Which qualities should built environment possess to ensure satisfaction of higher-education students with remote education during pandemics?

Aidana Tleuken; Ali Turkyilmaz; Kristina Unger; Galym Tokazhanov; Idriss El-Thalji; Mohamad Y Mostafa; Mert Guney; Ferhat Karaca

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108567

Which qualities should built environment possess to ensure satisfaction of higher-education students with remote education during pandemics?

Build Environ. 2022 Jan:207:108567. doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108567. Epub 2021 Nov 12.

Authors

Aidana Tleuken¹, Ali Turkyilmaz^{1

2}, Kristina Unger¹, Galym Tokazhanov¹, Idriss El-Thalji³, Mohamad Y Mostafa⁴, Mert Guney^{1

5}, Ferhat Karaca^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, 53 Kabanbay Batyr Av., Nur-Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan.
² Master of Engineering Management Program, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan.
³ Department of Mechanical and Structural Engineering and Materials Science, University of Stavanger, 4036, Stavanger, Norway.
⁴ Institute of Buildings, Energy and Material Technology, Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology, The Arctic University of Norway, Norway.
⁵ The Environment & Resource Efficiency Cluster (EREC), Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan 010000, Kazakhstan.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly switched most education processes from face-to-face to remote mode, obliging millions of students to utilize their residences as study spaces. However, the characteristics of their residential built environments differ in terms of regional, social, cultural, and technological aspects. These differences should impact the students' performance and satisfaction which needs to be measured and studied. The present study aims to identify the effect of the residential built environment on students' satisfaction and academic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was conducted in two countries, Kazakhstan (KZ) and Norway (NO), using a comprehensive online survey to gather data. An empirical assessment based on the structural equation model was employed to identify links between health, safety, and comfort of students' facilities and academic performance and satisfaction. We conclude that the built environment affects both satisfaction for remote education and their learning performance. Significant differences in readiness for remote education have been observed between urban and non-urban living areas: (1) The role of health-and-safety convenience seems to increase with the urbanization level of the respondents' living spaces; (2) in contrast, for non-urban residents, the provision of comfort facilities is dominant. In the meantime, an analysis "by regions" revealed that health-and-safety-related facilities in residences are more critical for remote education in Central Asia (KZ). In contrast, the comfort features of residences being more important for the students studying remotely in Northern Europe (NO). These results provide an understanding that would assist in improving remote education and preparing pandemic-ready living areas.

Keywords: COVID-19; Kazakhstan; Norway; Offline education; Remote learning; Structural equation model (SEM).