The Quality of Virtual Learning at Farhangian Teacher Education University of Markazi Province during the Corona Epidemic from the Trainees and Trainers' Perspectives

Relying on e-learning in higher education is not a newly emerging phenomenon and has always been considered as a supplementary learning environment. But with the sudden outbreak of the Corona epidemic, the higher education system was shocked. Although the quality of this learning environment has been continuously assessed before, the main question is whether what was said before the Corona epidemic about the quality of e-learning and its capabilities is true in this era in which it is the only teaching and learning environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of virtual education provided at Farhangian University during the Corona epidemic by relying on measuring the attitudes of educators and students in different fields of study.

In this research, the sequential mixed method was used. In order to collect quantitative data, two separate questionnaires were used for educators and students, which contained 15 and 19 questions, respectively, which measured their attitudes based on a Likert scale of five options. The original version of the educators' questionnaire was developed by Dillon and McLean [39] and the questionnaire developed by Patriot et al.,[40] was used for the students. In this study, the statistical population consisted of 713 students and 89 educators working in Farhangian University of Markazi Province. Participants in this study were selected through convinient sampling method. The questionnaires were distributed among 317 students and 36 educators from the departments of elementary education, counseling, special children education, physical training, English language and Persian literature, theology and information technology. After data collection, one-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. In addition, to collect qualitative data, interview questions were designed based on the results of quantitative data analysis, followed by interviews with 22 students (14 women and 8 men) and 12 students (6 men and 6 women). One of the volunteer educators participated in the interview from the above-mentioned training groups. After recording the interview sessions and implementing it, they were coded and categorized.

It was shown that the educators of different educational disciplines had a positive attitude and high satisfaction with virtual education in this period and there was no difference between the educators of different educational departments in this regard. However, the results showed that students generally had a negative attitude and low satisfaction with virtual education and there was a significant difference between their attitudes according to their field of study. To find out the reasons for these findings, the researchers decided to conduct a semi-structured interview. After analyzing the content of qualitative data obtained from interviews with educators and students, relying on the method of guided qualitative content analysis, it was found that the factors related to the virtual and multimedia education environment as well as participatory learning in shaping educators' attitudes and students is important. Similarly, in addition to these factors, the third factor, which is related to independent learning, played a role in shaping their attitudes and their level of satisfaction with education.

This research showed how much educators and students can have different opinions. Because, while the educators participating in this study had a positive attitude and satisfaction with virtual education at Farhangian University, students generally had a negative attitude towards it during the corona epidemic. Based on the findings of this study, qualitative data, multimedia education tools and insufficient use of group and participatory education have been the main weaknesses and the main causes of negative attitudes and relative dissatisfaction of students, as well as content design and curriculum. Lack of encouragement for students to learn independently was another reason for this dissatisfaction. According to the results of this study, it is suggested that in order to implement virtual education optimally, in addition to knowledge and skills, teachers should have a positive attitude and firmly convey this attitude to students. In addition, it is necessary to have adequate monitoring of the factors of school users (teachers), ICT, interface design (virtual education system), management, human-organizational resource support and evaluation during the course.