Emergency Digital Teaching during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Students’ Perspectives

Abstract

This paper presents a qualitative study of the experience of students of the shift from face-to-face learning to online learning during the COVID-19 lockdown in Norway. Detailed inputs were collected from 200 university students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree in information technology in Norway through an online survey. Their responses were categorized into three main themes: the teacher’s role, the life of a student, and digital learning. We found that, surprisingly, the students felt that the shift to digital learning had positive effects on their lives, such as the availability of more time for study, study flexibility through recorded lectures which could be reviewed repeatedly and anytime, and more time to pose questions. However, some students also pointed out negative effects such as more distractions, lack of structure, and a perceived invasion of privacy when required to turn on their cameras. The students valued the use of high-quality technical equipment as well as student engagement during online lectures, but also freedom of choice to participate.

Keywords

• digital learning
• COVID-19
• higher education
• student perspective