Studying physics during the COVID-19 pandemic: Student perceptions on synchronous and asynchronous course formats and implications for the future

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: L. Ivanjek
• Author: P. Klein
• Author: M.-A. Geyer
• Author: S. Küchemann
• Author: K. Jeličić
• Author: M. N. Dahlkemper
• Author: A. Susac
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Science; (Department of Physics)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: NATURAL SCIENCES; Physics

Abstract (english)

To investigate how physics students perceived the sudden shift to online learning at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, 18 semistructured interviews were conducted with university students in Austria, Croatia, and Germany. Based on the interviews, a questionnaire was developed and data from N=578 physics students from five universities in Germany, Austria, and Croatia were gathered. In this paper, we report how students perceived synchronous and asynchronous physics lessons, how their perception correlates with their self-organization skills, which activities and teaching methods were perceived as helpful, and what are the implications for future physics courses. The most common advantages of synchronous course elements reported by students were the possibility to immediately ask questions, the feeling of community and interaction with other students, and the defined daily structure, whereas the most common advantages of asynchronous course elements reported were flexible time management and the possibility to watch videos at their own pace. The data indicate a correlation between preference for synchronous courses and their general self-organization, so instructors should be aware of this connection when planning future courses. Face-to-face lectures at university were perceived as the most helpful course element, followed by the recorded lectures from the instructor and the group work on the assignments, projects, and problems with other students. Furthermore, our results suggest that most students would in the future like to preserve the upload of learning materials and recorded video of the lectures in addition to classroom lectures. Overall, the results of this study suggest that both synchronous and asynchronous course elements should be combined in future online and in-person physics courses.

• Keywords (english): COVID-19 pandemic; online learning; synchronous physics lessons; asynchronous physics lessons
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review - international
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: Physical Review Physics Education Research
• Numbering: vol. 18, no. 2, 020149
• e-ISSN: 2469-9896
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.020149
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:217:688395
• Publication: 2022-12-28
• Document URL: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.020149
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Public note: Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Received 23 December 2021; accepted 1 July 2022; published 28 December 2022.
• Created on: 2024-08-03 10:21:13