ALTERATIONS IN PERCEPTION OF QUALITY OF ONLINE DELIVERY OF EDUCATION BY FIRST-YEAR PHYSIOTHERAPY STUDENTS

A. Fyllos¹, P. Kitixis¹, D. Cojocari¹, A. Kanellopoulos¹, C. Xanthi¹, A. Kotzamanidou¹, G. Stefoudis¹, Z. Deli¹, E. Kalilas¹, A. Zibis², N. Strimpakos¹

Background: Preventive measures applied to stop the spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus, have profoundly affected education, with Universities worldwide restricting campus-based teaching, and continuing courses through online resources.

Purpose: These circumstances led us to study the alterations in learning as perceived by first-year physiotherapy students, between two semesters. To this end, the class of kinesiology was chosen. The second semester was entirely taught online.

Methods: A 26-item questionnaire was designed, divided in two categories, with Likert response scale questions. The first category consisted of 10 general perception of academic life questions. The second category was specific for the quality of delivery of the class. Students were asked to fill the same questionnaire twice, for each semester. Students’ responses were compared with the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test on SPSS. Grades from the final exams in each semester were compared with paired samples Student’s t-test.

Results: Students appeared to be less interested in their studies in the second semester, with high satisfaction rates  (agreement 90.1% in the first semester vs 85.2% in the second, p=0.05). Students expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of online courses between semesters (p=0.03). Academic life fulfilment has also been affected (agreement = 62.2% in the first semester vs 47.6% in the second, p=0.02). Students’ perception of the amount of free time they had during both semesters did not change significantly (p=0.16).    Students appeared dissatisfied with the degree of their active participation during class in the second semester during online lectures (agreement = 54.1% in the first semester vs 39.3% in the second, p=0.007), even though they felt less stressed attending lectures from home (p=0.041). However, they found that workload was bearable and similar between semesters (p=0.83). Students also answered that they had significantly more trouble concentrating during online lectures from home (agreement = 82% in the first semester vs 46% in the second, p<0.001). Students’ grades significantly improved by an average of 1.07 (out of 10) in the final exams at the end of the second semester (p<0.001).

Conclusion(s): These unprecedented circumstances require innovation and cooperation on the part of university programs to maintain rigorous standards of higher education. Online assessment and education present their own challenges, both on the student front as presented in this study, and the faculty front.

Implications: Young adults, more than the rest, feel unhappy and agitated because they feel as if their life is “on hold”. An increase in free time was expected during the second semester since fewer commutes to the campus were required and less outdoor activities were permitted. However, constant email exchange with tutors and administration may have increased workload outside academic hours. Finally,  studying from home did not improve the ability to concentrate or offered any stress relief. The significant improvement of grades in the second semester could be attributed to online learning, although this conclusion clashes with students’ answers. Therefore, the scenarios of either students “cheating” due to less effective online supervision, or the professor subconsciously devising “easier” questions to help students in distress due to the pandemic are more likely.

Funding, acknowledgements: No funding was required for this study

Keywords: online education, covid-19, academic life

Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Greece

Committee: Internal Ethics committee of Department of Physiotherapy, University of Thessaly, Greece

Ethics number: 3/603/2020