Student perspectives of online learning during the covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

In 2020, the world was turned upside down due to the COVID-19 virus requiring organizations to quickly adopt new working models that provided safe accommodations for stakeholders. Higher education was not exempt from this disruption and required a rapid response to move to remote / online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. While universities acted quickly in response to this virus, this swift change had a direct impact on the faculty, students, and stakeholders of the universities. This study analyzed students’ perceptions on how learning was impacted during this transition from in-person classes to remote classes and if they were adequately prepared to be successful. The study provides a quantitative assessment of the impact of student learning during the COVID-19 pandemic at two small rural Mid-Atlantic universities. A survey was distributed with 139 respondents at the undergraduate and graduate level to understand how the pandemic has impacted their courses in the 2020 – 2021 academic year and what preparation they have received during this emergency transition. The results of the study were analyzed to understand students’ level of learning in the “new environment” with their final grades and correlates it to their access to technology, tools used in the classroom, and training they had received. The outcome of this study is to find areas where higher education institutions can improve their process in emergency situations requiring student to transition to a completely remote environment.