A Survey Study on U.S. College Students’ Learning Experience in COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 affected various aspects of our life. Many college students were forced to take courses remotely. It was not clear how they adapted to this new environment and how their mental health was affected. The objective of this study is to understand college students’ learning experience one year after the outbreak of COVID-19. An online survey was developed to investigate students’ overall learning process, mental health, perception of the learning community and student support. Sixty-two college students in the U.S. were recruited through an online survey platform. Findings of this study revealed: (1) improved mental health of college students compared to the beginning of the pandemic; (2) an overall positive learning experience and perceived belongingness to their learning community, as well as high satisfaction with the student support; (3) the major hindrance in the online learning environment was the lack of interactions with teachers and classmates; (4) a relationship between family income and perception of the learning community was discovered, and the students from low-income families were found to feel more belonging to the learning community; (5) hybrid was the optimum learning mode during COVID-19; (6) on-campus students perceived more student support than off-campus students. These findings provided a guideline for future research to further explore, and improve, the online learning environment.

Resilience and COVID-19. An Analysis in University Students during Confinement

“…Conversely, Quintiliani et al [46] found difficulties related with adapting to the new situation, maintaining attention during class, performing evaluations, coping with increased stress, and worrying about academic performance. Zhou and Zhang [47] mentioned the importance of students' mental health in the learning process and found the main obstacle to this during the lockdown to have been the lack of interaction with teachers and fellow students. Apolloni et al [48] highlighted good communication in online education as a protective factor generating resilience in situations of confinement.…”

“…Similarly, Eva et al [49] found that students who were able to regulate their emotions during the confinement obtained greater personal satisfaction and better academic results. As for Zhou and Zhang [47], they found the greatest problem facing students during the lockdown was the lack of personal relations with teachers and fellow students, while Ferreira et al [57] highlighted the importance of family and neighbours as resilience-promoting factors during the confinement. These studies are in line with Yu and Yu [58], who report significant differences in how students deal with emotional problems depending on their sex and academic degree.…”

Higher Education Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning during COVID-19—A Comparative Study

“…Several case studies were conducted [18][19][20] but these, too, focused on specific departments or modules within a university. Both qualitative [21,22] and quantitative research [8,[23][24][25][26] was conducted, both in developing [27][28][29][30], and developed countries [31][32][33] as well as in post-communist countries [34,35].…”

Teaching Style, Coping Strategies, Stress and Social Support: Associations to the Medical Students’ Perception of Learning during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic

“…Part of these perceptions and relationships are already described in very recent literature regarding academic adjustment in the pandemic [48][49][50][51][52][53]. Still, one should notice that this is a very new research field, with a lot of space for investigation.…”