Abstract
On March 11, 2020, the World Health organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Following the speed with which COVID-19 spread to all parts of the world, and to contain the spread of the disease, most governments around the world, including the US, authorized unprecedented social containment measures to stem the tide. These measures among others required social distancing and the temporary physical closure of educational institutions. The Georgia State University School of Public Health, like all other institutions of higher learning, had to create distance-learning opportunities to enable students to complete the 2019–2020 academic year. The unplanned, rapid, and uncertain duration of the approach presented challenges at all academic levels. Not much information on best practices was available to guide such abrupt transitions to college education. The purpose of the study was to collect data on how the transition to distance learning impacted undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in public health at GSU. The goal was to identify student academic challenges and the unforeseen benefits of distance learning, and to use that information to inform practices that can be implemented during crises that impact university education.
Highlights
On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), the presence of numerous cases of an unknown pneumonia-like disease that presented like flu in Wuhan City, Hubei Province in China [1]
Given the fact that not all Georgia State University (GSU) School of Public Health (SPH) students and faculty are familiar with distance learning and that some students do not have ready access to Wi-Fi, and are essential workers, the purpose of the study was to (i) identify the challenges GSU SPH students were facing with their academic work as a result of COVID-19; (ii) inform GSU SPH leadership and faculty about the challenges so they can take appropriate steps to address them; and to (iii) identify the positive aspects of the on-line transition as a result of COVID-19
Demographic and Academic Status Overall, 184 of the 792 (23%) students enrolled in GSU SPH programs invited to participate in the study, completed the survey
Summary
On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), the presence of numerous cases of an unknown pneumonia-like disease that presented like flu in Wuhan City, Hubei Province in China [1]. With no successful vaccine or treatment available, and in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19, most governments around the world, including the US, authorized unprecedented social containment measures. These measures, among others, included social distancing and the temporary physical closure of educational institutions. While distance learning is not a new approach to instruction and learning at Georgia State University’s (GSU) School of Public Health (SPH), the unplanned, rapid, and uncertain duration of the approach, is presenting challenges and taking a toll on students at all academic levels. The purpose of this study was to collect information on how the transition to distance learning impacted undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in public health at GSU. The goal was to identify student academic challenges and unforeseen benefits of distance learning, and to use that information to inform practices that can be implemented during future crises that impact university education
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