Abstract:

The pandemic crisis caused by Covid-19 enforced abnormal life circumstances in public life, including in the Bulgarian educational institutions. At present, the only teaching methods used so far in high schools are face-to-face. For a short time, these methods had to be reorganized and converted into an e-learning approach. This transition is the only way to ensure the goals of modern education. The short deadlines for adaptation to the new situation have put to the test equal access to education and the guarantee of its quality for everyone.

The crisis triggered by Covid-19 highlighted several challenges facing the educational system and institutions while opening up valuable space for learning and exploring new opportunities. The global trends in digitalization have set high development goals for the educational systems to follow. To what extent the advantages of the digitalization of the modern world will be used in education, depending on the correct definition of specific tasks for the new form of teaching.

The lack of sufficient training for teachers and students has put them to the test and raised the level of uncertainty about whether adequate educational outcomes would be achieved. The Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science did not have a training system in place for distance learning and digital infrastructure, which allowed each school management to use different platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Moodle, Zoom, and others. Furthermore, some teachers had to use other tools such as Skype, Messenger, e-mail, and others.

This study aims to research and summarize the challenges that students faced in the process of the rapid transition from traditional to e-learning form of education. The questions are addressed to high school students who preferred to get their education in a medium-sized district town. The pupils live in weekly student accommodation because they are far away from their families. The analysis is focused on the difficulties presented by distance learning in a virtual environment, such as the lack of technical equipment and suitable learning space. Moreover, we examine the stressful conditions derived from the studying material and the absence of social interactions too. The survey is organized as a questionnaire. It is devoted to addressing the critical areas of e-learning. The problems could be classified into three basic trends: availability of technical capabilities and access to a digital environment, the efficiency of the learning process, and the socio-psychological effect of the lack of any physical human interaction. We have made a summary of the stated problems and proposed concrete actions for their solution.

Keywords:

e-learning, Covid-19, education digitalization, high school.