Social and psychological aspects of distance learning (case study of bachelor students)

Abstract

This article follows the practical analysis of the challenges of distance learning which started in 2016 based on a case study of distance learning implementation at a Bulgarian university focusing on economics (Mukova 2016). Some of the primary conclusions of the author were as follows: (1) recent changes in the country’s secondary and higher education have led to their mutual imbalance, resulting in poorer conceptual thinking skills of university students and, consequently, lower abstraction level of academic disciplines, which reduces higher education to the level of a secondary vocational school; (2) this imbalance leads to lower socio-economic benefits of higher education: the businesses do not get high-quality professionals and suffers losses, resulting in a financial loss for society as a whole; (3) universities generally introduce distance learning practices, which a more economically profitable due to their the limited financial resources, in order to simply increase the number of students disregarding all other considerations. The main subjective problem of distance learning is weak control in knowledge assessment. The purpose of writing the previous article was to warn universities that adopting this model may lead to loss in education effectiveness. This study is focused on a specific distance learning implementation model which is most common for private universities focusing on economics. The subject of this study is analysing the behaviour of participants of the distance learning process, and more specifically of the three main groups of actors: university leadership, students and teachers. The key research method used was the analysis of existing practice. Research objectives include reflecting the real state of the distance learning for bachelors and identifying goals, behaviours and psychological traits of the participants in the educational process. The paper demonstrates the current trends in the field of distance learning: the imbalance in the interests of the subjects of distance learning, the changes in their motivation and interactions with each other, lower quality of education and university performance. The negative impact of distance learning on the behaviour of various actors, does not mean that it cannot be used in university setting; but a different distance learning modality is indeed required.