Study: Remote education during the pandemic. Teacher’s perspective

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has radically changed the way we learn and, due to the restrictions, almost 90% of all countries worldwide offered online learning. It was the biggest disruption in education in history. On the other hand, this crisis has stimulated innovation in the education sector, which was possible partly because the teachers adapted to the new situation very fast. Digital tools and solutions, resources available freely online, Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) became a real game-changer during this time.

That is why at the beginning of 2021, we decided to conduct questionnaire-based, exploratory research in 7 European countries (Poland, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Czechia and Slovenia) on teachers’ practices in remote education.

Our study paints an image of a high level of adoption of digital solutions and resources across Europe, which furthermore increased over time. With regard to types of platforms and tools used, our survey shows both the dominant role and ubiquity of those provided by the greatest commercial providers and online platforms. Despite the reliance on those platforms, content used by teachers is predominantly of non-commercial nature, or even peer produced. Lastly, our study suggests high levels of adoption of Open Educational Resources across Europe.

With our study, we aim to provide evidence on content usage that can help shape both copyright policies and programs that support the development and funding of public educational content and platforms.

We encourage all researchers and institutions to use our methodology and research tools for further research – you can download our questionnaires in 8 language versions, all charts and diagrams in .png version and spreadsheets with collected data.