Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic will forever be known as a disruptive dilemma that impacted many industries in Australia. For the university sector, sudden lockdown and social distancing rules resulted in an acceleration in the provision of learning and teaching via online platforms, creating new challenges for students and educators. This project explored the ways in which an enabling course supported students through the forced transition from face-to-face classes to online learning due to the COVID-19 restrictions, and the students’ ability to adjust to the disruption caused by the pandemic. This unexpected change provided the opportunity to explore how enabling students perceived this experience and the effect it had on their ability to complete their units of study. This paper presents findings on the impact that the abrupt transition to online learning had on the students’ educational experience and on their psychological and emotional wellbeing. It was found that most students experienced increased stress due to the changes in household dynamics, responsibilities and a different learning context, yet many reported improved study and technological skills, as well as an improved awareness of their ability to cope with change.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic will forever be known as a disruptive dilemma that impacted many industries in Australia
The research project reported in this paper considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students enrolled in an enabling course at a regional Australian university in Term 1 (March – June), 2020
Students enrolled in face-to-face classes reported a lack of confidence in their ability to transition to online study with almost 50 per cent reporting that they were “not confident” and fewer than 10 per cent feeling “very confident”
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic will forever be known as a disruptive dilemma that impacted many industries in Australia. Sudden lockdown and social distancing rules resulted in an acceleration in the provision of learning and teaching via online platforms, creating new challenges for students and educators This project explored the ways in which an enabling course supported students through the forced transition from face-to-face classes to online learning due to the COVID-19 restrictions, and the students’ ability to adjust to the disruption caused by the pandemic. Maslen (2020) found that in Australia, more than one million students and 100,000 teaching and allied staff employed by 43 universities moved off-campus to study or work from home by late March 2020 This move accelerated the provision of online learning and teaching and created a “digital disruption”, defined by Gartner Information Technology (2020) as “an effect that changes the fundamental expectations and behaviours in a culture, market, industry or process that is caused by... Unplanned digital education may have created new opportunities and skills for university students, but ongoing support in this educational environment is crucial for their success
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