Face-to-Face and Remote Learning During the Confinement Due to Covid19: The Experience of Higher Education Students

Abstract

Due to COVID19 disease contingencies, in several countries, universities were forced to replace the face-to-face classes for a non-face-to-face system, also called as Emergency Remote Teaching - ERT. In this scenario, both teachers and students experienced several challenges and had to adapt to new ways of teaching and learning. The goal of this study was to understand how students experienced this situation. Through a qualitative methodology, we interviewed eight higher education students from social sciences scientific areas. Thematic analysis was used to identify and interpret patterns and themes in students’ responses. Results show that students experimented several difficulties at different levels: cognitive level (e.g., attention, concentration, and information storage), motivational (e.g., demotivation to study), tiredness; organizational (e.g., time and tasks management), and social level (e.g., interpersonal relationship and lack of contact with people). These results bring new knowledge to this problematic area and can be useful for students, teachers, and higher education institutions.