A Quality “Online” Teacher – What Do Students Appreciate and Value in Teachers during Distance Learning?

Abstract

The goal of the research was to determine what students praise and value about university teachers during distance learning, i.e. what qualities, according to students, characterize effective online teachers. By combining a quantitative and qualitative approach to research, we determined which teachers’ qualities students highlighted as positive, examined the shortcomings in the work of teachers that students noticed in certain academic subjects, and determined differences in the evaluation of the quality of teacher work in relation to the level of study. The research included a total of 965 students, of which 674 were undergraduate students and 291 were students in master’s academic studies. The paper used a descriptive-analytical method, a survey technique and a questionnaire for student evaluation of the quality of the teacher’s work. The results of the research showed that students of both study levels during distance learning positively value the ways teachers treat them – appreciation, respect, understanding, investing extra effort when explaining content, fairness, correctness and a positive atmosphere in classes. In addition, students in master’s studies especially appreciate discussion that enables them to discuss certain topics and give different opinions in class. Despite certain limitations of the study, the results overall suggest that students value and rank certain characteristics of teachers in an almost identical way regardless of whether it is an online or a face-to-face class.