A Survey Study on U.S. College Students’ Learning Experience in COVID-19

Jiahua Zhou,Qiping Zhang

doi:10.3390/educsci11050248

Abstract

COVID-19 affected various aspects of our life. Many college students were forced to take courses remotely. It was not clear how they adapted to this new environment and how their mental health was affected. The objective of this study is to understand college students’ learning experience one year after the outbreak of COVID-19. An online survey was developed to investigate students’ overall learning process, mental health, perception of the learning community and student support. Sixty-two college students in the U.S. were recruited through an online survey platform. Findings of this study revealed: (1) improved mental health of college students compared to the beginning of the pandemic; (2) an overall positive learning experience and perceived belongingness to their learning community, as well as high satisfaction with the student support; (3) the major hindrance in the online learning environment was the lack of interactions with teachers and classmates; (4) a relationship between family income and perception of the learning community was discovered, and the students from low-income families were found to feel more belonging to the learning community; (5) hybrid was the optimum learning mode during COVID-19; (6) on-campus students perceived more student support than off-campus students. These findings provided a guideline for future research to further explore, and improve, the online learning environment.

Highlights

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, known as COVID-19, is a disease that outburst from Hubei Province of China to the world at the beginning of 2020
This study addressed following five research questions: RQ1: What was college students’ overall learning process during COVID-19? RQ2: What was the impact of COVID-19 on college students’ mental health? RQ3: What was college students’ perception of the learning community during COVID-19? RQ4: What was college students’ perception of student support during COVID-19? RQ5: What were the benefits and barriers of taking a course remotely in COVID-19?
Top three items were: the face-to-face resource sessions were valuable when supplemented with online learning; the student was able to work through the subject materials at their own paces; the student was encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning

Summary

Introduction

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, known as COVID-19, is a disease that outburst from Hubei Province of China to the world at the beginning of 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency for containment of this disease on 30 January 2020 [1]. By 23 March 2020, there were approximately 353,000 positive cases and more than 15,000 deaths globally [2]. According to [3], approximately 138 countries closed up their schools by March, which instantaneously affected about 80% of students worldwide. In the U.S, remote online learning was initially a major alternative since March 2020. With the improvement of the COVID-19 situation and the opening of college campuses to students since the winter semester 2020, three alternative learning modes emerged: in-person, hybrid, and remote

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