Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought huge challenges to higher education institutions around the world. Everywhere, during the spring of 2020, students and teaching staff were sent home to implement non-presencial classes, which were seen as an emergency solution for the outbreak. However, the new academic year brought a mixed approach with classes being delivered in both presencial and non-presencial modes. This is what is happening in Portugal, where the major concerns were to keep the curricular activities as much presencial as possible, while minimizing the pressure of having the faculties packed with students.

From a pedagogical perspective there are various differences from the Spring of 2020. One of them is the fact that conventional classes in the faculty are now often being transmitted without a pedagogical approach that takes into consideration the existence of online students.
The main goal of this exploratory research is to access how students in Portugal are reacting to this mixed model and how they evaluate the efficacy of a hybrid solution. Is a hybrid solution perceived by students as a more effective solution than the previous remote model? This research gathers data on the student’s perceptions of the pedagogical pros and cons of the hybrid option that was implemented in Portugal. Data is collected through an online questionnaire and quantitative methodology is used on a convenience sample (N=100).
The results provide a deeper understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 in the teaching and learning processes in higher education and may be used by decision makers and pedagogues. Findings are also relevant when considering the fact that some students will complete at least half of their undergraduate degrees with remote or mixed teaching models.

Keywords:

COVID-19, distance learning, higher education.