Abstract:

The use of ICT tools and the Internet in learning and teaching becomes a compulsory paradigm in a modern society, a significant part of classroom and modern curricula. However, COVID-19 changed the course of education and the use of these tools for educational purposes all over the world. During this pandemic, the classroom has moved to the houses of the students and teachers. Because of the fact that the whole world went from face-to-face learning to virtual and distance learning, many new learning and teaching opportunities have arisen. Distance learning itself has its own advantages and disadvantages. This way of learning allows pupils to learn from their homes, but the problem is that it is not available to everyone. Not every pupil has access to ICT devices or the Internet connection which makes the learning process more difficult. On the other hand, there is a different level of acceptance as well as readiness for distance learning by teachers, students and parents that represent another challenge for the educational processes.

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the issues related to distance learning during a pandemic by primary school students in North Macedonia. Consequently, the research was realized by an anonymous survey questionnaire and the answers generally reflect and summarize students' perceptions regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of distance learning and the use of ICT tools for distance learning at the beginning of the pandemic. The research was entirely conducted electronically in the period from 25.04.2020 to 10.05.2020 taking into consideration the social distance between the interviewers and the respondents. A link from the questionnaire was sent to more than 6,000 students from 50 primary schools in the country, and a total of 1,074 students responded to the survey, which is a representative sample of the entire target population. Findings are believed to be useful for designing and delivering new effective ways of teaching and learning using the Internet and ICT tools in emergency situations.

Keywords:

Distance learning, Learning and teaching opportunities, Efficiency and effectiveness of distance learning, COVID learning and teaching.