UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ FIRST EXPERIENCES FROM ONLINE COURSES IN COVID-19 PERIOD

Maria Sideri, Vana Chiou

Abstract


Prior to Covid-19 era, undergraduate courses were not allowed to be delivered online in Greece, which implies that University students may have encountered difficulties to get adjusted to the new form of courses implemented at the start of the pandemic. This research aims to investigate University of the Aegean students’ adjustment and satisfaction from online courses during spring semester 2020. The results show that both students’ adjustment and satisfaction, affected by factors recorded in literature, were moderate by the mid of semester which highlights the importance of online readiness. However, three specific factors (cohabitation causing difficulties to students in courses’ attendance, motivation to attend courses being linked more with students’ need to have a way out of the quarantine routine and sense of belonging in the University’s community) indicate that, in cases of implementation of emergency online education, social needs and external factors are of high importance.

 

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Keywords


Covid-19, distance education, online courses, higher education

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v8i8.3853

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