Comparing The Effectiveness Of Face-To-Face, Emergency Remote, And Hybrid Teaching Approaches: A Case Study Of An Information Management School

This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a higher education institution (HEI) and how it has led to a shift to emergency remote teaching. Unlike previous transitions to blended or online learning, this shift was unplanned and immediate. The study focuses on the NOVA Information Management School, analyzing the impact of various factors on students' academic performance during this period. As with many other HEIs, all face-to-face education activities were cancelled in March 2020 due to COVID-19. As a result, NOVA IMS conducted the remainder of the second semester of 2019/20 entirely online, which we call emergency remote teaching (ERT). For the next academic year, 2020/21, NOVA IMS adopted hybrid teaching (HT), which combines in-person and remote modes of class attendance, rotating students weekly to limit the number of students on-site by 50%. Finally, in the academic year of 21/22, face-to-face classes were restored for all bachelor's degree students.
This study compares the academic performance of bachelor's students from 2018 to 2021, during which different teaching approaches F2F, ERT, and HT - were adopted at NOVA IMS. The focus is on understanding whether ERT and HT deliver the same level of effectiveness and quality, or even better, compared to traditional face-to-face teaching. The results of this study will be helpful to all professors from NOVA IMS to understand the impact on student's academic performance when shifting from face-to-face to ERT and HT and take action for possible improvements.
We collected quantitative data to carry out this study from academic records from undergraduate programs in Information Management and Information Systems and Technologies. Statistical tests (ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests) were applied to determine the similarities and differences between students' academic performance across different teaching modes.
The results of this paper reveal no statistically significant differences in students' academic performance between courses delivered in traditional face-to-face teaching, ERT, and HT. The stability in academic performance under different teaching modes may have resulted from improved students' learning strategies and self-regulation skills while using ERT and HT methods.
Regarding organizational aspects, it could be argued that the university was relatively well-prepared for the COVID-19 crisis regarding technical infrastructure. A fully functional instance of Moodle has been in place for several years, and most courses use Moodle as an educational content repository and communication channel with students. The transition to ERT posed some challenges in scaling the system to ensure the quality of service for more concurrent users, and the school had to find methods to assess students online and prevent cheating situations.