AN INTERCULTURAL COMPARATIVE STUDY: ROMANIA AND JAPAN. STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF ONLINE TEACHING EXPERIENCE AND LEARNING PRACTICE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

Abstract

The present article examines and compares the perceptions of online teaching experience and learning practice in students from Romania and Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly impacted how university classes have taken place worldwide in the last two years. Furthermore, our purpose was to examine the challenges experienced by students as a result of transitioning from traditional face-to-face classes to online learning. Questions arise from examining to what extent the students’ cultures have affected their perceptions of the online teaching and learning process and if there are any substantial differences in the students’ feedback regarding various online learning applications which have been used in class or otherwise tested for the first time during this study. The originality of our approach lies in conducting a comparative study to analyze the perceptions of Romanian and Japanese students regarding the educational process during the pandemic. According to our knowledge and extensive research, no other similar research has been conducted or published until this moment on this topic. Furthermore, we would like to emphasize that we have investigated the students' perceptions regarding online teaching during the pandemic by conducting the interviews in their native languages: Romanian for Romanian students and Japanese for Japanese students. Another original aspect of the current study is testing the feedback of the two groups of participants regarding various digital tools and apps used for educational purposes: the ones who have used the apps for a long time or for the Japanese students who tried these digital tools for the first time. The findings revealed that the Romanian and Japanese students had encountered different challenges in terms of mental health, financial issues, worrying prospects, or varying technical problems, which correspond to a large extent to the profiles of their countries.