Distance Learning Amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: Attitude and Assessment Performance of High School Students in Three Moroccan Private High Schools

The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic worldwide urged educational institutions to come up with quick and effective alternatives to ensure students’ learning and academic year continuity. Morocco was no exception to deal with that situation. As a response to the pandemic, the Ministry of Education launched distance learning as a “new” mode for learning across the country. The objective of the current study is to investigate students’ attitude towards distance learning during the pandemic. Also, it is an attempt to evaluate the impact of distance learning on students’ assessments. 119 students from 3 private schools in Rabat Morocco were involved in the study. A closed-questionnaire was shared with the target population via Google-Form. Later, 12 student informants were recruited to share insights on their learning journey amidst the outbreak of the pandemic. The findings reveal that students’ attitudes have shifted to a positive direction after being introduced to distance learning. However, the findings indicate that there is a negative correlation between distance learning and in-class assessment. The study also concludes by key recommendations found in the students’ responses and review of literature on the need to adopt effective methods in distance learning.