Experiences of Honours Research Students and Supervisors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Study Framed by Self-Determination Theory

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of Honours students (n = 21) and Honours supervisors (n = 41) at a major Australian university. Data were collected from voluntary, online, anonymous surveys, which included ratings of the pandemic’s impact on their 1) experience of Honours research activities, and 2) sense of relatedness, competence, autonomy, and wellbeing. Self-determination theory (SDT), which posits that the psychological needs of relatedness, competence, and autonomy lead to a sense of wellbeing, provided a theoretical framework for understanding student and supervisor experience during the pandemic. Both students and supervisors indicated significant impact of the pandemic on the students’ research projects, and the degree of perceived impact did not differ between students and supervisors. There was no relationship between the severity of impact and student or supervisor wellbeing. Student wellbeing was low, but the hypotheses that student SDT needs would not be met were only partly supported. Overall, the extent to which Honours students’ SDT needs were met predicted wellbeing; the outcome was similar for supervisors. Our hypothesis that SDT needs and wellbeing would be higher for supervisors than for students was supported. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, including recommendations for Honours programs as we move through the current pandemic.

Curricular Approaches to Supporting University Student Academic Success and Wellbeing

“…Second, lower engagement in Study 2 may reflect the impact of the pandemic, and in particular, the greater number of stressors students were experiencing. COVID-19 has been challenging for students, given loss of income, needing to adapt to a fully online mode of delivery, and social isolation (Kumar et al, 2021). Given these other life demands, it is not necessarily surprising that students were less able to engage with optional resources in T1 2020.…”

Promoting Student Wellbeing Through Dedicated Units on the Psychological Science of Wellbeing: Rationale, Nature, and Student Evaluations

“…Term 2 2021 is a positive exception. As expected, the learning community rating appears to be less for the initial offerings of online compared to flipped, with this difference reducing over time, and for the most recent offering (T2 2021) the online ratings appear to be substantially higher than the University average. This is likely due to several factors, including increased effective effort to build student-to-student and student-to-educator relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000), particularly after the pandemic onset (Kumar et al, 2021), for example, asking students to respond to one another's posts (thus creating a sense of ‘getting to know’ one another), and emphasising the value of peer feedback on learning (i.e., relatedness ). There was high agreement with the statement “The teaching in this course was inclusive of students of diverse backgrounds”. Inclusivity is emphasised in unit ‘announcements that are designed to acknowledge diversity (thus likely increasing student-instructor relatedness ), as well as in the autonomy provided in the course (thus reducing any sense of ‘one size fits all’). There are many limitations to the conclusions that can be drawn from this study, given the non-experimental design.…”

“…As expected, the learning community rating appears to be less for the initial offerings of online compared to flipped, with this difference reducing over time, and for the most recent offering (T2 2021) the online ratings appear to be substantially higher than the University average. This is likely due to several factors, including increased effective effort to build student-to-student and student-to-educator relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000), particularly after the pandemic onset (Kumar et al, 2021), for example, asking students to respond to one another's posts (thus creating a sense of ‘getting to know’ one another), and emphasising the value of peer feedback on learning (i.e., relatedness ).…”

“…In the past decade there has been increasing concern regarding student distress in the higher education sector (e.g., Orygen, 2017), and this has been exacerbated by the stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Kumar et al, 2021; Ye et al, 2020). Both before and after the onset of the pandemic, institutions have attempted to assist distressed students through extracurricular strategies such as Counselling Services and website resources.…”

The impact of honors education on students’ academic and innovative achievements: a longitudinal study in China (2011–2021)

“…In terms of training objectives, domestic universities focus on fostering students' academic literacy and encouraging further educational pursuits, with the proportion of students pursuing doctoral degrees serving as a crucial indicator to assess educational effectiveness. Researchers adopt localized approaches to explore characteristics of honors students, such as waiting time during classes and well-being (Kumar et al, 2021;Hinterplattner et al, 2022).…”