Did the COVID-19-Related Shift to Online Schooling Influence Students Mental Wellbeing? A Quantitative Study on Level 4 Students at MCAST

Abstract

Following a global increase in daily new cases, hospital admissions, and mortality rates, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11th March 2020. To mitigate the spread of the virus, non-essential shops, schools, and higher education institutions around the world were temporarily closed and learning was conducted online. This study investigates the impact on the mental health and wellbeing of level 4 students undertaking a vocational education and training (VET) higher education at the Malta College of Arts, Science, and Technology (MCAST) following the transition from traditional learning to online education during the pandemic. Data was collected using a quantitative approach through an online questionnaire distributed to MCAST students from different institutes which were invited to participate in this study. According to the findings of this study, students suffered from a lack of attentiveness and motivation for their studies, as well as lower self-esteem during this shift. Moreover, several variables have been identified to correlate with the degree of distress reported by participants, in particular the daily hours of online activities and the students wellbeing prior to the shift to virtual learning. This study proposes strategies that can limit such disadvantages of online learning while proposing techniques that could be adopted following the participants stated desire for future hybrid forms of education.