Difficulties in the online educational context ‒ perception of students, parents and teachers

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the difficulties of distance education from the perspective of different actors of education (students, teachers, parents) in Serbia and to identify opportunities for overcoming or mitigating them. A qualitative research was conducted in primary and secondary schools in the wider area of Kragujevac, by interviewing students (N = 23; 7th and 8th grade of primary school and 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade of secondary schools), parents (N = 25) and teachers (N = 26). The research questions were aimed at assessing difficulties of all groups of respondents, and the obtained answers were analyzed by categories and presented within three topics: difficulties faced by respondents in the field of IT skills, learning difficulties caused by online teaching and communication difficulties among education actors. The results show that the most common difficulties are related to the organization of time and space for synchronous learning, lack of digital competencies (especially among “older teachers” and most parents), use of additional literature and learning materials, evaluation problems, as well as lack of physical activity. The most numerous and most important difficulties are the application of active learning and the realization of the expected achievements of students. The implications of the research show how to overcome or mitigate difficulties and thus improve distance and online learning and teaching, and make recommendations for post-COVID education based on these experiences.