UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF ONLINE EDUCATION IN CROATIA AND SWEDEN

Abstract: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures that followed, the education system worldwide has been affected. Consequently, the imposed online education environment has been a new and challenging experience for students and teachers. Focusing on Europe with its diverse higher education systems, there is a lack of comparative research on similarities and differences between teachers’ and students’ perceptions of online education in two different contexts. Therefore, this study aims to explore and compare how master’s students and teachers experience online education during COVID-19 in two different European countries - Croatia and Sweden. For this purpose, thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and students from both contexts and thematic analysis was utilised to generate findings. This study reveals agreement in both cases about the benefits of online education, such as flexibility and accessibility. However, the negative sides are stronger emphasised in the Croatian context. Further, our findings align with previous research on similar topics, exposing that physical education is still a preferred form. Apart from this, our research revealed two specific contexts that emerged in each country. Namely, a specific challenge that occurred in the Croatian context was the organisation of online exams. On the contrary, participating in and managing multicultural online classes is a speciality in the Swedish context. Further, this study emphasises the need to consider more engaging activities in future online classes, implement hybrid lectures as a future model for educational systems, and investigate the significance of personality traits in adapting to online education.