COVID-19 pandemic had a major adverse impact on the lives of people and societies over the past two years, particularly in the educational sector. Public health measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education in over 150 countries and affected 1.6 billion students [1]. The lockdowns imposed on several countries forced many children and young people to migrate from face-to-face education to distance learning. Strictly speaking, this was not distance learning, i.e., “well-planned online learning experience”, but rather emergency remote learning, “courses offered online in response to a crisis” [2].

The pandemic situation inspired many studies and reports on education in times of lockdown. Much literature focused policy responses devised in this period [3, 4], highlighting the idea that educational inequalities have increased considerably with the disruption caused by the various lockdowns [5, 6]. Some authors have looked at pedagogical issues and teaching practices associated with distance learning [3], focusing on teachers’ perspectives [8], mainly at the school level.

Comparatively fewer studies have looked at the perspective of young students and analysed how they have adapted to distance learning. The reason for this gap may be the assumption that young people would not have difficulties migrating to this type of education because they are considered “digital natives” [9].

In fact, the literature indicates that young people are intensive users of digital technologies [10], and digital practices underpin the intense mediated experience prevalent in the everyday lives of these so-called “digital natives”. Navigating in this ubiquitous environment changes the way students think and process information [9].

In contrast, conventional face-to-face teaching in secondary and tertiary education is largely structured in sequential times and contents, delivered step-by-step, and undertaken in rigid spaces.

The shift to online learning imposed by the lockdowns represented an opportunity to change this paradigm, bringing teaching closer to the online environment familiar to young people. One might expect students to prefer this move to online learning. However, research conducted these past two years on online learning during lockdown converges on a common trait: students generally do not like the virtual learning experience they have been forced to enter [3, 11, 12]. There seems to be a paradox here: young digital natives, avid users of technology (although mostly for leisure purposes) claim to prefer face-to-face teaching to distance learning. It matters then to examine the reasons behind this preference, beyond the issues of emergency limitations to teaching in disaster contexts

Based on the results of one online survey applied in the second lockdown period in Portugal (February 2021), this contribution seeks to determine what young respondents (16–24 years old) think about their experiences of attending classes from home. More specifically, the proposal aims to delve into young students’ perceptions and experience with remote education; and to investigate expectations of academic life postponed or frustrated during this period.

This communication is empirically based on an extensive online survey undertaken by the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa) [7], applied between 11 and 25 February 2021 during a second extended lockdown in Portugal, following a particularly critical period in epidemiological terms. It explores one of the topics of the questionnaire — the impact of the lockdown on young student’s lives and their experiences with distance learning—and draws on the questions (closed and open-ended) formulated in the survey on this issue. The questionnaire was subject to ethics approval by the Ethics Committee of the Institute (ICS) and required respondents to give their informed consent prior to filling in the form. It was distributed through the Qualtrics platform. The sample obtained is a “snowball” sample: the survey was initially shared through the social networks Facebook and Twitter and email among a non-random sample of individuals, and was then shared by the respondents who wished to do so. This is a convenience sample, restricted to respondents who have access to the internet, which does not allow generalisations to be made. Thus, all results presented in this proposal have a strictly exploratory value. This proposal focuses on the sub-sample of young students aged 16–24 (1009 individuals, 13% of the total sample). In this group, girls are largely over-represented (73%). In turn, young teenagers (16–18 years old), many of them still secondary school students, are much less present in this sample (#38) compared to young adults (19–24 years old), who make up the majority of these respondents (#971). The set of socio-economic indicators allows us to conclude that this sample is socially biased, as it concerns a relatively privileged young population. In fact, in terms of household income before the pandemic, the majority of respondents (56.4%) indicate that it allowed them to “live comfortably” or to “live reasonably” (37.2%). Only a small proportion of the sample states “it being difficult” (6.0%) or even “very difficult” (0.3%) to live on the family income. We conducted a descriptive statistical analysis of the closed questions and developed a thematic categorical analysis of the written responses, in the case of the open-ended questions.

The data collected revealed, in general, that there were no difficulties in accessing equipment or internet connection to attend online classes. Respondents also reported no difficulties in using digital media and in adapting to remote learning platforms, which is in line with Prensky’s theses about young “digital natives’” skills. However, this does not mean a positive adherence to the “emergency remote learning” put in place following the lockdown. For some students surveyed, this solution brought some sense of planning and organisation to their lives during these troubled times. The online classes helped them to create a routine that provided security and a sense of control of the situation, in the face of the external chaos. However, this was not the feeling experienced by most young students. Despite being “digital natives” and intensive consumers of ICTs [10], they seemed to dislike this online learning modality. The youth experience of communication through digital media is based on permanent connection and feedback, fast information exchange and multi-tasking, and involves an emotional investment. This seems to contrast with their online learning experience. Many complained that this distance learning is the mere reproduction of face-to-face classes (spending hours watching presentations on the screen) and complained about the excessive duration of the classes, the workload required, and the suspension of practical, experimental or internship classes, which it is difficult to transfer directly to the digital medium. The mismatch between teaching practice and the medium of communication used is certainly one of the causes of the displeasure with this “emergency remote teaching” that many young people express. However, this is not the only reason. Based on young people’s perspectives, this study sheds light on other aspects, namely those related to the broader student experience, such as socialisation and participation, well beyond the academic dimension.

1.Munoz-Najar, A.; Gilberto, S.; Hasan, A.G.; Hasan, A.; Romani, J.C.; Azevedo, J.P.W. de; Akmal, M. Remote Learning During COVID-19: Lessons from Today, Principles for Tomorrow; World Bank Group: Washington, DC, USA, 2022. 2.Hodges, C.; Moore, S.; Lockee, B.; Trust, T.; Bond, A. Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning; Edu-cause Review; Boulder, Colorado, 27 March 2020. 3.European Parliament. Directorate General for Internal Policies of the Union. Education and Youth in Post-COVID-19 Europe: Crisis Effects and Policy Recommendations; Publications Office: Luxembourg, 4 May 2021. 4.Marques, B.P.; Marques, R.; Reis, R. Student’s Social Vulnerability in Distance Learning in COVID-19 Times. In Proceedings of the 14th IADIS International Conference e-Learning 2020, EL 2020, Online, 21–23 July 2020; pp. 175–180. 5.Sarró, X.; González, S. Educación Formal e Informal En Confinamiento: Una Creciente Desigualdad de Oportunidades de Aprendizaje. Rev. Sociol. Educ. 2021, 14, 44. https://doi.org/10.7203/RASE.14.1.18177. 6.European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Impact of COVID-19 on Young People in the EU; Publications Office: Luxembourg, 14 December 2021. 7.Gouveia, R.; Silva, S.; Almeida, A.N.; Wall, K.; Vieira, M.M.; Carvalho, D.; Ribeiro, A.S. Os impactos sociais da pandemia: o segundo confinamento. Report, 2021. https://repositorio.ul.pt/handle/10451/49662. 8.Erlam, G.D.; Garrett, N.; Gasteiger, N.; Lau, K.; Hoare, K.; Agarwal, S.; Haxell, A. What Really Matters: Experiences of Emergency Remote Teaching in University Teaching and Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Front. Educ. 2021, 6, 639842. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.639842. 9.Prensky, M. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. Horizons 2001, 9, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816. 10.Sagnier, L.; Morrel, A. Os Jovens Em Portugal, Hoje: Quem São, Que Hábitos Têm, o Que Pensam e o Que Sentem; Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos: Lisboa, 2021. 11.Lemay, D.J.; Bazelais, P.; Doleck, T. Transition to Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Comput. Hum. Behav. Rep. 2021, 4, 100130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100130. 12.Tulaskar, R.; Turunen, M. What Students Want? Experiences, Challenges, and Engagement during Emergency Remote Learning amidst COVID-19 Crisis. Educ. Inf. Technol. 2022, 27, 551–587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10747-1. 13.Ferri, F.; Grifoni, P.; Guzzo, T. Online Learning and Emergency Remote Teaching: Opportunities and Challenges in Emergency Situations. Societies 2020, 10, 86. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc10040086.