HIGHER EDUCATION CHALLENGES DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC. A CASE STUDY
HIGHER EDUCATION CHALLENGES DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC. A CASE STUDY

Summary/Abstract: Higher education faced different challenges even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Problems like inequity, disinvestment, conceiving educational programs that develop the necessary competencies for future employees, learning innovation and novelty in teaching methods have been delicate grounds in Romanian educational system for at least 20 years. Due to the world wide evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, we face an unprecedented situation, regarding the pedagogical continuity of the learning process that has been shifted from the face-to-face approach in the online environment. A sample of 152 students from Ovidius University of Constanta, the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences was investigated with an opinion poll regarding their perception about the problems that the transition of the entire teaching-learning activity in the online environment raised for them. Results show that 64.47% of the participants think that carrying out the educational activity in the online environment is the most suitable procedure during the isolation period; 92.10% of participants and their teachers use Cisco Webex Meetings; 76.97% of students experienced no difficulties in adapting to the online activity; 74.33% of students faced different types of difficulties, mostly related to the competences needed to operate the online platforms, different malfunctions of the platforms, and poor Internet connection; 75.57% of students are happy with the possibility of attending classes no matter where they are; 55.92% of participants are unhappy with the large number of individual homework they have to do; 74.34% of students fear the freezing of the school year. Results are discussed in relationship with educational outcomes and future directions of the educational activity during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic isolation period.

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