Online Learning and Emergency Remote Teaching: Opportunities and Challenges in Emergency Situations

The aim of the study is to analyse the opportunities and challenges of emergency remoteteaching based on experiences of the COVID-19 emergency. A qualitative research method wasundertaken in two steps. In the first step, a thematic analysis of an online discussion forum withinternational experts from different sectors and countries was carried out. In the second step (an Italiancase study), both the data and the statements of opinion leaders from secondary online sources,including web articles, statistical data and legislation, were analysed. The results reveal severaltechnological, pedagogical and social challenges. The technological challenges are mainly relatedto the unreliability of Internet connections and many students' lack of necessary electronic devices.The pedagogical challenges are principally associated with teachers' and learners' lack of digital skills,the lack of structured content versus the abundance of online resources, learners' lack of interactivityand motivation and teachers' lack of social and cognitive presence (the ability to construct meaningthrough sustained communication within a community of inquiry). The social challenges are mainlyrelated to the lack of human interaction between teachers and students as well as among the latter,the lack of physical spaces at home to receive lessons and the lack of support of parents who arefrequently working remotely in the same spaces. Based on the lessons learned from this worldwideemergency, challenges and proposals for action to face these same challenges, which should be andsometimes have been implemented, are provided.