Preferences For Studying Materials: What Has COVID-19 Changed

In a multimodal world the contact time between the teacher and the students is not always sufficient to ensure the effectiveness of the learning process. For the assimilation of concepts, students often endeavor on a search for the materials that best suit their learning needs. With the application of new technologies in teaching, study materials and support platforms are increasingly abundant and diverse. Additionally, recommendation algorithms overwhelm students with several options, sometimes hard to resist and select, especially after the COVID-19 restrictions, where the amount of connected time as increased. In this context, it is important for the teacher, to know which methods and materials the students use when they are autonomously developing their knowledge and skills. A survey was conducted within a group of engineering students at a Portuguese higher education institution with the main goal of characterizing the study habits and the materials that students. The obtained results are here reported and analyzed and compared with previous results from pre-pandemic study.