Connectivity vs Activity on Online Teaching Platforms
Connectivity vs Activity on Online Teaching Platforms

Summary/Abstract: The teaching-learning-evaluation process in the time of COVID-19 has proven a challenge for the parties involved, both students and teachers alike. On the one hand, it has put to a test the teachers’ ability to adapt, to innovate and to transfer teaching content to an exclusively virtual space, which has proven a particular challenge especially for universities with a great component of practical and lab work in their curricula. On the other hand, students have been faced with excessive and potentially harmful screen time and exposure to a device (Spitzer, 2020). This took a toll in terms of tiredness level for both parties and affected the activity levels of the students, as being connected to an online platform does not automatically mean active involvement of the students in the class taught. This paper is the result of a research conducted among 1st and 2nd year students from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and has focused on three semesters of exclusive online teaching. The aim of the paper is to present the students’ connectivity vs. activity level during the three semesters in question. Moreover, it investigates what other activities they engaged in while connected to the platforms. The results show that high connectivity levels are correlated with relatively poor activity levels and engagement in multitasking from the part of the students.

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