Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic caused dramatic changes to the learning ecosystems worldwide, as many countries switched abruptly to online teaching in order to let the educational process continue. This was the case also for Romania where, in early March 2020, educational institutions at all levels suspended face-to-face courses, with the Government recommending online teaching wherever this was feasible. In less than a week after this decision, most of the universities in the country succeeded in implementing online teaching platforms. Some of them benefited from their previous experience and already implemented infrastructures for online teaching. The authors’ experience on online teaching in engineering universities, as well as results from a detailed survey on students’ perception about the pros and cons of this process are presented in the paper, with reference to the national context of pandemic evolution and to the timing of governmental measures. The perspectives of the system are briefly analyzed, based on the situation to date and on the available prognoses.

Keywords:

Online teaching, COVID-19, students’ perception, pandemic.