Digital Disruption in the COVID-19 Era: The Impact on Learning and Students’ Ability to Cope with Study in an Unknown World

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic will forever be known as a disruptive dilemma that impacted many industries in Australia. For the university sector, sudden lockdown and social distancing rules resulted in an acceleration in the provision of learning and teaching via online platforms, creating new challenges for students and educators. This project explored the ways in which an enabling course supported students through the forced transition from face-to-face classes to online learning due to the COVID-19 restrictions, and the students’ ability to adjust to the disruption caused by the pandemic. This unexpected change provided the opportunity to explore how enabling students perceived this experience and the effect it had on their ability to complete their units of study. This paper presents findings on the impact that the abrupt transition to online learning had on the students’ educational experience and on their psychological and emotional wellbeing. It was found that most students experienced increased stress due to the changes in household dynamics, responsibilities and a different learning context, yet many reported improved study and technological skills, as well as an improved awareness of their ability to cope with change.

From the margins to the mainstream: The online learning rethink and its implications for enhancing student equity

“…Students in on-campus enabling, or university pathways programs, also had to make the transition to online study once Covid-19 arrived. Research into their experiences (James et al, 2021) found that they too mostly "adapted and enjoyed the flexibility and convenience of studying at home" (p. 10). This was indicated by comments such as: "It was so much easier not having to drive to campus for classes and to be able to do many things around class time" and "being able to attend lectures anywhere" (p. 8).…”

Taking University to the Students: Forging Connections and Inclusion Through Regional University Centres (RUCs)

“…Currently, the majority of regional, online students are mature-aged (Crawford & Emery, 2021;Pollard, 2017) with online study being overwhelmingly chosen for the flexibility needed to combine family and work responsibilities with their studies (Hewson, 2018;Stone et al, 2019). Interestingly though, with COVID-19 restrictions having forced so many more students online during 2020-2022, recent research is showing how the flexibility of online learning is being similarly valued by the wider student cohort, with younger students also appreciating the flexibility to choose when, where and how they study (James et al, 2021;Martin, 2020;Savage, 2021). The research on which this paper is based (King et al, 2022) argued that RUCs have the potential to further increase the viability of online study for regional school-leaver students, with implications for both their post-school intentions and HE persistence.…”