University Students’ Autonomous Learning Behaviors in Three Different Modes of ICT-Based Instruction in the COVID-19 Era: A Case Study of Lockdown Learning

Abstract

This paper explores Hungarian university students’ autonomous learning behaviors during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary (March-June 2020). A self-developed questionnaire was used to explore some aspects of learner autonomy relying on the action-oriented dimensions of Tassinari’s (2015) dynamic model of learner autonomy. The present paper aimed to investigate how university students in Hungary regulated their learning processes during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 with regards to three Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based teaching modes. Based on a quantitative study of the constructs of goal setting, management of the learning process and monitoring of efficiency, the researchers examine to what extent students were capable of adapting, through the exercise of learner autonomy, to challenges posed by the altered learning environment. Results of the study also show that participants had different perceptions of the three teaching modes and that students’ exercise of learner autonomy influenced their perception of these ICT-based teaching modes.

Keywords

• covid-19
• digital education
• digital transformation
• higher education
• learner autonomy