STUDENT ASSESSMENT FROM THE FACULTY OF “PUBLIC HEALTH, HEALTHCARE AND SPORTS” SOUTH-WEST UNIVERSITY “NEOPHIT RILSKY” ON THE ONLINE TRAINING

The COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on human behavior and everyday life. One of the most characteristic post-COVID effects that has occurred is the increasingly imposed digital communication in all public and personal spheres. Higher education institutions stopped the face-to-face form of education and switched to online education. Digital literacy was required for university teachers and students to use online platforms. For large part of the students this process was easier due to their almost daily presence in the Internet space, use of various communicative social networks and applications. For the teachers, it became necessary to adapt the teaching material for application in an environment, to prepare in a short period of time to move to a different learning environment and to overcome the existing deficits for teaching in an online environment, to develop different forms of testing, to use webinars as a means of synchronous learning. The purpose of the present study is to examine the opinion of the students from the Faculty of Public Health, Health Care and Sport, South-West University „Neofit Rilski“-Blagoevgrad for the quality of online education. An anonymous survey was conducted among students of medical and non-medical specialties – nursing, midwifery, kinesiotherapy, speech therapy and social work. The results show that part of the students accept the online training as effective in terms of the theoretical material, but all of the them express a definite opinion about conducting hands-on training. Students expect from teachers more attractive methods, more time for direct dialogue and discussions. The technical problems in implementing online learning and the difficulties experienced by both students and teachers are reported. The technical problems in implementing online learning and the difficulties experienced by both students and teachers are reported. The obtained results show that both countries are facing a number of problems in the digital reality rethinking the traditional way of teaching.