Abstract:

Education is “constantly evolving” to accommodate the “constantly evolving” needs for knowledge of the students. Distance education has made impressive progress during the last few years. It was COVID19 that provided a boost in Distance Education and Online Learning. Available infrastructure, knowledge and experience were used and were streamlined to design and provide more efficient distance education programs. Students and instructors are experiencing a new educational paradigm and reality. The current study presents, analyzes and discusses the views and experience of Romanian students regarding distance education programs. Through a structured questionnaire survey participants described their own views, understanding and perceptions. Participants’ profile was recorded along with their responses regarding distance education efficiency, number of courses with or without tuition fees, level of computer expertise, number of students attending online courses and preference among distance learning and face to face studies. Furthermore, the current research identified learning preferences and teaching preferences and highlighted the most significant ones. Finally, this paper investigates preferences regarding the fellow students and instructors’ attitude towards teaching. It is also worth noting that students stated that they can better conceive the instructional material through performing the practical, experimental and object manipulation via something more of a physical process, either simulated or real. Moreover, students tend to prefer that fellow students conceive instructional material in the same way and at the same time they prefer that fellow students discern the material through watching a demonstrative presentation of the information.

Keywords:

Romanian Students, Distance Education, Views, Experience, Questionnaire, Learning Preferences, Teaching Preferences.