The COVID-19 pandemic and academic E-learning: Italian students and instructors’ perceptions

The term e-learning refers to a learning method involving new multimedia and internet technologies capable of totally replacing face to face meetings in academic contexts. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the closure of universities and higher education institutes forced a sudden and unexpected transition from face-to-face teaching to distance learning to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This shift to online teaching and learning is a game changer for higher education. The goal of this work is to identify the factors that impacted the adoption of e-learning systems within Italian universities during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Specifically, through a quantitative empirical survey and a statistical analysis with EFA method, it was possible to understand how the perceived usefulness and ease of use of e-learning platforms have influenced the online learning and teaching experience of Italian students and professors.