Why Students Struggled When Schools Went Digital Overnight
When COVID-19 shuttered universities in early 2020, over 1.5 billion students worldwide faced an unprecedented challenge: education without classrooms. Overnight, institutions in resource-limited regions deployed makeshift online learning platforms—a global experiment in educational resilience 1 . For systems already grappling with infrastructure gaps, this transition exposed deep fractures. This article explores why students from Iraq to India reported startlingly low satisfaction with emergency e-learning and what their struggles teach us about equitable education in crises.
The pandemic revealed a harsh truth: internet access and device availability dictated educational survival. In Iraq, 72% of students relied solely on mobile phones for online classes, while 81.8% used home Wi-Fi—problematic in regions plagued by power outages 1 3 . When Iranian universities shifted online, students in rural areas struggled with connectivity, amplifying urban-rural divides 8 .
Despite saving time and money (agreed by 69% of Iraqi students), dissatisfaction prevailed globally 1 :
Synchronous learning collapsed—only 35.5% attended live sessions. The rest relied on asynchronous materials due to:
Instructors' technological struggles proved devastating. A mere 6.4% believed teachers mastered digital tools, and only 14.8% felt instructors adhered to schedules 3 .
Across ten countries, instructors' ability to deliver engaging content was the strongest predictor of satisfaction—outranking even technology access .
Omani faculty identified student-related barriers (disengagement, inadequate skills) as more detrimental than technical issues 6 .
Pakistani students with high digital competence showed 23% greater satisfaction 2 .
Courses designed pre-pandemic failed online. Successful adaptations featured chunked videos and interactive quizzes 8 .
| Barrier Category | Key Challenges | Impact Level |
|---|---|---|
| Student-related | Low motivation, tech illiteracy | High (4.2/5) |
| Institutional | Inadequate LMS, poor training | Medium (3.8/5) |
| Curriculum | Non-adaptable materials | Medium (3.6/5) |
| Teacher-related | Digital skills gaps | Low-Medium (3.1/5) |
Iran's Navid system allowed download/upload without real-time internet 8
Pakistan's SMS-based quizzes reached phone-only learners 2
Oman paired instructors with IT staff + pedagogy coaches 6
Zahedan University (Iran) boosted satisfaction by 31% through:
The pandemic's e-learning experiment failed many but taught all. It proved that technology magnifies pedagogy; it cannot replace it.
The pandemic's e-learning experiment failed many but taught all. It proved that:
As Romanian students asserted: 72% still prefer physical classrooms 7 . Yet the crisis birthed a hybrid future—one where online learning serves as a lifeline, not the line, for equitable education. The lesson echoes from Baghdad to Boston: Technology magnifies pedagogy; it cannot replace it.