  The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly changed the classroom context, understood as
the meeting space between teachers and students where a fundamental part of the
construction of new knowledge takes place. This presented enormous challenges
for all actors in the educational process, who had to overcome multiple
difficulties and adapt to a new daily life in which the incorporation of new
strategies and tools was essential. In this work we study the knowledge
acquisition process in two different contexts: face-to-face (before the onset
of the pandemic) and virtual (during confinement), for a particular case in
higher education in Argentina. We developed an analytical model for the
knowledge acquisition process, based on a series of surveys and information on
academic performance. We analyzed the significance of the model by means of
Artificial Neural Networks and a Multiple Linear Regression Method. We found
that the virtual context produced a decrease in motivation to learn. We also
found that the structure of the emerging contact network from peer interaction
presents very different characteristics in both contexts. Finally, we show that
in all cases, interaction with teachers is of utmost importance in the process
of acquiring knowledge.
