Abstract:

The lockdowns imposed worldwide to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic have forced educational administrations to make swift adjustments to the modes of teaching and learning in an effort to safeguard studies as well as work positions. Students and faculty alike were taken by surprise with the immediate switch to online mode in those unprecedented conditions. While both students and faculty were no strangers to the use of technology either as a supportive tool or as used for full online delivery, when it comes to classes requiring physical presence, online environments, had been used up to March 2020, in a complementary manner. Research has shown that despite technological advances and the plethora of tools to support both delivery participation in online classes, educators and education managers alike have expressed doubts regarding the potential of online instruction to improve language learning skills. Teachers had to offer teaching online without having received any prior training and come up with solutions in zero time. The aftermath indicates that efforts towards sustaining online environments were crowned with success, as students and teachers managed to complete the academic year in a timely and effective manner. This triumph has inevitably led to a debate regarding the use of online tools and the ways that education has been altogether affected. Two online questionnaires were prepared in order to examine students' and teachers' beliefs in relation to online classes, one in Spring 2020 and one in Fall 2020. Findings from both questionnaires indicated that students and teachers generally agree that online classes are less interesting, less engaging and much more boring compared to face-to-face classes. Following 3 semesters of online classes, participants returned to the premises to continue their studies in face-to-face mode. This time however, it was possible for students and faculty who were affected with the disease to participate or respectively deliver, classes online, with the implementation of various web-based tools. In Spring 2022, I followed up with interviews to those participants who took part in the two aforementioned surveys. While both students and faculty still believe that online classes are inferior to face-to-face ones, they agree that having alternatives to face-to-face classes, i.e.: to participate online or to deliver online lecture whenever there are other restrictions is extremely beneficial. In this paper, I present findings from the qualitative analysis carried out, and make comparisons with findings from earlier research carried out to demonstrate how educational practices introduced with the pandemic have now been solidified and have changed both language education but also perspectives on attendance, participation, teaching and learning. It appears that as a result of the pandemic, resistance towards the use of online tools has significantly subsided as both students and faculty can now enjoy the benefits of online teaching and learning and concur that their academic lives have fundamentally transformed. The same applies to language education and education in general as things can never go back to how they were prior to the pandemic. We have officially entered a new era in education.

Keywords:

Online learning, virtual environments, covid-19, new era in education.