Barriers during distance learning in a pandemic time from the aspect of Serbian secondary school students

Abstract

During the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, the whole world faced numerous issues in regard to an urgent response that was needed in all areas of society. Education is one of the fields that has faced the biggest changes as well as problems caused by the transfer of learning from the real world to the virtual environment. The aim of this research is to examine the barriers that students encountered during the implementation of distance learning. The research was conducted on a sample of 424 high school students using an especially designed instrument that included 40 potential barriers. By using factor analysis, the barriers in distance learning were identified and grouped into nine dominant factors: socio-emotional, content-related, communication and support, technical skills, assessment, technical conditions, administrative, organizational, and cheating on tests. The ranking of the selected factors showed that in our sample the most common barriers were cheating on tests and assessment, while technical skills were the least common barrier. The obtained results point to significant pedagogical implications in the field of didactic-methodological education and teacher professional development, but also to the need to empower them to engage in cooperative and team work.