The present paper is part of a study investigating the Distance Education experiences of university professors teaching in Pre-primary and Primary Education Departments in Greece. For the purposes of the current paper the focus is centred on the professors’ perceptions on the advantages and the disadvantages of DE during Covid-19 pandemic in Pre-primary and Primary teacher training. The research question is: “What are the advantages and disadvantages of Distance Education in Pre-Primary and Primary Teacher Education according to university teachers’ perspectives in Greece”?

The study considers the Covid-19 pandemic and the social isolation policy as a crisis period, during which Distance Education (DE) emerged as the only viable option for Higher Educational Institutions to conduct classes. Before the Covid-19 lockdown, DE was not extensively utilized by Faculties of Education (Quezada et al., 2020). Limited information is available regarding online alternatives in teacher training before Covid-19. One of the rare cases was in 1963 Palestinian refugees were taught by 4,648 teachers, mostly untrained. The program successfully reduced the percentage of untrained teachers from 90% to 9% within five years. Student teachers participated in distance learning remotely, allowing them to continue working while studying without the need for physical attendance at an institution (Perraton, H. 2010).

The experiences university lecturers in Greece acquired through the implementation of distance education (DE) during the Covid-19 crisis, can provide guidance for improving educational processes in Higher Education Institutions, enhancing the delivery of educational services and most importantly, developing entirely new skills related to distance teaching and learning. These skills contribute to the growth of their professional, pedagogical, and digital culture and competencies (Malykhin et al., 2021).

By reviewing the literature, various DE advantages and disadvantages can be found. Concerning the benefits of DE, Bušelić (2012) argues that DE provides many advantages “evaluated by technical, social and economic criteria Distance”. Furthermore, DE allows the flexibility to work anytime and from anywhere in the world (Qi,2019).

During the Covid-19 lockdown, when the use of distance education (DE) became mandatory, university professors gained greater confidence in delivering virtual, remote classes to their students. At the same time, professors encouraged to become more innovative and work on enhancing their skills in the DE process (Contreras et al., 2021). Besides, using online platforms can strengthen teachers' technological skills, fostering ongoing professional development (Klisowska et al., 2021). Additionally, by reducing commuting expenses DE can be more economical for both institutions and students (Oliveira et al., 2018).

Nevertheless, the limitations that may rise from DE cannot be ignored. Professors who are not familiar with Distance Education can feel frustrated by using e-learning (Bailey &Lee, 2020). Another drawback, is the difficulty in ensuring student integrity during online exams. Professors identify cheating in tests and examinations as one of the major challenges of DE (Blahušiaková et al., 2021), accompanied with “academic dishonesty” (Moralista & Oducado, 2020). Moreover, the preparation of online exams and fair evaluation of their students is a crucial concern (Akour et al.,2020).

Another potential risk of DE, is the loss of the benefits of two-way communication. Findings from previous research demonstrate that the professors perceive the lack of “relational and reflective exchanges with students in the classroom”, as the greatest disadvantage of DE (Casacchia et al.,2021). As Sadeghi (2019) points out, DE may not be ideally suited for all students or every university curriculum, thus the advantages of DE outweigh the disadvantages.

An anonymous online cross-sectional survey was conducted for the study's implementation. The questions of the survey were based on a previous survey on professors’ perspectives on DE by Casacchia, et al. (2021) and took place in an Italian University. The questions have been modified accordingly to the objectives of the study and extra questions have been added. The research tool used for the design of the questionnaire was the Microsoft Forms. Furthermore, the survey implementation followed consecutive steps. As an initial step, a pilot phase has been conducted. At this phase, the questionnaire was sent to two professors working in University Departments of Education in Greece and they were asked to answer it and provide comments and suggestions. The pretest group offered important feedback and suggestions to facilitate necessary adjustments for the questionnaire. In the next step the questionnaire was distributed to the participants via email. The sample of the survey was professors teaching in all Pre-primary and Primary Education Departments in Greece. There are 9 Universities providing both Primary and Pre-primary teacher degrees. For the sample collection a voluntary response sampling technique was used. The professional emails from lists of the official university websites were used and the questionnaire was sent out to the teaching academic staff and the lab teaching personnel. The questions concerning the advantages and the disadvantage of DE consisted by closed-ended questions using Likert scale and multiple-choice, as well one open-ended question with respect to the elements the professors kept in the post Covid-10 era. The respondents were 75 professors, who submitted their answers. The methodology employed for data process was the Microsoft Excel program to measure the central tendency to the answers.

According to the literature the advantages of DE outweigh the disadvantages (Sadeghi, 2019). The findings from the current survey ascertain the literature. The overall feedback given by the professors was in general a positive attitude towards DE. The findings show that one of the positive aspects of DE compared to the traditional teaching, was the greater availability of contacts outside class hours. Moreover, the questionees indicated that there was greater involvement and attention of students during lessons. Another advantage was that the professors believe they showed greater attention in adjusting the lessons to stimulate students’ active participation. Furthermore, the absence of the traveling time needed to reach the university was another positive aspect while the professors had more time to dedicate in students and teaching activities. Another positive aspect was the professional development. During the provision of DE, most of the participants improved their skills in the use of platforms and teaching software. With respect to the disadvantages of the DE, compared to the traditional teaching, the professors indicated the absence of direct "face-to-face" eye contact and the difficulty of evaluating students’ degree of attention. Furthermore, one more downfall was the impossibility of conducting specific teaching and training methods. While the participants have already provided DE, they feel now more confident using technological tools in their traditional teaching. They specified that after the Covid- 19 crisis, they continued using mostly video applications. In addition, the professors think that the objectives of their courses were successfully achieved during DE. At the same time, most of them believe that the goals of their classes were managed to be fulfilled during DE. Lastly, most of the participants evaluated their overall DE experience as positive.

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