3.4. Conclusions

Another common question was about the usage of platforms out of school purposes. YouTube videos, Google and Virtual Reality softwares were tools that students used the most. On the other hand, the majority of lecturers (94.5 percent) use Microsoft Teams platform, and Skype is the second most commonly used platform (by 68.5 percent of academic respondents). Zoom meetings was indicatef to be used by approximately 59 percent of respondents; Moodle, Hangout, and Meet are used between 25 – 45 percent of academic staff.

3.4. Conclusions

The results of this chapter show several indicators that the D-COLLAB project should consider when defining the upcoming intellectual outputs. Students and teachers can perceive and understand the benefits of online learning, but the combination with face-to-face courses (hybrid approach) can create a productive, helpful and fruitful experience for both students and lecturers. It is strongly recommended not only for pedagogical purposes but also for improving physical interaction and communication with the teacher and colleagues and for the social perspective of being part of a (class) community (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021; Badar, Mason & Flood, 2020). The fact that a noteworthy group of the sample does not profer distance learning and teaching, but they still believe that it is important, especially nowadays, to highlight the technical problems that have arisen during the pandemic period – i.e., downloading errors, installation issues, login issues, audio and video problems, lack of knowledge, guidance, connection problems, accessibility, affordability, flexibility, etc. (Murgatrotd, 2020; Maatuk et al., 2021; Doraisamy, 2021). However, in order to for the lectures to be effective, the lectures have to be well managed and the educational material well prepared. The academic staff should be educated, via trainings, workshops to improve their knowledge in using online technological tools, to be prepared to respond under different circumstances, while keeping the same quality of the educational level (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021; Badar, Mason & Flood, 2020); this contributes to students' preference for faceto-face education. Regarding the technical part of the survey, a high percentage of students prefer using their smartphones during the online courses because they are more confident and more effortless to participate in an educational platform. However, there are plenty of issues and barriers aroused during the pandemic, such as poor quality of internet services, and of course, content, access to digital devices/tools, lack of parental guidance, low-quality of presentations,

video and audio malfunctioning, difficulties on sharing files etc. (Maatuk et al. 2021; Subedi et al., 2020) affecting their motivation in the online learning experience. Another outcome of the survey is the attractiveness of teaching, which we can examine from various perspectives. Due to the lack of the teachers' digital knowledge and experiences, and in effort to keep the quality of the educational level at a high level, as it was before the pandemic, created shortcomings and gaps in the adaptation of online educational material. As a result, students had problems understanding and following the lectures, losing their interest and motivation. Students suggested in the survey that interaction can be implemented through small group activities or individual assignments rather than extensive group activities, which can play a significant role in the participation in the online courses. Moreover, they mentioned that resources, documentation, tutorials, videos, and other relevant material should be prepared by the teachers and shared to help and improve the students' technological interaction and enrich the quality of the educational content. An important fact emerges from the analysed data and is interrelated with the above mentioned – the personalization of each student's learning procedure, which leads to the involvement in the interactive educational experience. The most significant factor in online learning is the personalization of interaction learning procedure between the teacher-student, student-platform, and student-student in a way that can help, motivate, educate, encourage, support, and cover students' needs. At the same time, the personalization of interaction between teacher-platform and teacher-student is also important, so all the issues and barriers that affect students also concern teachers. Future steps and work could enrich the current survey, providing in-depth analysis of data around the technological interaction of educators and learners – for example, regarding the devices used by students during the pandemic period, they can be divided into sub-questions such as the number of students that use smartphones as the main device and tool for digital learning or how often students use them during lectures or seminars. Furthermore, concerning the student's preferences for face-to-classes, it would be helpful to explore the reasons for this situation, or for the students that do not have any preference, it will be interesting to investigate the factors for their choice. Finally, from the technical perspective, extending the questions will provide more feedback about the teachers' and students' ICT levels, how they can be adapted to new educational platforms, how teachers cope with the high workload, or how to manage the criticism that academics often receive from students regarding the dysfunctional way of teaching.

We would like to express our very great appreciation to Mrs Evangelia Vanezi for her valuable and constructive contributions and suggestions in the authoring of this chapter. Her willingness to give her time so generously has been very much appreciated.

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