Standard Presentation (25-minute) Online vs F2F Learning in Higher Education: A Focus on Student Preferences more

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed how education is conducted at institutions of higher education throughout the world. Prior to the pandemic, relatively few university courses were taught virtually, or online. However, as of 2023, many students are continuing to study online in various higher education settings. Although online instruction using Zoom and other tools have become widespread as a consequence of the pandemic of 2020, there would appear to be a lack of data which carefully and systematically examines the educational gains of online learning in comparison with classes that are face to face (F2F). This may be particularly important for how instruction is delivered in the foreign language classroom. As university students in Japan and elsewhere have experienced both online and face to face lessons, they are uniquely positioned to voice their own opinions regarding which methods of learning they tend to prefer and for what reasons. This research study used a bilingual questionnaire with multiple choice and open-ended questions in order to survey students who received both online and F2F learning at Japanese universities in academic years 2021 and 2022.The main research objective was to understand what students' learning preferences are, and if there had been any change in their perceptions of online and F2F learning over time.