Teaching Social Studies Online. Insights from a Preliminary Quantitative Study in Poland in the COVID-19 Era

The COVID-19 situation has made higher education institutions face the unprecedented challenge of transition into distance learning. As a result, students had to acquire some skills and knowledge remotely, including the experience of learning social research. The article presents the results of research on students’ attitudes and perceptions regarding online teaching, learning, their digital skills, and the presence of subjects connected with social research in their diverse study programmes. The study was conducted to investigate how social research is taught at the university level. Using an online survey distributed in May and June 2021, data were collected from 103 students enrolled in bachelor (BA) and master (MA) studies at Polish higher education institutions. Findings from the study show a broad spectrum of students’ diverse experiences connected with their participation in online education.