Abstract:

The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus forced changing all lectures to a fully virtual format. In México, where the levels of poverty are significant, the lockdown generated multiple problems to students attending Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)  the largest public university in the country, located in Mexico City. To help understanding the effects of the lockdown on the student’s performance during the past winter term, a survey was conducted among students enrolled in the Metallurgical Chemical Engineering undergraduate program at UNAM. A similar survey was conducted among teachers.

A total of 400 students answered the survey; however, because they were asked to fill one questionnaire for each group in which they were enrolled, a total of 1477 surveys were captured.

The study showed that a significant number of students had health problems directly related to COVID-19 (18 % of the answers); that number rose to 56 % when their immediate families were included. Also, 65 % of the students reported that either themselves or members of their immediate family had economic problems due to the lockdown. Although most of the students had access to a computer, up to 43 % of them had to share it with members of their family; as for access to Internet, 82 % had to share it. Most of the students felt worried, depressed, or sad while a small percentage felt self-confident.

The second survey was answered by 50 teachers, for a total of 116 surveys answered. It must be pointed out that the survey was taken both by full-time and part-time teachers. Almost 52 % of the replies were for groups dedicated to theory, 47 % to laboratory and the remainder to problems. Many professors used e-mail to manage their course content although some used Learning Management Systems such as Moodle or Classroom (with preference for the latter). As for delivery, the majority used Zoom, followed by Google Meet and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft Teams; most of the teachers used a mix of synchronous and asynchronous delivery, followed by synchronous delivery and, in fewer cases, asynchronous delivery. More than 50 % of the teachers did not have previous experience with distance education; almost 60 % reported having taken a course on distance education before or during the term. When asked about the problems detected with the students, the teachers identified that the number one problem was connectivity, closely followed by the need of the students to work and lack of a computer to attend the lectures; they also reported lack of interest on the part of the students and a low number of cases of insubordination. Regarding health issues, 23 % of the teachers had health problems directly related to COVID-19 and up to 45 % of their relatives had such problems. The teachers’ feelings more commonly reported were self-confidence and concern; few were sad or depressed.

Keywords:

Lockdown survey, students & teachers health problems, students & techers economic problems, students 6 teachers connectivity problems.