Emergency remote teaching in Russia: exploring the views of undergraduate language education students

Abstract

Introduction. In the wake of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, universities around the world had been forced to urgently switch to emergency remote teaching (ERT) to ensure the health safety of students and staff. This situation revealed various problems, e.g., insufficient level of information infrastructure, the lack of online resources for learning, and the unwillingness of instructors to use digital educational platforms. The aim of this survey study was to explore how undergraduate students of language education programs in Russia perceived the process of transition to the ERT amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding difficulties and benefits. Materials and methods. The task force (inclusive of the two authors of this paper) of the Kalmyk State University developed the questionnaire “Attitudes of students to emergency remote teaching,” which was used in an online survey of 98 undergraduate students enrolled in five language education programs. The survey response rate was calculated to eliminate the non-response bias. Visualization of the obtained data was conducted using donut and pie charts, as well as a line graph. Results. It was found that 52,93% of the surveyed students had a positive impression about their learning amid the ERT. At the same time, the shift to the ERT reportedly did not alter the ideas about education among 47,90% of the respondents. If they were given a choice, 49,68% of the students would like to have a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning. About 60% of the surveyed students noted that most instructors were proficient in technology at a level sufficient for effective remote teaching. More than half of the respondents (57,17%) named technical issues, e.g., Internet speed, poor connection quality, as major difficulties during the ERT. Among the advantages were named the opportunity to study in a comfortable environment (48,52%), saving time and money on commuting (43,84%), expansion of available resources and tools (43,02%), inter alia. The most popular answers regarding disadvantages of the ERT are the lack of student life and personal communication with other students (39,37%) and a large amount of independent work (32,62%). Conclusion. Language students in Russia were mostly positive about emergency distance teaching. Difficulties during emergency distance learning were related to low self-regulation, the unreliable nature of technology, and the lack of a suitable learning environment. The psychological difficulties the students encountered during this time may have interfered with their socialization and require further consideration in research.