ONLINE EDUCATION THROUGH THE EYES OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Abstract

The Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic was during the pandemic forced to interrupt face-to-face teaching in all schools from kindergarten to university and switch to online education. Even the universities were not prepared for this form of education, as few universities offered study programs in which it was possible to study either in a combined or in an online form. As part of the empirical investigation, the aim was to map the opinions of university students with specific needs and analyzes their experiences with online education. The findings resulting from the investigation of the involved 83 respondents indicate that online education had many advantages and disadvantages for students with specific needs. The most frequently mentioned advantages were recordings from lectures and seminars, teachers were more accommodating, had better communication during consultations, feelt more comfortable in the home environment. There were also negative answers, such as social isolation, technical problems, lack of practice, exercises, problems to concentrate, deterioration of health, unattractive online teaching, reduced time for writing tests.