“Robots cannot drink coffee or real ale”: the undeniable spark of face-to-face teaching moments in digital learning journeys

The purpose of this study is to evaluate student perceptions of a yearly workshop, held as part of the Master’s in Industrial Project Management programme at the University of Birmingham.
This study employed action research methods to understand how the use of technology to deliver fully online and hybrid teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020/21) and its immediate aftermath (2022) impacted on student experience. A mix of technological tools was used, most notably the virtual world environment Virbela, MS Teams, the digital collaboration platform Miro, and telepresence robots. The data indicates that students generally preferred the hybrid teaching mode, which combines face-to-face interactions with remote learning. While fully online teaching offered higher flexibility in a time of crisis, the hybrid approach optimised both digital resources and in-person engagement, leading to enhanced student satisfaction, particularly for the social aspects of learning and community building.