Forced distance learning in Covid-19: peculiarities of the position of lecturers, students of IT and humanitarian specialties

Abstract

[EN] This research examines the attitude of faculty lectors, Information Technology students (IT) and humanitarian students (HS) towards the aspects of forced distance learning (DL) due to Covid-19. About 70% of the surveyed IT students and 50% of HS believe that DL can fully replace face-to-face classes and completely switch to DL, about 70% of lecturers have the opposite opinion. At the same time, IT had a 4.5 times higher chance of a positive attitude towards the transition to DL than HS. The majority of all respondents consider that their own notes are important and that classroom learning is better than online. At the same time, among IT that are ready to switch to DL, 69.03% believe that the perception of educational material is better in the classroom. Fewer IT students (30.1%) than HS (68.2%) and lecturers (100%) consider that printed textbooks are important. About 70-90% of students consider that the following DL disadvantages are important: communication difficulties, cocial isolation, the need of self-discipline and self-motivation and fears that the employer will not appreciate the knowledge gained from DL. For the majority of IT, lack of student events is significant, and for the majority of HS, lack of competition between students is important.