IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i23p12935-d685478.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors Affecting the Efficiency of Teaching Process in Higher Education in the Republic of Serbia during COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Valentin Kuleto

    (Information Technology School ITS-Belgrade, LINK Group Belgrade, Faculty of Contemporary Arts Belgrade, University Business Academy in Novi Sad, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Milena P. Ilić

    (Information Technology School ITS-Belgrade, LINK Group Belgrade, Faculty of Contemporary Arts Belgrade, University Business Academy in Novi Sad, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Nevenka Popović Šević

    (Faculty of Contemporary Arts Belgrade, University Business Academy in Novi Sad, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Marko Ranković

    (Faculty of Information Technology and Engineering, University Union Nikola Tesla, 11080 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Dušan Stojaković

    (Faculty of Contemporary Arts Belgrade, University Business Academy in Novi Sad, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Milutin Dobrilović

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

Abstract

From the moment the Republic of Serbia declared a state of emergency in the summer semester of 2019/2020, higher education institutions (HEIs) used various teaching models from Distance Learning Systems (DLS), online platforms and modern information and communication technologies (ICT), to sending materials via student e-mails and notifications via faculty portals. Using survey research as a method, the paper describes the experiences of teachers and associates at HEIs in Serbia (780 respondents) regarding the efficiency of provided education services. In this article, we used the method of content analysis and participatory observation, as well. We analysed the attitudes of teachers and associates apropos the efficiency of providing educational services through the work from home (WFH) model and distance learning (DL) and other models used in response to COVID-19 epidemiological measures in education. During the WFH setup, we looked for factors that affect educational efficiency. When it comes to the statistical technique, factor analysis was selected. Technology, managerial support, and work–home conflict are all expected to impact process efficiency, so these were the first criteria considered when selecting potential factors. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used as the extraction method, and the Varimax rotation method was also used. We discarded all factors with eigenvalues below one. Four factors caught our attention: School management support, Family–work conflict, Home infrastructure, and Technology choice. The results showed that F1 (School management support) is positively correlated to F2 (Family–work conflict) and efficiency and negatively correlated to F3 (Home infrastructure). Conversely, F2 is negatively correlated to F3 and positively correlated to efficiency. The F4 factor shows no significant correlations to other factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Valentin Kuleto & Milena P. Ilić & Nevenka Popović Šević & Marko Ranković & Dušan Stojaković & Milutin Dobrilović, 2021. "Factors Affecting the Efficiency of Teaching Process in Higher Education in the Republic of Serbia during COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-20, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:12935-:d:685478
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/12935/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/12935/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rasiha Yerel & Gokmen Dagli & Fahriye Altinay & Ebba Ossiannilsson & Mehmet Altinay & Zehra Altinay, 2021. "Sustainability in Education: A Scale on Perceptions of Organisational Discipline Related to the COVID-19 Period," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-25, July.
    2. Rini Rachmawati & Ulfah Choirunnisa & Zat Ayuningsih Pambagyo & Yosi Atikah Syarafina & Rizki Adriadi Ghiffari, 2021. "Work from Home and the Use of ICT during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia and Its Impact on Cities in the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    3. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    4. Isabel del Arco & Patricia Silva & Oscar Flores, 2021. "University Teaching in Times of Confinement: The Light and Shadows of Compulsory Online Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, January.
    5. Wahab Ali, 2020. "Online and Remote Learning in Higher Education Institutes: A Necessity in light of COVID-19 Pandemic," Higher Education Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, September.
    6. Annie A. Hemphill & Bradley D. Marianno, 2021. "Teachers’ Unions, Collective Bargaining, and the Response to COVID-19," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 16(1), pages 170-182, Winter.
    7. Kim Usher & Navjot Bhullar & Debra Jackson, 2020. "Life in the pandemic: Social isolation and mental health," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(15-16), pages 2756-2757, August.
    8. Varineja Drašler & Jasna Bertoncelj & Mojca Korošec & Tanja Pajk Žontar & Nataša Poklar Ulrih & Blaž Cigić, 2021. "Difference in the Attitude of Students and Employees of the University of Ljubljana towards Work from Home and Online Education: Lessons from COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-24, May.
    9. -, 2020. "Education in the time of COVID-19," Coediciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 45905 edited by Eclac, February.
    10. Mohammad Javad Koohsari & Tomoki Nakaya & Ai Shibata & Kaori Ishii & Koichiro Oka, 2021. "Working from Home After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Do Company Employees Sit More and Move Less?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-8, January.
    11. Meredith Nash & Brendan Churchill, 2020. "Caring during COVID‐19: A gendered analysis of Australian university responses to managing remote working and caring responsibilities," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 833-846, September.
    12. repec:ecr:col016:45905 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Daniela Popa & Angela Repanovici & Daciana Lupu & Mariana Norel & Claudiu Coman, 2020. "Using Mixed Methods to Understand Teaching and Learning in COVID 19 Times," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-20, October.
    14. Laura Cervi & José Manuel Pérez Tornero & Santiago Tejedor, 2020. "The Challenge of Teaching Mobile Journalism through MOOCs: A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-15, June.
    15. Miklós Koren & Rita Pető, 2020. "Business disruptions from social distancing," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-14, September.
    16. repec:aoj:jeelre:v:7:y:2020:i:3:p:285-292:id:2048 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Maram Meccawy & Zilal Meccawy & Aisha Alsobhi, 2021. "Teaching and Learning in Survival Mode: Students and Faculty Perceptions of Distance Education during the COVID-19 Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-23, July.
    18. Rocsana Bucea-Manea-Țoniş & Radu Bucea-Manea-Țoniş & Violeta Elena Simion & Dragan Ilic & Cezar Braicu & Natalia Manea, 2020. "Sustainability in Higher Education: The Relationship between Work-Life Balance and XR E-Learning Facilities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-18, July.
    19. Charles Gottlieb & Jan Grobovsek & Markus Poschke, 2020. "Working from Home across Countries," Cahiers de recherche 07-2020, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    20. Palvinder Singh & Rajesh Paleti & Syndney Jenkins & Chandra Bhat, 2013. "On modeling telecommuting behavior: option, choice, and frequency," Transportation, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 373-396, February.
    21. Wunong Zhang & Yuxin Wang & Lili Yang & Chuanyi Wang, 2020. "Suspending Classes Without Stopping Learning: China’s Education Emergency Management Policy in the COVID-19 Outbreak," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-6, March.
    22. T Gonzalez & M A de la Rubia & K P Hincz & M Comas-Lopez & Laia Subirats & Santi Fort & G M Sacha, 2020. "Influence of COVID-19 confinement on students’ performance in higher education," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-23, October.
    23. Juan Luis Martín Ayala & Sergio Castaño Castaño & Alba Hernández Santana & Mariacarla Martí González & Julién Brito Ballester, 2021. "Impact of Learning in the COVID-19 Era on Academic Outcomes of Undergraduate Psychology Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rocsana Bucea-Manea-Țoniș & Luciela Vasile & Rareș Stănescu & Alina Moanță, 2022. "Creating IoT-Enriched Learner-Centered Environments in Sports Science Higher Education during the Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-25, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nilmini M. Rathnayake & Pivithuru J. Kumarasinghe & Ajantha S. Kumara, 2022. "How Do Different Types of University Academics Perceive Work from Home Amidst COVID-19 and Beyond?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, April.
    2. Behrens, Kristian & Kichko, Sergei & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2024. "Working from home: Too much of a good thing?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    3. Marta Peña & Noelia Olmedo-Torre & Olga Alcaraz & Juan A. Chavez-Dominguez & José López & Luis Eduardo Mujica, 2022. "Impact of the Pandemic on the Teaching and Research Staff at a Technological University in Spain: Deepening the Gender Gap," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-26, May.
    4. Pichler, Anton & Pangallo, Marco & del Rio-Chanona, R. Maria & Lafond, François & Farmer, J. Doyne, 2020. "In and out of lockdown: Propagation of supply and demand shocks in a dynamic input-output model," INET Oxford Working Papers 2021-18, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, revised Feb 2021.
    5. Mauro Caselli & Andrea Fracasso & Sergio Scicchitano, 2020. "From the lockdown to the new normal: An analysis of the limitations to individual mobility in Italy following the Covid-19 crisis," Discussion Paper series in Regional Science & Economic Geography 2020-07, Gran Sasso Science Institute, Social Sciences, revised Oct 2020.
    6. Karina Cicha & Mariia Rizun & Paulina Rutecka & Artur Strzelecki, 2021. "COVID-19 and Higher Education: First-Year Students’ Expectations toward Distance Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    7. Juan Luis Martín Ayala & Sergio Castaño Castaño & Alba Hernández Santana & Mariacarla Martí González & Julién Brito Ballester, 2021. "Impact of Learning in the COVID-19 Era on Academic Outcomes of Undergraduate Psychology Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    8. Fortuna, Fabio & Rossi, Luca & Elmo, Grazia Chiara & Arcese, Gabriella, 2023. "Italians and smart working: A technical study on the effects of smart working on the society," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    9. Luca Bonacini & Giovanni Gallo & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Working from home and income inequality: risks of a ‘new normal’ with COVID-19," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 303-360, January.
    10. Maja Batez, 2021. "ICT Skills of University Students from the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-13, February.
    11. Varineja Drašler & Jasna Bertoncelj & Mojca Korošec & Tanja Pajk Žontar & Nataša Poklar Ulrih & Blaž Cigić, 2021. "Difference in the Attitude of Students and Employees of the University of Ljubljana towards Work from Home and Online Education: Lessons from COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-24, May.
    12. Crowley, Frank & Daly, Hannah & Doran, Justin & Ryan, Geraldine & Caulfield, Brian, 2021. "The impact of labour market disruptions and transport choice on the environment during COVID-19," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 185-195.
    13. Crowley, Frank & Doran, Justin & Ryan, Geraldine, 2020. "The impact of Covid-19 restrictions on workers: Who is most exposed?," SRERC Working Paper Series SRERCWP2020-3, University College Cork (UCC), Spatial and Regional Economic Research Centre (SRERC).
    14. Gaetano Basso & Tito Boeri & Alessandro Caiumi & Marco Paccagnella, 2020. "The new hazardous jobs and worker reallocation," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 247, OECD Publishing.
    15. Carlos Díaz & Sebastian Fossati & Nicolás Trajtenberg, 2022. "Stay at home if you can: COVID‐19 stay‐at‐home guidelines and local crime," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1113, December.
    16. Louis-Philippe Beland & Abel Brodeur & Taylor Wright, 2020. "COVID-19, Stay-at-Home Orders and Employment: Evidence from CPS Data," Carleton Economic Papers 20-04, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 19 May 2020.
    17. Brum, Matias & De Rosa, Mauricio, 2021. "Too little but not too late: nowcasting poverty and cash transfers’ incidence during COVID-19’s crisis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    18. Bergeaud, Antonin & Eyméoud, Jean-Benoît & Garcia, Thomas & Henricot, Dorian, 2023. "Working from home and corporate real estate," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. Mohammed Airaj, 2022. "Cloud Computing Technology and PBL Teaching Approach for a Qualitative Education in Line with SDG4," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-15, November.
    20. Matías Brum & Mauricio de Rosa, 2020. "Too little but not too late. Nowcasting poverty and cash transfers' incidence in Uruguay during COVID-19's crisis," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 20-09, Instituto de Economía - IECON.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:12935-:d:685478. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.