“My Uni Experience Wasn’t Completely Ruined”: The Impacts of COVID-19 on the First-Year Experience

Abstract

The first year at university is always challenging, but particularly in 2020 when COVID-19 triggered lockdowns and a rapid shift to online learning. This mixed methods study tracked the wellbeing and engagement of 60 new students in an undergraduate teacher education program at an Australian university throughout the first trimester of 2020. Follow-up focus groups with 14 students used interview and photo elicitation to explore how COVID-19 influenced wellbeing and engagement. Quantitative results demonstrate both student wellbeing and student engagement dipped strongly at the start of lockdown but recovered towards the end of the trimester. Focus group findings illustrate the diversity of experience in terms of student access to time and space to study, their ability to sustain relationships online, and the cumulative stress of COVID-19. The findings lead to recommendations for supporting this cohort and for future research.

“Attending lectures in your pyjamas”: student agency in constrained circumstances

“…Difficult living situations were most likely to reduce confidence in learning during ERT (Bartolic et al, 2022 ; Guppy et al, 2022 ). However, students seemed to build new routines for online learning as a result of their early experiences that perhaps, in part, explain the recovery in self-efficacy and wellbeing reported by other researchers as the pandemic continued (Camfield et al, 2021 ; McKay et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Camfield et al (2021) employed the lens of student self-efficacy and noted that while students lost some sense of agency and belonging, they recovered as time went on with inputs from their instructors. Similarly, McKay et al (2021) showed that first-year student wellbeing and engagement initially dropped with ERT and lockdown but recovered through personal strategies like humour, making strategic decisions, and actively seeking help from others. In addition, Wilson et al (2020), through an autoethnographic approach, showed how self-awareness and self-accountability were important to reduce students' feelings of disconnection, while highlighting that such self-regulation is mediated by emotions and external factors.…”

“…The shift to studying at home necessitated different arrangements, as spaces “… carry particular values and histories, which in turn influence how people act within them” (Variyan & Reimer, 2021 , p. 6). Study during ERT benefited from access to computers and fast internet connections (Castelli & Sarvary, 2021 ; Rizvi & Nabi, 2021 ; Weldon et al, 2021 ), as well as to adequate study spaces and support from other people (McKay et al, 2021 ; Rizvi & Nabi, 2021 ; Wilson et al, 2020 ). Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more affected as they lived in areas with poorer internet coverage or connectivity (Cullinan et al, 2021 ), a reason cited for why students do not turn on their cameras during video tutorials (Castelli & Sarvary, 2021 ).…”

PhD existence 2022. Změna: Česko-slovenská psychologická konference (nejen) pro doktorandy a o doktorandech. Sborník odborných příspěvků

“…It is a big test for the mental health and well-being of students. While going to university is an exciting time, it has also been well documented as challenging (Baik et al, 2015, in McKay, O`Bryan, andKahu, 2021). Students have a plenty of changes to manage, including making new relationships, living apart from friends and family, acquiring new study skills, and learning to function as independent adults.…”

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

“…The challenges for HE students who study online, remotely from their university, are well documented and include feelings of isolation, lack of dedicated study times and spaces, problems communicating with teachers and other students, poor course design, and technology issues (Devlin & McKay, 2016;McKay et al, 2021;Moore & Greenland, 2017;Ragusa & Crampton, 2018;Stone, 2019). Across regional Australia, home internet connection is a particular concern with many regional areas experiencing poor and unreliable internet provision (Attree, 2021;Stone & Davis, 2020).…”