From Crisis to Polarization: A Longitudinal Analysis of Student Learning Preferences in Southern Europe (2022-2025)

The digital transformation of higher education in Southern Europe has largely been interpreted through a provider-centric lens, emphasizing faculty concerns during the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) phase. This study adopts a receiver-centric perspective, examining how student priorities evolved from the crisis period (2022/23) to the post-emergency context (2025). The analysis compares two independent cross-sectional cohorts (N=70 each) collected with comparable instruments: a heterogeneous European sample during ERT and a follow-up cohort concentrated in Italy and Greece. Results indicate a clear normalization of online assessment, with dissatisfaction declining from 88.5% in 2022/23 to moderate acceptance in 2025 (mean satisfaction 3.2/5). More importantly, the 2025 cohort reveals a polarized preference structure, with students divided between improving asynchronous pre-recorded content (~40%) and increasing synchronous interaction (~35%), while assessment fairness and support emerge as secondary concerns. Interpreted through the Community of Inquiry framework, these findings suggest that the post-ERT challenge is no longer assessment legitimacy but pedagogical design under heterogeneous demand, calling for flexible, mode-equivalent institutional strategies rather than uniform solutions.