VIRTUAL EDUCATION, A CHALLENGE FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE ROMANIAN UNIVERSITIES

Purpose – The authors tried to analyze eLearning, because the 2020 pandemic crisis showed an old weakness of the Romanian education system. The analysis was seen as a social phenomenon in the entire Romanian education system, in which the need for eLearning became evident after March 15, 2020, the date that affected many elements of society, including education.

Methodology/approach - 19 questions, through an electronic questionnaire, to which 200 respondents answered, formed the basis of the research methodology and was applied to a group of 200 respondents between April 29, 2020 at 1 pm and April 30, 2020 at 1 pm. It is specified that the respondents are students at the University of Petroșani for undergraduate and master's studies in the academic year 2019-2020.

Findings – The lack of an eLearning platform led to the sending of courses to students by email in pdf format. The lack of teacher training was limited to 50% of the effective percentage of online courses and only to 30% in videoconferencing. The students being more adaptable participated in a higher proportion in the courses from March to May 2020, counting 87%. It should be noted that 42% used the phone for this activity.

Research limitations/implications – Even if the respondents, as mentioned, are only from the University of Petrosani, the study can be extrapolated to provide an image for the Romanian education system.

Practical implications – The demonstration of the representativeness of the University of Petroșani in relation to a national education system for the implementation of eLearning in crisis situations leads to the important conclusion of this short research. This conclusion says that Covid19 has changed education in Romania, and classical education is likely to undergo significant changes because of these three months of exclusive online education.

Originality/value – Romania did in two months what it has not done in years, so at the beginning of May, most schools and universities migrated to an online education system.