Abstract:

In the area of higher education, during the COVID-19 pandemic, distance learning has become a common, and even the only, way of educating university students. This sudden shift in work from face-to-face communication to distance learning was associated with many difficulties for students, especially in adapting to the new way of working. Many of them felt isolated from their peers and the academic community. Students found it hard to learn independently, without being able to stay in a group. The consecutive weeks of studying in isolation out of the university caused them growing frustration and difficulties in achieving effects in the learning process.

Although the students had the opportunity to use individual psychologist support, it did not compensate for the lack of interpersonal communication and the lack of the possibility of team cooperation.

In this article I will present students’ team project of searching for ways of overcoming problems concerning students and teachers well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were based on the idea of developing social competences and involving cooperative initiatives in the academic community.

Methodological aspects of this research and examples of good practice will also be considered.

Keywords:

Higher education, developing student’s social competences, quality of higher education.