Survey results say that students don’t know how they will finish their research projects

Important | 2020-03-23

Through March 16-19th KTU Students Association ran a survey, during which students could give their feedback about learning in a virtual space. It was noted that most of the students up to this point haven’t had any online lectures. That is why there is a lot of uncertainty whether all of the resources needed for studying are going to be online. The final year students had the most questions of all. A lot of them have lost the ability to work on their final projects and do the needed research.

Because of all of this, on March 23rd suggestions and recommendations from KTU Students’ Association were given to the rector about remote education that is going to take place in a virtual space.

One of the main platforms used for studying at home is Moodle, which is meant to guarantee that all essential information would be accessible online. But a lot of students have stated that not all of the modules have information posted on Moodle and in turn they have no way to get information from lectures online. This problem is most prevalent for the students of the faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

Another important aspect is the accessibility of remote learning tools: software and laboratory equipment, books that cannot be taken home, personal computers which students will have to use during remote learning. At least 6% of participants claimed that they lack physical equipment for studying at home (a personal computer that does not meet the minimum software requirements, laboratory equipment, internet connection). Also, because they don’t have the licenses to the software they need, they won’t be able to do lab work properly or will have to use the software illegally.

Perhaps the biggest confusion prevails among the final year students who are completing their internships and final projects. While most of the students surveyed say that the company/institution gives them the opportunity to work from home, thus protecting the student from potential virus threats, another problem arises: students in companies/institutions doing the research needed for the final thesis lose their ability to further develop their project. The same is with the University laboratories, which are currently inaccessible. A significant number of students say they would like to postpone the defences of final projects due to the inability to prepare their theses.

In a study on remote learning conducted by KTU Students’ Association, 2500 undergraduate and graduate students from nine KTU faculties expressed their views.

The systematic survey data can be found here (in Lithuanian only).