Perception and satisfaction level of students regarding the teaching practices during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unanticipated shift in the way classes were delivered. Institutions moved towards online teaching as the only way to provide lectures and laboratory work. Both instructors and students had to quickly adapt to this challenging change. The objective of this study was to examine students’ perspectives and levels of satisfaction in food-related majors regarding the teaching practices adopted. A questionnaire was created and distributed through professional networks and universities that offer food-related degrees worldwide. Participants were asked to rate their degree of satisfaction with virtual classes through a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 «strongly disagree», 2 «disagree», 3 «neither agree nor disagree», 4 «agree» to 5 «strongly agree». Out of 388 student participants, about 49% were satisfied with the general formats of their online classes. Completing a discipline remotely took more effort than if it was taught in a face-to-face modality was felt by 66% of participants, and 56% were not motivated to attend the online classes. About 34% believed that remote learning would negatively affect their professional future, whilst 24% alleged the opposite. Additionally, about 52% of students shared that it would be better for some disciplines to be remotely taught in the future.