Abstract:

With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world, country by country, higher education institutions were shutting down for reasons of containing the virus, forcing millions of students to take distance classes. The objective of this study is to perceive the result of the teaching modality Distance Learning (D@L) from the opinions of students from several Higher Education courses at a Private Higher Education Institution, from a questionnaire built by the Institution’s Quality Observatory, on Google Forms, with 8 questions related to student profile, 6 questions related to student needs and 8 questions related to student satisfaction, all open and closed. The questionnaire was anonymous and the confidentiality of the answers was guaranteed. This investigation was guided by some questions, namely, what are the students’ perceptions regarding their motivation towards classes and the teachers' method in the D@L modality? As well as, what are your perceptions regarding the schedules of D@L classes? The population was defined as all 1st year students enrolled in the Higher Professional Technical Course (CTeSP), for a total of 116, at the Institution, in the academic year 2019/20. The sample consists of 87 respondents, corresponding to 75% of the population, and a qualitative methodology was used to work and analyze the results obtained. Regarding the profile, the majority of students are not worker-students and are in the age group of 17-20 years. In this analysis, it is important to highlight, regarding the needs: that the students had never had experience in D@L and that their perception was, frankly positive, in such a way that more than 50% of the sample would consider attending the course in the D@L modality. Regarding satisfaction, they place emphasis on the Teacher for their motivation, to list: i) interactive classes; ii) perseverance of the teacher; iii) dynamic classes; iv) teacher available to students; v) discussion classes; vi) peer work; vii) more diversified and flexible assessments. The least positive criticism is related to the class schedule and the lower adequacy of the teachers' teaching method to the Distance Learning modality. It is concluded that this criticism would be expected, since the majority of the Teachers did not have the necessary and sufficient ICT training in due time, at the date of the beginning of the imposition of the State of Emergency that prevented the face-to-face classes. Regarding the timetable, it had to be adapted and there may have been some mismatches. It was an emergency for an atypical situation, in extraordinary times. The student’s perceptions emphasize the need to implement active methodologies on the part of teachers, as well as using science in a dynamic and shared way. This study supports the current UNESCO intention that is fully committed to supporting governments in distance education, in open science, in addition to sharing knowledge and culture, as a fundamental means to unite and strengthen the bonds of our shared humanity.

Keywords:

Distance Learning, Higher education, Motivational factors, Teaching methodologies, COVID-19.