Supporting students during the transition to university in COVID-19: 5 key considerations and recommendations for educators

Abstract

As COVID-19 continues to disrupt pre-tertiary education provision and examinations in the UK, urgent consideration must be given to how best to support the 2021-2022 cohort of incoming undergraduate students to Higher Education. In this paper, we draw upon the ‘Five Sense of Student Success’ model to highlight five key evidence-based considerations that Higher Education educators should be attentive to when preparing for the next academic year. These include: the challenge in helping students to reacclimatise to academic work following a period of prolonged educational disruption, supporting students to access the ‘hidden curriculum’ of Higher Education, negotiating mental health consequences of COVID-19, and remaining sensitive to inequalities of educational provision that students have experienced as a result of COVID-19. We provide evidence-based recommendations to each of these considerations.

Encouraging Feminist Discussion in Asynchronous Online Teaching

“…However, following the shift to online teaching prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, engaging students creatively and meaningfully in critical debate and discussion is a key challenge (Fear & Erikson-Brown, 2014). This is due to the negative impact that online teaching has on students' confidence and sense of voice (Hill & Fitzgerald, 2020), as well as logistical challenges, such as adequate internet access and connectivity issues (e.g., Nordmann et al, 2020;Pownall et al, 2021). These challenges are particularly problematic for large classes, such as introductory psychology lectures (e.g., Crawford et al, 2020).…”