Abstract:

The rapid spread of the coronavirus (COVID19) in early 2020 was an unexpected situation that affected all areas of human life distance learning quickly replaced traditional classes during the COVID 19 pandemic because of the social distance needed to maintain global health (Neves & Hewitt, 2020). The sudden and exclusive use of distance learning during a pandemic has raised concerns among members of academia and has brought about fundamental changes at both in educational and psychosocial levels (Bao, 2020). The purpose of this study is to identify the level of acceptance of distance learning and learning methods at the Public Vocational Education Institutions (PVTIs) in Greece, during COVID-19 pandemic.

To find out the experience and problems of the distance learning platform, we conducted a quantitative survey of PVTI students using a questionnaire. The paper discusses the main points of the study. The article is structured as follow:
1) Introduction;
2) Related studies
3) Methodology:
4) Data analysis and interpretation; and
5) Conclusions and discussion.

The quantitative study sample consisted of Greek PVTI students. A total of 768 students responded and pilot statistical processing of the received data was performed. To track the experience with the distance learning platform, the sample was asked to address potential issues with the platforms used. The majority of respondents cited technical and access issues. Various issues were mentioned, including user issues and system issues. At the same time, they pointed out the benefits of personal contact and feedback from the professor. It's interesting to say that only a small part of the sample mentioned that the systems worked out perfectly fine. The results show that the most common communication is via email and e-class announcements.

The research has been focused on the use of synchronous and asynchronous platforms of distance learning. The findings suggest that the most frequently used asynchronous platforms where the e-class, open e-class and the social media, while the most frequently used synchronous platforms were WebEx, Zoom and Messenger. Especially WebEx is reported to be used by the 73% of the sample.

The most positive evaluation for synchronous platforms occurs for Messenger and Zoom while the most positive evaluation for asynchronous platforms occurs for social media and Open e-class. The most negative evaluation for asynchronous platforms occurs for Edmondo and for synchronous platforms occurs for Jitsi.

The majority of the respondents mentioned technical and access issues. A variety of issues have been mentioned, either difficulties of the users or problems of the system. It is interesting that only a little part of the sample reported having no problems at all.

The results show that the most frequent communication happened through the e-mails and the e-class announcements.

Results showed no statistically significance for gender, for none of the variables. Regarding age groups, there are statistically significant differences in the use of synchronous, asynchronous platforms and familiarity before pandemic. Concerning the familiarity of using these platforms before the pandemic, the 46-55 age group reported significantly lower mean score.

Keywords:

Distance education, Vocational Education and Training, Synchronous platforms, Asynchronous platforms, Pandemic, PVTIs.