Experience of Online Education for Students in Hungary

Abstract

The March 2020 epidemic in Europe required a shift to online education at all levels of education. Many teachers were caught unprepared, compounded by a lack of the necessary hardware tools and a lack of mastery in selecting and managing software that supports teaching properly. For the second wave in autumn 2020, educational institutions were better prepared in Hungary and universities had already experienced hybrid education to some extent. Now, after the third wave, a lot of experience has been gathered from both the teaching and student sides. Based on the students' experiences, we analyse how they would like to listen to lectures, practicals and labs at university. The results of the analysis show that students are open to online learning for lectures, but still prefer face-to-face classes for tutorials and labs. The students' views will help to inform the way in which higher education institutions should deliver courses at the end of the pandemic period, which will also help to rationalise the way universities operate in the future in Hungary.