The COVID-19 Impact on Online Education – Opportunities and Challenges in a SWOT Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31261/IJREL.2021.7.2.03Keywords:
Online Education, COVID-19, SWOT, Opportunities, ChallengesAbstract
The outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic are having an impact on all areas, with the educational sector being one of the most impacted sectors to be taken into account. The purpose of this article is to identify the main opportunities and challenges of online education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, through a selective bibliography providing advice on information sources, and databases. The research methodology was achieved by performing a systematic literature review of what exists on subject, in order to retrieve the main categories for a SWOT analysis, from the points of view of teachers, students and the parents themselves.
Finally, it attempts to cover the main contributors to the study domain. For each weakness and challenge, teachers and students can create an opportunity in online learning.
The authors also have seen that this type of education is providing a great environment for learning innovation and to face-to-face teaching.
References
Adedoyin, O., & Soykan, E. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic and online learning: The challenges and opportunities. Interactive Learning Environments, 114(1), 1‒13.
Alim, A., Rahmayanti, H., Husen, A., Ichsan, I., Marhento, G., Alamsyah, M., Susilo, Babu, R., Udhaya, M. & Rahman, M. (2020). Environmental disaster education at university: An overview in new normal of COVID-19. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Studies, 2(8), 714‒718.
Almaiah, M. A., Al-Khasawneh, A., & Althunibat, A. (2020). Exploring the critical challenges and factors influencing the E-learning system usage during COVID-19 pandemic. Education and information technologies. 22 May. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10639-020-10219-y (20/03/2021)
Alsheikhidris, M. (2020). Challenges for moving Chinese language courses online. Education Quarterly Reviews, 3(3), 300‒312.
Aydemir, D. & Ulusu, N. (2020). Commentary: Challenges for PHD students during COVID-19 pandemic: Turning crisis into an opportunity. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 48(5), 428‒429.
Bayram, A (2020). Analysis of University Students’ opinions on the COVID-19 process and the distance education method applied in this process: The sample of mus Alparsian University. African Educational Research Journal, 8(2), 344‒352.
Beech, N. & Anseel, F. (2020). COVID-19 and its impact on management research and education: Threats, opportunities and a manifesto. British Journal of Management, 31(3), 447‒449.
Bird, C. & Bhardwaj, H. (2020). From Crisis to Opportunity: Rethinking Education in the Wake of COVID-19, Child & Youth Services, 41(3), 228‒230.
Bodenheimer, M. & Leidenberger, J. (2020). COVID-19 as a window of opportunity for sustainability transitions? Narratives and communication strategies beyond the pandemic. Sustainability: Science, Practice & Policy, 16(1), 61‒66.
Brammer, S. & Clark, T. (2020). COVID-19 and management education: Reflections on challenges, opportunities, and potential futures. British Journal of Management, 31(3), 453‒456.
Cheng, X. (2020). Challenges of “school’s out, but class’s on” to school education: Practical exploration of Chinese schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Science education Frontiers, 5(2), 501‒516.
Crosby, S., Howell, P. & Thomas, S. (2020). Teaching through collective trauma in the era of COVID-19: Trauma-informed practices for middle level learners. Middle Grades Review, 6(2), 1‒7.
Dias, M., Almodóvar, M., Atiles, J., Vargas, A., Zúñiga, L. & Irma, M. (2020). Rising to the challenge: Innovative early childhood teachers adapt to the COVID-19 era. Childhood Education, 96(6), 38‒45.
Dobrila, M. (2020). Legal aspects regarding online learning process for students at university and digital education in European Union: Different life, challenges and the ability to continue education during the pandemic caused by Coronavirus (COVID-19). Romanian Journal for Multidimensional Education. Supplement, 12(1), 130‒137.
eLearning Inside (2021). How COVID-19 Has Changed Education and How to Adapt. eLearning Inside, 08 January. Retrieved from https://news.elearninginside.com/how-covid-19-haschanged-education-and-how-to-adapt/ (25/03/2021)
Escobar, P. & Morrison, A. (2020). Online teaching placement during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile: Challenges and opportunities. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 587‒607.
Govender, P., Naidoo, D. & Van, W. (2020). A 3Ts (teaching in trouble times) response to COVID-19 in South Africa. The Clinical Teacher, 17(4), 427‒429.
Hammersley, M. (2020). Reflections on the Methodological Approach of Systematic Reviews. In: Zawacki-Richter O., Kerres M., Bedenlier S., Bond M., Buntins K. (eds). Systematic Reviews in Educational Research. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-27602-7_2
He, W., Zhang, Z. & Li, W. (2021). Information technology solutions, challenges, and suggestions for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Information Management. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33318721/ (24/03/2021)
Hodges, L. & Martin, A., (2020). Enriching work-integrated learning students´ opportunities online during a global pandemic (COVID-19). International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 21(4), 415‒423.
Hodges, T., Kerch, C. & Fowler, M. (2020). Teacher Education in the time of COVID-19: Creating digital networks as university-school-family partnerships. Middle Grades Review, 6(2), 1‒10.
Huang, J. (2020). Successes and challenges: Online teaching and learning of chemistry in higher education in China in the time of COVID-19. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(9), 2810‒2814.
Hut, R., Pols, C. & Verschuur, D. (2020). Teaching a hands-on course during Corona lockdown: From problems to opportunities. Physics Education, 55(6), 065022.
Kamsker, S., Janschitz, G. & Monitzerm S. (2020). Digital transformation and Higher education: A survey on the digital competences of learners to develop higher education teaching. International Journal for Business Education, 160(1), 22‒41.
Kitchenham, B., & Charters, S. (2007). Guidelines for performing systematic literature reviews in software engineering. EBSE 2007-001. (Joint Report). Keele University and Durham University.
Retrieved from: http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~laemmel/esecourse/slides/slr.pdf (08/04/2021)
Kushni, S., Sudji, M. & Mochamad-Bruri, T. (2020). Students ‘perceptions toward vocational education on online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Internacional Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 9(4), 881‒886.
Longhurst, G., Stone, D., Dulohery, K., Scully, D., Campbell, T. & Smith, C. (2020). Strengh, weakness, opportunity, threat (SWOT) analysis of the adaptations to anatomical education in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Anatomical Sciences Education, 13(2), 301‒311.
Milovanovic, A., Kostic, M., Zoric, A., Dordevic, A., Pesic, M., Bugarski, J., Todorovic, D., Sokolovic, N. & Josifovski, A. (2020). Transferring COVID-19 challenges into learning potentials: Online workshops in architectural education. Sustainability, 12(17), 1‒21.
Molchanova, E., Kovtoniuk, K. & Savych, O. (2020). COVID-19 presents new challenges and opportunities to higher education. Romanian Journal for Multidimensional education. Supplement S1, 12(2), 168‒174.
Okoli, C., & Schabram, K. (2010). A guide to conducting a systematic literature review of information systems research. Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems, 10(26).
Okoli, C. (2015). A Guide to Conducting a Standalone Systematic Literature Review. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 37 (43), 879–910.
Openo, J. (2020). Education´s response to the COVID-19 pandemic reveals online education´s three enduring challenges. Canadian Journal of Learning & Technology, 46(2), 1‒13.
Piotrowski, C. & King, C. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic: Challenges and implications for higher education. Education, 141(2), 61‒66.
Rajendran, D.K., Rajagopal, V. & Alagumanian, S. (2020). Systematic literature review on novel corona virus SARS-CoV-2: a threat to human era. VirusDiseare, 31(2), 161‒173.
Reis, T. & Grady, M. (2020). Doctoral advising in COVID-19: Opportunity for change. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Higher Education, 5(1), 136‒140.
Resnick, B., Mui, P., Bowie, J., Kanchanaraksa, S., Golub, E. & Sharfstein, J. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic: An opportunity to transform higher education in public health. Public Health Reports, 136(1), 23‒26.
Sá, M. & Serpa, S. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to foster the sustainable development of teaching in higher education. Sustainability, 12, 8252.
Smith, C. (2020). Challenges and opportunities for teaching students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Higher Education, 5, 167‒173.
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 14, 333–339.
Tranfield, D., Denyer, D. & Smart, P. (2003). Towards a methodology for developing evidenceinformed management knowledge by means of systematic review. British Journal of Management, Vol. 14, 207‒222.
Tseng, C. & Chen, T. (2020). Impact of web-based teaching on the learning performance of education and training in the service industry during COVID-19. Contemporary Educational Technology, 12(8525), 277.
Yang, B. & Huang, C. (2020). Turn crisis into opportunity in response to COVID-19: Experience from a Chinese university and future prospects. Studies in Higher Education, 46(1), 121‒132.
World Health Organization (WHO). (2020). Archived: WHO Timeline ‒ COVID-19. 17 April. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news/item/27-04-2020-who-timeline---covid-19 (18/01/21)
Xie, X., Siau, K. & Fui-Hoon Nah, F. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic - Online education in the new normal and the next normal. Journal of Information Technology Case an Application Research, 22(3), 175‒187.
Zhao, N., Zhou, X., Liu, B. & Liu, W. (2020). Guiding teaching strategies with the education platform during the COVID-19 epidemic: Taking GuiYang No. 1 Middle school teaching practice as an example. Science Insights Education Frontiers, 5(2), 531‒539.
Zhao, Y., Watterston, J. (2021). The changes we need: Education post COVID-19. Journal of Educational Change, 22(1), 3‒12.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The Copyright Owners of the submitted texts grant the Reader the right to use the pdf documents under the provisions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International License: Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY SA). The user can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose.
1. License
The University of Silesia Press provides immediate open access to journal’s content under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of the above-mentioned CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
2. Author’s Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author/s, has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author/s.
If the article contains illustrative material (drawings, photos, graphs, maps), the author declares that the said works are of his authorship, they do not infringe the rights of the third party (including personal rights, i.a. the authorization to reproduce physical likeness) and the author holds exclusive proprietary copyrights. The author publishes the above works as part of the article under the licence "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International".
ATTENTION! When the legal situation of the illustrative material has not been determined and the necessary consent has not been granted by the proprietary copyrights holders, the submitted material will not be accepted for editorial process. At the same time the author takes full responsibility for providing false data (this also regards covering the costs incurred by the University of Silesia Press and financial claims of the third party).
3. User Rights
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) the article for any purpose, provided they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
4. Co-Authorship
If the article was prepared jointly with other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.
I hereby declare that in the event of withdrawal of the text from the publishing process or submitting it to another publisher without agreement from the editorial office, I agree to cover all costs incurred by the University of Silesia in connection with my application.
