Student’s feelings and perceptions of working in ad-hoc virtual teams before and after COVID-19

Online courses with virtual teams have existed for some years but became normalized with the regulations for social distancing during COVID-19. Multinational students from institutions in three countries participated in the Global Entrepreneurship online course, an opportunity-centered Ideation Hackathon developed by the In2It-Erasmus+ team. This course has been conducted once a year since 2017. The instructors noted changes in the attitudes and emotions of the students before and after the pandemic outbreak. The psychological and technological barriers that virtual teams perceived before, such as unclear communications, disappeared after the lockdowns. The feedback surveys, completed after finishing the courses in 2019 (pre-pandemic - 127 students) and 2020 (post-pandemic - 155 students), were compared quantitatively and qualitatively to find dissimilarities. The students broadly acknowledged pedagogical content and teamwork. Social relations, particularly informal interactions, played a significant role in the success of the course and its resilience during the pandemic. The students developed a strong sense of belonging to their team, enabling them to overcome the problems usually encountered in distance learning courses. The enthusiasm of students about this course after COVID-19, in which they learn and practice, opens the door to new types of studies - multicultural, international, experiential, and cooperative.