sustainability Article Impact on the Virtual Learning Environment Due to COVID-19 César Torres Martín 1, *, Christian Acal 2 , Mohammed El Homrani 1 and Ángel Custodio Mingorance Estrada 1, *   Citation: Torres Martín, C.; Acal, C.; El Honrani, M.; Mingorance Estrada, Á.C. Impact on the Virtual Learning Environment Due to COVID-19. Sustainability 2021, 13, 582. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020582 Received: 22 November 2020 Accepted: 6 January 2021 Published: 9 January 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- tral with regard to jurisdictional clai- ms in published maps and institutio- nal affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Li- censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and con- ditions of the Creative Commons At- tribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Didactics and School Organization, University of Granada, 18010 Granada, Spain; mohammed@ugr.es 2 Department of Statistics and O.R. and IEMath-GR, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain; chracal@ugr.es * Correspondence: cesartm@ugr.es (C.T.M); amingoe@ugr.es (Á.C.M.E.); Tel.: +34-958-249-581 (C.T.M); +34-952-698-732 (Á.C.M.E.) Abstract: As a result of the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, universities have carried out teaching in a digital way, accelerating the inclusion and use of technologies in methodological adaptation. The research aims to ascertain the perception that students at the Faculty of Education Sciences of the University of Granada have regarding the pedagogical model adopted in the virtual learning environment during confinement through the second semester of the 2019–2020 academic year. The information collection method was an online questionnaire, using simple random sam- pling with proportional affixing 0.5, 95% confidence level and maximum permissible error of 4.7%. The results demonstrate a generalised dissatisfaction of the students, being fundamental to carry out the transition of the educational processes and training of the teaching staff. The implementation of active methodologies increases due to the virtual condition, specifically the flipped classroom methodology, but students manifest generalised dissatisfaction regarding the adequate methodologi- cal development and the involvement of professors. There is an outstanding use of e-mail and the virtual learning platform (PRADO), although they consider that they do not have the appropriate knowledge about image editors, video, computer graphics, synchronous response systems and anti-plagiarism tools. The students surveyed express that the tutoring functions, tasks and beliefs of the teaching staff in e-learning are not satisfactory. Keywords: virtual environment; online education; e-learning; active methodology; ICT; university training; COVID-19 1. Introduction As a result of the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, higher education has been affected at a global level and more specifically in Spain, wherein mid-March the state of alarm was declared, with the state and university academic authorities decreeing that, for the remainder of the 2019–2020 academic year, teaching and learning processes would be carried out digitally. Consequently, the means for their development through information and communication technologies (ICT) have been incorporated. Although the teaching and learning processes in higher education were already in continuous evolution in relation to the influence of technology on the incorporation of emerging methodologies, the truth is that due to the confinement caused by the coronavirus it seems the full use of ICTs in methodological adaptation has been enforced and its inclusion accelerated, as a test of organisational agility [1], and fostered a process of transformation also accelerated to a digitalized university through online processes with new pedagogical models and learning environments. In this way, all these transformations have become a more sustainable model of education [2]. Higher education faces important challenges in the process of transforming learning models to satisfy new demands [3]. It must be considered that quality teaching and learning processes in higher education are practically unthinkable without the use of technology, Sustainability 2021, 13, 582. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020582 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability