From Digital Natives to Zoom Graduates? Student Experiences with Distance Learning during Lockdown in Portugal

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is a very interesting article which has a new perspective on the impact of school closures due to Covid 19 on adolescents.  The difficulties of dealing with “emergency remote teaching” are well documented now, as are the differences between this and actual distance education which includes “well planned online learning experiences” generally designed by experts in the distance education field. However, it is useful to reiterate this message.  What I found particularly interesting was the loss of the rituals of leaving school and moving into tertiary education – those rites of passage – that the participants valued.  In addition, the participants recognised the loss of enriching learning experiences, such as field trips or moving elsewhere to attend tertiary studies.  I think the authors should foreground these in the abstract, because to me this is the contribution to the literature.  I think the authors could also highlight this theme in the findings, by giving it a sub-heading and locating the comments in relation to this theme under the sub-heading.

The literature review situates the research well and the methodology clearly explains how the data were gathered.

Author Response

Reply: according to the reviewer suggestions, we have rephrased the abstract and key words in order to emphasize the issue of rites of passage and academic experience. We have also restructured and extended our analysis in order to deepen this topic.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article entitled From digital natives to Zoom graduates? Student experiences with distance learning during lockdown in Portugal has an actual and interesting topic. In the Introduction, the author(s) presented relevant information about the topic, and gave relevant and recent theoretical and practical issues. Results are  presented transparently and logically. Discussion has some important and relevant conclusions. I found the paper interesting for a broad audience, and also “reader friendly” since the important scientific notions are stated in a simple but effective manner. The research point of view from the students’ perspective I find to be a good approach and qualitative analysis  appropriate methodology.  The paper is written in a clear and systematic way, but here are few suggestions on how to improve the paper to meet all the methodological requirements.

1.  In Abstract I suggest to state the research aim and research questions, and shortly describe instrument(s).

2. Keywords: rather not use keywords stated in the title.

3. The first use of abbreviation ICT (line 69) should be stated as ‘information and communication technologies (ICT)’, and later just ICT can be used.

4. At the end of 1.2. Young students and digital practices, and before 2. Materials & Methods authors should state the research aim and research questions.

5. Methodology and results should be described with more info. The way of data analysis was done should be more described. Also, it would be appropriate to state how many answers were in each category, and then to state representative answers.  Reasons for using qualitative analysis should also be argued. These sections are very important to be precisely described, and elaborated.

6. Discussion should be more elaborative, meanings of results should be more explained and the results should be compared to other research results and key theoretical notions. Theoretical and practical effects of obtained results should be argued.

7. The paper lacks Conclusion(s), so I suggest writing a few sentences on key results and key conclusions, arguing the paper's contribution to the field.

Overall, this paper has many positive aspects, especially in theoretical part and chosen research topic, but key methodological issues should be adressed in more precise and elaborative way. 

 

Author Response

Thank you very much for your comments that have helped to make the manuscript stronger. Below we detail the changes we made according to your suggestions.

Reviewer comments & reply 

1. In Abstract I suggest to state the research aim and research questions, and shortly describe instrument(s). REPLY: We have changed the article in order to attend these suggestions
2. Keywords: rather not use keywords stated in the title. REPLY: We have also changed the key words.
3. The first use of abbreviation ICT (line 69) should be stated as ‘information and communication technologies (ICT)’, and later just ICT can be used. REPLY: We have noted and clarified the mentions accordingly.
4. At the end of 1.2. Young students and digital practices, and before 2. Materials & Methods authors should state the research aim and research questions. REPLY: We did so accordingly.
5. Methodology and results should be described with more info. The way of data analysis was done should be more described. Also, it would be appropriate to state how many answers were in each category, and then to state representative answers. Reasons for using qualitative analysis should also be argued. These sections are very important to be precisely described, and elaborated. REPLY: We have extended the methodological section with a fully detailed description of questions used, analysis methods and categories identified. We also indicate that our use of open questions and the opportunity of its analysis aims to shed light on reasons why students dislike distance learning.
6. Discussion should be more elaborative; meanings of results should be more explained and the results should be compared to other research results and key theoretical notions. Theoretical and practical effects of obtained results should be argued. REPLY: We have extended the discussion section, inserted more subheadings and referring the literature.
7. The paper lacks Conclusion(s), so I suggest writing a few sentences on key results and key conclusions, arguing the paper's contribution to the field. REPLY: We have added a conclusion, pointing directions for practice.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

thank you very much for considering suggestions for improvement.