Factors that negatively influence students’ transition from the traditional classroom to emergency remote education (ERT)

Universities worldwide had to adopt Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This abrupt change forced students used to face-to-face classes to adapt to a new reality. However, this transition is different for each student because of personal realities. For example, the student’s generation, emotional state, and some factors (e.g., tech skills, technological infrastructure, place of study, and perspectives regarding this change) may influence the feelings of optimism and awareness of learning. This work describes a quantitative study conducted before the first ERT academic semester starts with 1011 undergraduate students measuring those factors through questionnaires. In addition, to test whether the measuring factors are consistent with our understanding, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the statistical reliability analyses were performed. From the results, we identified differences between the participants’ age generations. The mean scores for the Z generation were lower than other generations concerning the measuring factors and feelings. Plus, it was found that students’ emotional states negatively influence their feelings about ERT. Also, the measuring factors influence optimism and awareness of learning. Therefore, we suggest that institutions around the globe should offer innovative distance learning strategies to train the students for this paradigm shift, identify the students’ needs for the Internet and devices, and provide psychologists to aid the student’s emotional state. Thus, helping a better and faster transition and adaptation of students to the change of educational methodology to improve students’ experience in distance education.