Emergency Blended Synchronous Learning Model during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted various aspects of our lives causing economic, social and psychological challenges all around the world. A sector that immediately responded to this unprecedented change was education, which migrated to online platforms. This study explored the attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of a group of students participating in an emergency blended synchronous learning model during the pandemic in Northern Cyprus. The study adopted a qualitative study by surveying a group of 68 undergraduate students’ experiences through analysing their reflective accounts regarding the instructional mode of education that they received over the fall academic semester in 2020. The results of the study indicated that the new mode of instruction adopted in the context of the study not only presented technological, social, and psychological challenges for the students but also provided them with various learning opportunities and options during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of the study offer some implications for the use of technology in education in general and language teaching in particular.

Keywords:

• emergency blended synchronous learning model
• challenges
• opportunities
• options
• language teaching
• English