Higher Education Students’ perceptions about the effects of the confinement on study and learning processes

Abstract

Due to Covid19 pandemic, the most part of countries have had restrictions on their social life with confinement being one of the most significant public health measures. Higher education institutions closed and all around the world, lecturers and students had to adapt to this new situation. The confinement brought several consequences to higher education students. The goal of this investigation was to understand the perceptions of higher education students about the confinement effects on their learning. Qualitative methodology was privileged, and interviews were developed using videocall resources. Participants were eight volunteer Portuguese students of social sciences scientific area degrees from a university of the interior of Portugal. Age varied between 19 and 21 years old. They responded to the question “Do you think that Covid19 pandemic confinement affects the study and learning processes?” Answers were recorded and verbatim transcribed. Thematic content analysis was used. Results showed two different positions: 1) Not to me but I believe that for some colleagues it is a Yes (academic skills and interpersonal relationships); and 2) Yes, it affects a lot (not resist to distractors at home; (de)motivation; the “loss of freedom”; the lack of interaction; the importance of spaces; inequalities in technological resources; and the future habit changing). Although the small sample, these results bring new contributions to this new field of research once they represent the students’ perspectives about the effects of the confinement in their learning processes. This information can be useful for students but also for teachers and other education stakeholders.