College students' experience of emergency remote teaching due to COVID-19

Abstract

This study analyzed South Korean college students' experiences of emergency remote teaching as a result of COVID-19 utilizing thematic analysis, which is a flexible and in-depth qualitative method used to analyze the similarity and association between individually derived theme words and discover meaningful associative relationships. The subjects of the study were college students at D University selected by purposeful sampling technique. A semi-structured questionnaire focusing on students' satisfaction and dissatisfaction with emergency remote teaching as well as their desired improvement was distributed online, and a total of 393 student responses were collected for analysis. According to the results of the study, the most common environment and method for participating in classes were student homes and personal laptops. Students noted some positive features of emergency remote teaching such as comfortable educational environments, smooth interactions, and efficient time utilization, while network instability, unilateral interactions, and reduced concentration were shown to be causes of students' complaints. Areas students identified for improvement were closely related to the causes of complaints, such as network stabilization, recorded lecture sharing, and the activation of interactions. The results of this study concluded that college students' educational environments are important, and the quality of interactions can vary depending on the teachers and technology used. Based on the results of this study, an improved and effective emergency remote teaching system maintaining academic achievement similar to traditional classroom teaching can be designed in preparation for any possible future crisis like COVID 19.