QUO VADIS EDUCATION? COMPARATIVE STUDY UPON THE RECEPTION OF ONLINE EDUCATION DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC AMONG ROMANIAN AND HUNGARIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Andrea HAMBURG
University of Oradea, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Department of International Business, Oradea, Romania
Abstract: March 2020 brought a considerable change into the lives of millions of people: working, learning and many other elements of every day routine moved to the online space. Although, since the launching of the multitude of MOOCs (massive open online courses) offered by entities like Khan Academy, edX, Coursera and others, the idea of home office and even of online education has not been completely new, there still is a basic difference between the alternative, facultative aspect of these facilities and the regular character forced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Home schooling, remote education have become the new normality including both advantages and drawbacks.
While there is a general consent upon the ineffectiveness of home schooling – at least regarding Romania –, is this valid for tertiary education, too, or could online education offer some perspectives for future academic instruction? Having this in mind, we conducted a research at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Oradea, Romania, covering the period of online education from March 2020 to June 2021, trying to find an answer to questions like: could the advantages (flexibility in time and space management, broader accessibility cancelling space limits, partial reduction of requirements at least regarding attendance) be materialised in a higher level of attending activities and a lower rate of school abandonment; is online education efficient and to the liking of generation Z; could they, as digital natives, imagine to move online for their studies?
Starting from certain hypotheses covering the aforementioned aspects we applied two research methods: a quantitative one (statistical inventory based on the data offered by the education platform of the institution, distance.iduoradea.ro, used in the time span March-September 2020, and e.uoradea.ro used as from October 2020, survey among the students) and a qualitative one (interview with the students). For a larger view upon things regarding students’ attitude towards and reception of online education and its future perspectives, we conducted an extended research including two more Romanian academic institutions (Babeș-Bólyai University, Cluj and the Academy for Economic Studies, Bucharest) – however with very modest results – and two Hungarian ones (University of Debrecen, University of Nyíregyháza) respectively. This comparative approach – failing to include also a Slovenian institution (University of Maribor), as initially intended – could lead to interesting results covering a broader range.
Keywords: education during Covid-19 pandemic; online education; rate of school abandonment; students’ attitude related to remote education; effectiveness; future of education
