceptions; virtual education;

higher; undergraduate

RESUMEN

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo principal describir

las percepciones de un grupo de estudiantes de pregrado

respecto a la educación virtual en tiempos de COVID-19.

Considerando los factores que se evaluaron en este

estudio, se realizó un enfoque cuantitativo aplicando un

cuestionario tipo Likert con ítems divididos en cuatro

categorías: Recursos y condiciones para la educación en

línea, experiencia entre clases presenciales y virtuales,

relaciones con compañeros de clase y docentes, y las

habilidades digitales de los docentes. El resultado muestra

que la educación virtual debido al Covid-19 tiene una

percepción favorable por parte de los estudiantes de

* Magister in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Docente, Universidad

de Guayaquil, gabriela.guevaraen@ug.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-

6527-262X

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e-ISSN: 2576-0971

pregrado, ya que consideran que sus docentes han asumido

sus roles para satisfacer sus necesidades educativas.

Palabras clave: COVID-19; percepciones; educación virtual;

más alto; de licenciatura

INTRODUCCTION

It is common knowledge that COVID-19 has caused a substantial modification in the

organizational and pedagogical methods of the educational systems. Schools, institutes,

and universities were obliged to close their doors as a preventive action to contain the

pandemic. And all these decisions have forced educational institutions to improvise and

look for solutions in order not to stop their activities.

It has been two years since the pandemic crisis started and teachers were forced to

learn to develop their digital skills. However, we cannot take for granted that all

teachers are actually well-prepared to work virtually nowadays. Even though, many

people may think that teaching online is similar to teaching face-to-face lessons, they

are far from reality. Thus, teachers need more than just basic knowledge of handling a

computer or a mobile app in order to effectively teach online.

Teachers must be capable of exploiting, using, and applying digital technologies in all

educational activities (Perifanou, 2021). For that reason, most institutions started

training their teachers. Courses varied from digital training skills for teachers, how to

manage an LMS classroom, the use of Zoom/Teams/Google Meets in the teaching

process, among others.

There is no doubt that virtual education has forced us to encounter many challenges

not only from teachers’ side but also from students’.

One crucial fact to consider is that teaching may vary its difficulty depending on the

subject areas. For instance, it is much easier to teach subjects that do not involve any

kind of symbols since not all digital whiteboards have incorporated those special

characters on their software. So those teachers need to acquire more specific tools or

programs in order to succeed in their classes.

The environment is a second important fact to bear in mind. It does not matter how

much the teacher may know his subject, but if the class is not given in an appropriate

place, it won’t have good results. Inappropriate physical conditions can disconnect the

learners from their teachers. Noise, darkness, wrong tone of voice and disheveled

appearance are bad habits that teachers must try to avoid (Bambaeeroo F, Shokrpour

N., 2017).

The third fact regarding digital teaching issues in virtual learning is lack of time

management, resources, and external factors. During this pandemic situation, most

institutions’ classes were split into synchronous and asynchronous hours. It causes a

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e-ISSN: 2576-0971

reduction of teaching hours, but the content was the same. Thus, it gave teachers

fewer hours to explain and students fewer hours to practice.

On the other hand, resources were also a great big deal since teachers must prepare

PowerPoint presentations for each lesson. Fortunately, Internet has a wide number of

useful resources many teachers could use for free. In fact, there exist a variety of

sources such as

Mentimeter, Quizlet, Quizzes, Padlet, and Jamboard. They have been very helpful to

make classes more enjoyable. However, not all teachers are familiar with them.

Instability in the Internet connection is not only a problem for teachers but also for

students. Yet, it is something we cannot control at all.

When we refer to online education, it is not possible to consider only the teachers’

abilities or environmental issues, but there are many other factors such as the

technological barriers on the part of students that may also affect the learning process.

It would be very important first to mention that according to Schroer (2018)

Generation Z includes children or adolescents born between 1995 and 2012, as

opposed to Generation Y (1977-94), also known as 2nd generation "Baby Boomer",

and Generation X (1966 -76), or generation lost. It is said that these generations are

more familiar with technology. In other words, they are born with digital skills. Yet,

that is far from the truth in every single context.

Technological limitations have caused some delays in the functions of university

institutes where lack of resources has caused a negative impact on education. There

are still institutions that do not have enough equipment to fulfill students’ needs. For

instance, lack of computers in ICTs classrooms, no maintenance at all on PCs, and

even enough trained teachers. (Dory Araujo de Cendros, José Bermudes, 2009).

Another important fact to pay attention to is students’ lack of resources at home. This

study is focusing on public students in Higher Education. In most cases, they live in

rural areas where Internet connection is not good enough. Some others have only

one computer that needs to be shared with all members of their families. And there is

the last group who receive classes from their cellphones where they are not able to

accomplish different activities the teacher may require.

But not everything is negative when referring to virtual lessons, of course, there are

positive factors to point out.

To begin with, remote learning has been considered as one of the most voted options

since students feel they can learn anywhere (Mukhtar K, 2020). This is a great

advantage since they can easily move from one place to another and still continue

learning.

Interaction facilities are a second advantage that virtual learning has. Wagner (2008)

claims that online learning helps to overcome barriers from learners since they feel

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more comfortable discussing with their peers. In fact, the use of forums motivates

students to give their viewpoints to the whole class.

Besides, it is certain that virtual learning allows students to access easily a range of

didactic material, recorded classes, workshops, and other educational activities. In fact,

according to Almaraz (2020), today’s classes are more dynamic, unlike traditional ones.

Online learning also has a cost-effective benefit because learners do not need to spend

money traveling in order to study (Mukhtar K, 2020).

The use of virtual learning allows self-pacing. For example, the asynchronous classes

allow each student to learn at their own pace, whether slow or fast. As a consequence,

it increases satisfaction and reduces stress. (Codone, 2001; Amer, 2007; Urdan and

Weggen, 2000; Algahtani, 2011; Marc, 2002; Klein and Ware, 2003)

There is no doubt that online education has its benefits as well as its drawbacks. That

is why the importance of carrying out this study where students could let us know

their perceptions about virtual learning bearing in mind four main factors that have

been explained throughout this research paper.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This research is based on a quantitative methodological framework and aims to

investigate the perception of a group of undergraduate students from a higher

education public institution regarding the new modality of virtual teaching implemented

during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to carry out this study, an instrument, the student’s perception of virtual

learning survey, has been developed and applied to a constituted group and, therefore,

not selected randomly.

The survey was applied to 79 students through Google forms using a Likert-like scale.

It was composed of 23 items which have been divided into four main sections:

 Resources and conditions for online education.

 Students’ experience between face-to-face and virtual lessons.

 Relationships with partners and teachers.

 Teachers’ digital abilities

It is important to mention that were considered students from the fourth semester

onwards since they have both experiences: face-to-face and virtual learning.

RESULTS

In chart 1, we can observe that most students have a positive perception regarding the

resources they have to use as well as the conditions they need to participate actively in

their online classes. A 62.4% of students agreed with the idea that their Internet

connection is good enough to attend their lessons. Only 5.1% suggested some failing in

their connections. On the other hand, about 70% of students reported having enough

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e-ISSN: 2576-0971

knowledge to handle the platform and the use of technology in general.

Table 1. Students’ perceptions about resources and conditions for online education

We can see in chart 2 that 53,4% of students consider that virtual lessons have carried

out a great amount of homework to do. Besides, more than 50% of students consider

that teaching instructions have been in some way affected since classroom directions

are not always clear in the online sessions. These results have a correlation with the

results of completing all the tasks required since 55% of students do not complete all

that the teacher requires.

Besides, it is vital to stand out that through the analysis of the answers from the

inquired students, we can conclude that concentration has also been affected since a

number of 41,6% claimed that they do not focus on their online lessons. Moreover, the

same number of students recognized that they can do many other activities at the

same time they are studying.

Table 2. Students’ perceptions about their experiences between face-to-face and virtual

lessons.

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e-ISSN: 2576-0971

In terms of communication, it has been a positive point of view from the part of the

students. A number of 40,5% of students reported that they can interact with other

students during their online lessons. Besides, there is 71,8% of students who have had

the opportunity to work in groups, 57,2% who have interacted with their teachers,

76,4% who claimed their problems have been solved by their tutors, and 55,3% who

have made some new friends.

Table 3. Students’ perceptions about their relationships with partners and teachers.

In this last chart, we can notice that students have a positive conception of their

teachers’ digital abilities. A number of 73,7% agreed with the idea that teachers have

enough digital knowledge to deal with online classes. In fact, 75,7% thought that online

classrooms were well-organized due to their teachers’ skills. In addition, 65.1%

reported that teachers use external tools to promote better learning results in the

classroom. And finally, 54,8% said they have received feedback from their teachers.

Table 4. Students’ perceptions about their teachers’ digital abilities.

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e-ISSN: 2576-0971

DISCUSSION

The general perception of the undergraduate students is positive towards virtual

education, particularly regarding the role of their teachers. Consequently, it can be

affirmed that university teachers are showing flexibility in adapting to the demands of

Covid-19 to guarantee the educational needs of students.

On the other hand, despite the emergency situation regarding COVID-19 is coming to

the end, ITCs have come to stay, which means that education from now on will be

drastically affected by technological advances.

For this reason, it is crucial to take into account all those comments from dissatisfied

students regarding virtual lessons. There is no point in denying that there are a lot of

weaknesses we still need to overcome.

So far, these results might be of great help to make changes where necessary. It would

be also recommendable to apply a new survey at the beginning of future semesters and

at the end in order to see how far the institution has reached students’ expectations

from an educational viewpoint.

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