Student perceptions of emergency remote civil engineering pedagogy

Strengths and Weaknesses of Emergency Remote Teaching in Higher Education From the Students’ Perspective: The Portuguese Case

“…Regarding the assessments, in particular, students set out their disapproval of the online assessments and the impact on their grades, particularly with multiple-choice tests, which were seen as more difficult and unfair. These corroborate the literature in what concerns the influence of the online assessments methodology on the students' perception of ERT (Flores et al, 2021;Maraqa et al, 2021;Pettigrew and Howes, 2022). In addition, time management difficulties, with students' feeling overwhelmed with the academic homework, were another weakness of this experience, aligned with previous research (Hensley et al, 2021;Ozfidan et al, 2021;Parker et al, 2021).…”

“…Bisht et al (2020) also concluded that female students were keener to adopt online education in terms of assignments, study patterns, and comfort. However, Maraqa et al (2021) found that male students were more inclined to online learning than female students, and Flores et al (2021) did not find significant differences in gender concerning the adaptation to online learning among Portuguese high students. Concerning other sociodemographic factors, according to the study by Todri et al (2021), the distance learning experience is more appropriate for those who have a job, and according to the study by Aristovnik et al (2020), the applied sciences students (being a more practical course) are the ones significantly unsatisfied with ERT.…”

“…Flores et al (2021) pointed out that students generally consider assessments as a negative factor in online learning, as they are more difficult, unfair, and more susceptible to fraud. According to the study by Maraqa et al (2021), the nature and methodology of online assessments influenced the student perception as regards remote learning.…”

“…As technical infrastructure is a prerequisite for ensuring adequate distance learning, either from the HEIs or the students, this is a further element stressed by the literature as of the most important to a successful students' adaptation to online education, and commonly appointed as a weakness aspect of the ERT given the lack of basic issues, which directly impacted the classes quality and effectiveness, such as equipment (e.g., computers, laptops, or tablets) and reliable Internet (Coman et al, 2020;Favale et al, 2020;Gonçalves et al, 2020;Huang et al, 2020;Liguori and Winkler, 2020;Marinoni et al, 2020;Flores et al, 2021;Maraqa et al, 2021;Ozfidan et al, 2021;Treve, 2021;Zalat et al, 2021). The World Bank (2020) identified these as infrastructure challenges faced by the HEIs and students in the online learning process.…”

“…The World Bank (2020) identified these as infrastructure challenges faced by the HEIs and students in the online learning process. Regarding the necessary conditions to have online classes, the lack of a suitable workspace is also pointed out by students as limiting their learning ability (Gillis and Krull, 2020;Maraqa et al, 2021).…”