Distant Learning during Covid-19 Epidemic

Abstract

During the academic year 2020-2021 Universities in the Netherlands were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. All real life lectures were replaced by distant learning. It was expected that during the academic year new innovative ways of digital teaching-learning have been developed. But it proved that most teachers used classical web-lectures to teach their classes. Even though students have access to learning material any time and any place, current tools for e-learning still have their limitations. The main shortcoming, compared to real life learning is the limited opportunity for human like interaction between student, teacher and material. Another problem is that web-lectures are self-paced programs, offered asynchronously. They allow students to take the course anytime, anywhere. This is an advantage for some students, but others miss the self-control to take and complete courses. They miss the social control of peer students and teachers. It proves that about 25% of students of Universities in the Netherlands suffer from burnout symptoms at the end of the academic year. These students suffered from feelings of loneliness, unhappiness, stress, nervousness, having a negative effect on their well-being sometimes resulting in a burn-out or depression. In this paper we report about a MOOC based on serious gaming technology, stimulating interaction and cooperation between participants.