Iraqi university students’ emergency remote learning experiences during Covid-19

Numan, Haitham and Elareshi, Mokhtar and Atanasova, Dimitrinka (2022) Iraqi university students’ emergency remote learning experiences during Covid-19. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies. (In Press)

Abstract

University students’ experience with Covid-19 emergency remote learning in Iraq - a country facing political instability, poor Internet infrastructure, and limited access to technology - remains understudied. We surveyed 323 university students attending two of the leading Iraqi universities - Baghdad University and Al-Iraqia University - about their experience of Covid-19 emergency remote learning. Unsurprisingly, over half of the participants evaluated their experience as “negative” and expressed a preference for returning to face-to-face learning after the pandemic had ended; and nearly half of the participants were dissatisfied with Covid-19 emergency remote learning. Surprisingly, Internet connectivity issues - which regularly emerged as the leading challenge in past research - were only the second most-pressing challenge for our participants who identified participation as the main challenge. We argue that this area therefore needs the urgent attention of Iraqi educators.