Abstract
The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus made it necessary for schools around the world to adopt emergency remote teaching (ERT) practices; many schools opted to move to online classes. This chapter reports on student perceptions of ERT at a Mexican university. Data were collected through focus groups with 106 undergraduate students and analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. Themes that were identified include negative aspects such as barriers to learning and incomplete university experience, but also positive aspects such as convenience of online learning and technological affordances of online learning. Findings show that synchronous online classes helped the participants feel more connected during an emotionally fraught time.
TopIntroduction
The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its consequent prevention measures have had a significant impact on all areas of human life; education has not been the exception. To prevent the further spread of the virus, face-to-face classes were canceled in schools in 166 countries around the world, affecting more than one billion students (UNESCO, 2021). To respond to the closures, most educational authorities opted to implement emergency remote teaching (ERT) (Hodges et al., 2020, Trust & Whalen, 2020; Whittle et al., 2020). One common form of ERT included learning management systems with online classes delivered through virtual meeting platforms. Though the measure was temporary, two years later, students in some countries are just beginning to return to the classrooms.
As occurred in many other countries, Mexico went into lockdown in March 2020. Classes at the primary and secondary level were suspended, and institutions of higher education were invited to consider the suspension of face-to-face activities. The initial suspension was for two weeks, followed by another two weeks corresponding to the spring break. Face-to-face classes were expected to resume after the break. Most institutions of higher education opted to move their classes online (Zapata-Garibay et al., 2021). Although remote education was the logical decision for the circumstances, its implementation was complicated. Firstly, not all students in Mexico have easy access to the web or to devices capable of accessing the internet. While urban centers have better services, rural communities may not even have reliable electricity (Padilla Rodríguez et al., 2021). Secondly, there was no time to train teachers in the pedagogy of doing face-to-face classes online (Schmelkes, 2020). Training was, in most cases, limited to the use of the technological tools.
Despite the difficulties, teachers and institutions did their best to deliver educational content, and learners made heroic efforts to continue their education The author hopes to add to the body of literature on ERT in the context of the COVID pandemic and from the perspective of learners in a developing country. This chapter will describe Emergency Remote Teaching and distinguish it from online education. It will review the pertinent literature looking at the characteristics and uses of ERT and its prominence during the COVID lockdown around the world and then in the specific context of Mexico. The research design and method will be explained, and the results will be presented and discussed. Finally, the pedagogical implications, the conclusions, the limitations, and the suggestions for further research will be included.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Asynchronous Learning: The term refers to education or learning where the instructor and the learners are not present in the same place or during the same timeframe. The learners can work at their own pace.
Engagement: Involvement or interest. In education, it is said that students are engaged when they are interacting in activities they find enjoyable or challenging.
Online Education: A form of distance education that delivers instruction through the internet.
Focus Group: A tool to collect qualitative research data. Focus groups are collective interviews with a small number of participants who share demographic or other characteristics.
Self-Regulation: The ability to control one’s learning environment. It includes metacognitive strategies such as goal setting, monitoring, and planning.
Emergency Remote Teaching: A temporary change in instructional modes due to crisis situations such as war or natural disasters. It may be carried out through technological or non-technological means, though the term remote implies that instruction takes places outside the classroom. Thus, it is not the same as online or blended learning.
Thematic Analysis: A method for qualitative data analysis. It involves becoming familiar with the data, coding, and then identifying patterns within the codes. These patterns are known as themes.
Synchronous Learning: The term refers to an educational context where instructor and learners are present during the same timeframe, even if they are not in the same location. Thus, it usually refers to online learning.
Affordance: Possibility or potential of use that something has due to its characteristics.