ARE WE READY TO DISTANCE LEARNING? EXPERIENCES OF DISTANCE LEARNING IN OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT-FOCUSED HIGHER EDUCATION

The importance of e-learning and blended learning in higher education in Hungary has significantly increased in recent years. Students use a variety of online platforms with more or less weight in their studies, in addition to traditional classroom learning. Yet, the world, all walks of life, including, of course, higher education, have been shaken by a series of restrictions on the coronavirus sweeping Europe from the end of winter 2019/2020, including the suspension of traditional contact-based education. In Hungary, the transition to distance learning became necessary in just over a week due to the closure of universities. How did this affect the students? How is the knowledge acquired through distance learning assessed in the operations and supply chain management education? How strong and how weak was this new distance learning system developed for extreme reasons? In our research, we sought answers to the above questions. To this end, we asked our undergraduate and graduate students at Corvinus University of Budapest about our Operations Management (BSc) and Supply Chain Management-focused (MSc) courses (approximately 360 students). In addition to questionnaire research, we compared the student results achieved in previous years to determine whether there is a significant difference between the results of the last semester and those converted to distance learning. According to our hypothesis, distance learning challenged students to independently understand and master the theoretical curriculum. Still, they were more forced to apply a practical perspective in case studies and problem-solving.