ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic has inevitably demonstrated the importance of the digital competence of each individual, both personally and socially. Apparently, emergency remote learning has revealed the total unpreparedness of many teachers and students to interact in the online format. Hence, the development of full-scale digital competence is perceived today as a must-have for all actors in the educational process. This goal requires careful and large-scale preparation. It is necessary to understand how modern students interpret the digitalization of education, how they perceive the current level of their digital competence development, and what they see as the reasons for "digital illiteracy"demonstrated by the educational process of the "covid era". This article presents a non-experimental study that aims to evaluate the digital competence of students in higher education and to identify the main obstacles to its efficient deepening and development. Descriptive research was designed using a mixed methodology. We worked with a sample of 431 students. A Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence in Europe, Questionnaire "Problems of Students' Involvement in Digital Socialization", and semi-structured interview were used for data collection. The results show a heterogeneous and rather conditional level of digital knowledge and skills influenced by the region of residence, family economics, cultural backgrounds, and conflicting motivation for the development of digital literacy, as well as the students' access to digital devices and software. The results achieved should be a cause for reflection in universities, in order to implement curricular programs that strengthen this type of skill. © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed nowadays life in every aspect so irreversibly that there is no doubt that the educational landscape must be continuously re-evaluated and revised. In this regard, particular emphasis is given to the issues of academic mobility and adaptation of foreign students. The aim of the study is to clarify a new understanding of the issues traditionally faced by foreign students in universities in the host country and to analyze new barriers that have arisen as a result of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper reports on a narrative research study exploring the experiences and perceptions of 42 first-year bachelor and master foreign students having come to Russia for the first time. Taking into account that human behaiviour can be predicted through language patterns, we analysed language features to compare the participants' rational and emotional perception of the barriers to adaptation highlighted from their narratives. The findings suggest that almost all issues traditionally faced by foreign students have received a new understanding or have changed their hierarchy in their perception. Contemporary challenges have also created new barriers to adaptation. Temporalities and restrictions in physical movement received special emphasis as an obstacle to adaptation of foreign students. In the context of the total transformation that awaits higher education after the end of the pandemic and its transition to a hybrid format, the results of this study can be used by academic developers to establish a system of foreign students' psychological adaptation.
ABSTRACT
Quick transformation of class activities to an online format in the middle of the term due to the pandemic of COVID-19 caused a lot of attention of educators worldwide. They stated that there is a difference between online learning (e-learning) and emergency remote learning', the main defining feature being their design. It was assumed that rapid transition to the new format of studying affected students and their attitude to studying, some of them having reported that their self-efficacy and motivation was affected by emergency remote learning. The main purpose of this study was to collect specific information about students' self-efficacy and motives that make them to continue studying and attend remote classes. This includes comparing the levels of self-efficacy of the same group before and after their transition to emergency remote learning. The sample of 75 students responded to the questionnaire devised to assess the level of self-efficacy and distinguish the motives to attend distance classes. The findings demonstrate that students' levels of self-efficacy in 2019 and 2020 are moderate. However, no statistically significant differences were found between the levels of self-efficacy of this group (z = 1.177). As a result, this group of students possesses the same level of self-efficacy before and during the emergency remote learning. The most reported motive to attend classes is pleasure of studying and desire to solve difficult tasks. © 2021 ACM.