Coronavirus has had a great impact on education across the world. Its threat has presented many challenges for educational systems in most countries. It is the first time to compel all educational organizations across the globe into online learning (Williamson et al., 2020). To control its transmission, the Saudi government suspended all schools and universities starting on March 9, 2020. It shifted all educational activities to the distance learning system during the Coronavirus pandemic. This is a common practice to move into online education in times of distractions, or natural disasters (Swartz et al., 2018). However, such a rapid shift had affected the quality of the online educational process and confused the entire society for several months (Al Shlowiy et al., 2021).

Most people did not know what to do, how to perform their tasks, and whom they follow. Students were not excluded. They questioned their online duties, learning procedures, assessment policies, and attending measures. They were rapidly moved to online education without well-prepared learning experiences. They were concerned about the types of hardware and software. For more than 2 weeks, confusions, puzzles, and rumors controlled the educational debates across the country. In the beginning, teachers and students had nothing to do except waiting for decisions and instructions of the policymakers. Then, they started building their knowledge, experience, awareness, reflection, and behavior across the long period of COVID-19. The pandemic has lasted for more than 20 months when this paper was written.

This current sudden shift created new instructional approaches to deliver the lessons. Many educational institutions were enforced to continue teaching by fully remote education solutions. This also led to new terminologies, such as emergency remote teaching (ERT) (Hodges et al., 2020), to show this type of emergency distance teaching. Using such terminology enables the researchers to distinguish between a crisis-situation online learning and regular online learning.

The purpose of this study is to track the influence of the emergency shift to remote education due to the outbreak of Coronavirus on the students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Saudi Arabia. It intended to study their reflections in three different times across the pandemic: April 2020, October 2020, and April 2021. It compares their reflections in these periods to figure out the changes in students’ acceptance, progress, and recognition. Also, it discusses students’ experiences, concerns, and perceptions of the remote educational alternatives. This study can assist in understanding their difficulties, challenges, mistakes, and needs. The researcher aimed to investigate the ability and readiness of students to use the online platforms and resources during this period. Also, this study enriches the literature by documenting valuable details about this long-lasting shift by answering the following questions:

1. How did the shift to distance learning affect EFL students during COVID-19?

Literature includes many studies about regular online education courses that last for a specific time such as a semester or a few weeks (Mutambik, 2018; Oyaid & Alshaya, 2019; Sharma, 2019; Alshehri & Cumming, 2020; Kite et al., 2020), but not for a long time. These studies also discuss well-designed courses that are developed and taught for years. On the other hand, studies about ERT are still growing because it is the first time in history to have a long emergency shift to distance learning. Moreover, some recent studies about ERT showed that most courses and plans were not well developed (Hakami, 2020; Johnson et al., 2020; Al Shlowiy et al., 2021). Therefore, this study attempted to fill in the gap by focusing on the acceptance and perceptions of ERT for a long time that includes three semesters.

Online learning is known by many terms including e-learning, virtual learning, internet-enhanced learning, and distance learning (Moore et al., 2011). It is delivered through different learning platforms that are described by learning management systems (LMS), such as Blackboard, Moodle, WebCT, and Canvas. These platforms provide virtual learning environments relying on technology-mediated methods for communication without any physical interaction (Moore et al., 2011). They allow teachers and students to share information, collaborate, and design meaningful learning activities (Lonn & Teasley, 2009).

Well-designed online learning activities can produce useful interaction to satisfy the learning experience and meet students’ expectations. These activities support modern teaching approaches, autonomous learning, flexible learning, and collaborative learning (Baytiyeh, 2019; Al Shlowiy & Layali, 2020). Moreover, learning materials are widely presented in LMS and available at all times for students to learn at their suitability.

In Saudi educational institutions, Mutambik (2018), Alshehri et al. (2019), Oyaid and Alshaya (2019), Sharma (2019), and Al Shlowiy and Layali (2020) display that students have positive perceptions of e-learning systems, the usability of its features, high-quality of the learning materials, interactive learning settings, and its friendly interface. Although LMS provides a simple navigation process, independence, and flexibility in many educational institutions for several years, its general usage is insignificant and has not met the advisable usage level (Bousbahi & Alrazgan, 2015).

Although there are benefits of online learning systems, research shows some issues, such as the issues of internet connection (Alshehri & Cumming, 2020), personal devices issues (Hakami, 2020), students’ privacy issues (Sharma, 2019), screen issues (Oyaid & Alshaya, 2019), and technical issues (Al Shlowiy et al., 2021). Moreover, some teachers have negative perceptions of using online learning so that they do not effectively employ its methods in their teaching experiences. They are not comfortable or prepared to teach online. Teachers of an older age resist accepting online teaching in their instructions while some teachers use online learning only for the sake of using technology (Yuan & Kim, 2014) by providing basic educational purposes, such as submitting assignments, sharing files, making announcements, and posting grades (Al Shlowiy & Layali, 2020). A few teachers adapt their face-to-face teaching approaches to fit the online environment without adopting different online-based teaching approaches (Zanjani et al., 2016).

On the other hand, students have different perceptions of using online learning depending on their teachers’ utilization of LMS (Bousbahi & Alrazgan, 2015). Although they enjoy the convenience of the online learning system, they generally prefer the face-to-face learning environments more than the online learning environments (Al Shlowiy et al., 2021), especially if they cannot exchange ideas, boost their skills, and increase their knowledge. In some online learning environments, students only perform the minimum requirement for achieving the scores (Kite et al., 2020) because the online platforms are used as a digital syllabus or as storage places for digital resources (Yuen et al., 2009). Therefore, such administrative uses of online learning do not accomplish the pedagogical objectives of learning and create a negative attitude towards it among students.

This study involved the descriptive approach about the case of school suspension in Saudi Arabia due to the pandemic of coronavirus. This specific case of school lockdown lasted a long time and recounted many problems in which participants could learn from its difficulties and ambiguities (Merriam, 2009). This case study focused on understanding students’ reflections, perceptions, and acceptance of online education during ERT.

The study targeted the EFL students in a secondary school in Saudi Arabia. After obtaining the required approval, all participants were individually informed about the study requirements, signed the consent form, and expressed their interest in joining. They were provided with some open-ended questions (Tables 1, 2, 3) to enable them to reflect on their experience of any confusion, difficulty, concern, and delay caused by this case of the school lockdown. Their reflections were collected at three different times: 1) within the first month of the lockdown in Saudi Arabia (April 2020), 2) after 7 months that was at the beginning of the academic year 2020–2021 (October 2020), and 3) after 13 months that was before the end of the academic year 2020–2021 (April 2021).

The researcher tracked the reflections, complaints, concerns, and difficulties they voiced about school suspension and other related official decisions of language learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such reflections can show their acceptance of the shift into distance learning, use of online learning approaches, and adaption of ERT.

After obtaining the required approval from one of the secondary schools, the researcher invited all EFL students through their teachers of English. At the first reflection time, the questions were sent to the EFL students at the beginning of April 2020. There were 422 students in 12 EFL classes with an average number of 35 students in each class. They attended the second and third years of secondary school, with the age range of 16–18 years. After 2 weeks there were 289participants, which was 68.5% of students. Table 1 shows the questions and responses of this round.

At the beginning of the new academic year 2020–2021, the researcher created a special WhatsApp Group to track the reflections of those students. He sent an electronic invitation to the students in the third year throughout the school platform. The invitation was sent to six classes with about 200 students. It was sent to precisely track those students who were in the second year when they participated in April 2020. Other students who were in the third year graduated in May 2020. The invitation was introduced by a bilingual description of the objectives of the group. It was sent at the beginning of September 2020 with two following reminders.

By the end of September 2020, the group had 143 students. The researcher ensured that they understood the research process. He shared his contact information and social media accounts with them. They were motivated to share their experiences after they recognized that the researcher did not belong to their school. To start the second round of questions, the researcher followed a special strategy in delivering the questions. He announced a question in the WhatsApp group and waited 48 h for responses before announcing the next question. There were five questions written in Arabic and English. The students had the option to write or say the answer in any language. Students were allowed to comment on any answer. Some students left the group within the discussion. Table 2 shows the questions and the number of responses to each one.

The researcher started the final round of questions at the end of the academic year. By the beginning of April 2021, there were 92 members so that he required the school to send a new invitation to those EFL students. That invitation brought 34 students back to the group. Thus, six new questions (repeated questions and new questions) were sent to 126 students. One of the questions clearly asked about what the students learned during the pandemic. The researcher employed the same strategies as the previous time. While the majority of students participated in this round, 52 students answered all questions, especially in Arabic. Compared to the previous rounds, they did not efficiently participate as Table 3 shows.

While using WhatsApp to collect students’ responses, the researcher was active daily in reminding them to answer the questions, asking for clarification, and explaining any issue. Due to the restrictions of COVID-19, the WhatsApp group works as a survey with detailed questions to collect data at different times. On several occasions, the group worked as a focused group that brought students together to discuss the topic, capture their perceptions, and document under the researcher’s guidance (Merriam, 2009). WhatsApp, which is the most common free social platform among Saudis, helped students to have their voices on this research problem and express their thoughts and concerns honestly. During the crisis of COVID-19, many teachers used the group feature of WhatsApp to quickly communicate with their students.

Analyzing the data was an inductive process by examining the responses and reading them several times for understanding purposes. It was the first step of analyzing data that happened simultaneously while collecting them, as a recursive and dynamic process (Merriam, 2009). The screening process examined 2,134 responses in both languages and translated all Arabic responses into English.

About half of these responses were in the first reflective round. Microsoft Office Excel was used for coding the results into 108 codes related to the case study. Using thematic analysis 31 themes emerged from the data. These themes were categorized into 12 concerns that occurred upon the emergency shifting to online learning. Finally, the researcher ensured that each concern was reported by at least 10 students as a validity condition. Table 4 shows the resulting concerns with examples of some themes for each round.

The goal of this study was to investigate the EFL students’ reflection of ERT during the COVID-19 pandemic as an existing case. This section describes the results based on the coded and analyzed data that were collected at three different times. Therefore, the results are classified into three categories based on the times of data collection. The first time of data collection was within the first month of school suspension in Saudi Arabia, which was in April 2020. The second time was after 7 months of school suspension, which was in October 2020. The third time was in April 2021, which was by the end of the academic year 2020–2021.

The first category shows that students were in a period of concerns, ambiguities, and deficiencies due to the sudden change. Table 4 displays the results of their responses in the first round that were coded into five main themes: Fair, Failure, Haziness, Resistance, and Missing. It is obvious that students’ reflection at this time was full of frustration and disruption. It shows how hard that period was.

It is a matter of fact that students faced several challenges when they were shifted into ERT. There was a dysfunction of the education system that led to negative consequences on the learning process. They showed how they missed their physical communication in their classrooms as well as missing their teachers’ support and guidance. They were afraid of losing marks and required knowledge to pass the course with a high GPA and to be ready for higher education. They were concerned about how to take the academic achievement test, Tahsseli Exam, for all high school graduates.

At their home, there was a disturbance in the daily routine. They indicated that the home environment does not provide effective learning as the classroom environment does. They were worried about the internet connection, device availability, and parent experience. In fact, they were not equal in these concerns. For example, many students suffered from the shortage of computers and required devices at their homes while a few students did not mention these issues. In addition, most students complained about the internet connections and Madrasati Platform readiness. A number of students lacked the right help from their parents and siblings.

The second category shows the results of students’ reflections of using online learning after 7 months of the shift to ERT. This category includes new concerns in addition to the repeated concerns of the previous period, such as Missing concern. Table 4 presents the coded themes of students’ responses in the second reflective time. The themes are Missing, Easiness, Feeling, Awareness, and Discoveries. These themes included positive and negative results based on these mixed concerns.

The repeated concerns are related to the themes of missing and feeling. For instance, they missed each other and real classrooms as they did 6 months ago. There were some concerns about feeling bored during distance learning. Some students felt shy to participate in virtual classes. They did not feel relaxed when they talked through the active camera or in the recording sessions. However, there is a reduction in these repeated concerns compared with the previous round of the students’ reflection. I mean students did not strongly suffer from these concerns as they did the first time. Also, such concerns were reported by some students in this round while the concerns of the first round were reported by most students.

Moving to the new concerns of this round of students’ reflection, they result in the themes of easiness, awareness, and discoveries. This shows that some students felt comfortable at this time and started to have fun during their virtual classes. They reported that they could get high marks and submitted any excuse for their absence. They recognized that their teachers had lost their power in the virtual classrooms that offer superficial control. On the other hand, other students took care of their learning, thought about alternative learning sources, boosted their understanding, and used the dictionary to find the meaning of new vocabulary.

The third round shows the results of students’ reflections of using online learning after 13 months of the shift to ERT. The results are shown in Table 4, which includes four themes for the third round: Missing, Deficiency of Learning, Responsibility, and Carelessness. This round has fewer themes than the previous rounds because it obtained fewer responses. Also, students were moved into their comfort zone without a lot of concerns. These four concerns cannot be classified into positive or negative. This means that no specific direction of concerns exists because students could be divided into two groups: responsible and non-responsible or careful and careless students.

Students neither repeated those technology-based difficulties of the previous reflective rounds nor complained about the shift into online learning during COVID-19. However, they still missed their friends, teachers, physical classrooms, and real exams. Some students repeated the easiness of the exams and had several ways to pass the course with no attention to the real learning. Moreover, it was found that the students understood the reasons for this shift into ERT. Also, they looked as if they had acquired enough experience to deal with those issues, were familiar with most of these difficulties, and recognized the reality of them.

As a different finding in this round, the students suggested some how-to practices to encounter the difficulties. Their suggestions went in positive or negative directions depending on each student’s responsibility and seriousness. For positive suggestions, the findings show that students used numerous learning resources to compensate for any learning loss, started their self-management to discipline themselves, and practiced independent learning. For negative suggestions, it was found that some students developed several ways to plagiarize and cheat as well as using the class time to play games, watch videos, share links with friends.

At the time of writing this paper, the impact of COVID-19 on Saudi educational institutions has been experienced for more than 16 months. In that period, people were forced to connect virtually while they were physically distant. Such a long period required collecting data in three different times of the crisis. This helped to find various reflections and perceptions of this impact. Also, data collecting at three times enabled the researcher to build the reflective questions at every round because forming the questions was evolving process. Each round helped to form the questions of the next round. Moreover, leaving a period of time between the rounds assisted in finding progress in students’ experience, perceptions, and reflections. The researcher waited more than 5 months before conducting the second round and the same time for the third one.

This section discusses the results based on the two research questions. It answers the first question in general by discussing the findings of all reflective rounds together. Then, it provides specific details for the second question by tracking the findings of each reflective round. This might help in tracking any change in students’ perceptions and reflection of ERT and their acceptance of its technologies. It also shows if the EFL students could use these technologies for their future learning.

Understanding obstacles of online learning is valuable to assist students, especially when the perceived usefulness of online learning is connected with their perceptions of it (Almarashdeh, 2016). Students’ acceptance of virtual learning and adjusting to its environment depends on how well they recognize their role as independent learners (He, 2020). It is difficult to improve their experience of online learning without addressing their perception that prefers face-to-face learning rather than online learning and without reducing the barriers of online learning. It is believed in Saudi Arabia that online learning is the main part of future educational plans based on the Saudi vision 2030. These plans often enable the students to perform similarly to how they do in the physical classrooms, which was reported in Cavanaugh and Jacquemin (2015) study.

Teachers may not be fully aware of the problems students faced during ERT. One of the obstacles is the technical support that may prevent learners from using and accepting online learning, particularly at the beginning. This study found that engaging students in virtual learning activities was driven by receiving expert support to enable them in overcoming technical issues (Kite et al., 2020). They spent more than 4 months understanding the technical issues and, then, reducing their concern and frustration. That means their frustration relied on their understanding of online learning (Sharma, 2019; Watermeyer et al., 2020; Alshehri & Cumming, 2020; Al Shlowiy et al., 2021). If they understand it, they can work by themselves. Therefore, they will likely have positive perceptions of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness toward a system that supports them to achieve the learning objectives.

It is advisable to prepare the students with a preemptive plan to smoothly shift to an online learning environment in any case of school closure (Baytiyeh, 2019). Their parents should be also trained on how effectively implement the plan for providing effective support to the students at home. The plan should simplify the ways of communication among students and interaction with the teachers. On the other hand, teachers are required to direct students through online learning materials, respond to their questions, sustain live teaching sessions, and establish suitable interaction with their students. Moreover, they play the main role to support students in how to express their emotions and show their concerns during disasters (Johnston & Redlener, 2006). They should consider how to recognize their students’ emotions and modify their instructions consequently because teachers do not have clear access to verbal and nonverbal cues.

This study shows that the official guidelines, quality expectations, academic integrity may be unclear and incomplete during this emergency shift as well as repeatedly unstable teaching environment (Anderson et al., 2011). For example, dealing with cheating and plagiarizing was one of the main challenges of educators during COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia. Al Shlowiy et al. (2021) state that students benefited from the shift to online learning to cheat in their virtual assessments and assignments. For many of them, it was the first opportunity to experience the cheating practice without being educated about its unethical use. Future plans and instructions should deal with cheating issues seriously after COVID-19.

The study reveals that Saudi students incompletely understand the practices and procedures to use online learning during the pandemic. They lack familiarity with these virtual tools and sufficient preparation to take advantage of them during school closures (Hakami, 2020; Al Shlowiy et al., 2021). Although they have accessed the technologies of ERT for a long time during the COVID-19 pandemic, they still have different issues previously reported in the literature including internet connection issues (Alshehri & Cumming, 2020), personal devices issues (Hakami, 2020), students’ privacy issues (Sharma, 2019), screen issues (Oyaid & Alshaya, 2019), and technical issues (Al Shlowiy et al., 2021).

Technologies are not neutral entities that merely work well when accessing them, but they are complex with social-cultural artefacts (Williamson et al., 2020). Therefore, many students reported not only their frustration but also their annoyance when they were incapable of satisfactorily catering to their education (Watermeyer et al., 2020). ERT was a temporary solution but it could not fix social, educational, health, and digital inequalities.

The long period of the shift to online learning due to the crisis of coronavirus encourages the movement to platform-based education systems (Hillman et al., 2019). It is the first time in history entire schools across the world were forced to take their classes online (Williamson et al., 2020). Such a long time sets the ground to examine the students’ achievement in online learning compared to face-to-face learning. Previous studies focused on online learning for a few weeks or a semester. COVID-19 enabled us to measure how much students learned and how much trouble they obtained compared to the previous face-to-face instruction (Williamson et al., 2020).

This study finds that the quality of education was disrupted during this period and students were not fully engaged in the learning process (Al Shlowiy et al., 2021). Although this study did not intend to discuss the benefits of using online learning or to look at the positive features, there were some positive findings of what the students have learned after 16 months, such as depending on themselves to be autonomous learners (He, 2020) and an interest in developing good skills of virtual learning (Kite et al., 2020) focusing on digital skills as they were exposed to more digital access at home (Williamson et al., 2020).

This study sheds light on the ways to have a motivating virtual learning environment. It discussed the difficulties that make some students passive and disengaged with online materials and fellow students. Online learning systems should maintain the quality of educational courses regardless of the length of the course and whether it is delivered in normal time or in crisis time. If so, the students can accomplish the same in both situations of face-to-face and online, as shown in the study of Cavanaugh and Jacquemin (2015).