Effects of online education as a consequence of the pandemic in the students of the first levels of the Foreign Trade and Mechanical Engineering programs of a university in Ecuador

Abstract

The crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has generated upheavals in various sectors. Education is not on the margin of this reality, and it is one of the causes of the main changes within families’ daily life. In Ecuador, an emergency plan was taken into consideration so that institutions of basic, secondary, and higher-level could continue with their teaching activities; consequently, face-to-face education was changed to a virtual modality, which entailed drastic changes and caused various discomforts amongst students.  This research conducted a study on the effects that online education has generated because of the pandemic.  A documentary methodology was used, and a survey with closed questions was applied to a group of students at the Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas - ESPE of the careers of Mechanical Engineering and Foreign Trade where it was possible to demonstrate the difficulties and limitations that students of these careers had and still face to acquire the necessary knowledge that will allow them to develop in their future workforce.