Student perceptions of distance learning

Abstract

Distance learning has the potential to become an important pillar of the future education system and has grown considerably, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to assess its quality and success, we asked students for their opinion on this form of education that was imposed on them during the pandemic. The main objective was to analyse students' perceptions of distance learning in terms of quality, digital tools used and challenges encountered. We adopted a quantitative methodology and surveyed 288 undergraduate students of the Errachidia Polydisciplinary Faculty in 2022 via an online questionnaire. The results show that although students appreciate the flexibility offered by distance learning, a number of technical difficulties were identified, such as problems with connectivity and digital resources. These perceptions can be used as indicators to identify the strengths and weaknesses of this mode of education and help decision makers to identify areas for improvement if this mode of education is to be successful in the future.

Keywords : Distance learning, Survey, Online courses, Student perception, Quantitative methodology.

JEL Classification : I20

Paper type : Empirical Research.