First-Year Experience in the COVID-19 Situation and the Association between Students’ Approaches to Learning, Study-Related Burnout and Experiences of Online Studying

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the association between students’ approaches to learning and their experiences of study-related burnout in their first year of higher education. The objective was also to explore these association with a person-oriented approach by examining various learning profiles and their relation to experiences of study-related burnout and experiences of studying during the COVID 19-situation. The participants in this study were 384 first-year life sciences students who answered a questionnaire at the end of first year with Likert-type and open-ended questions. K-means clustering and ANOVA analyses were used to examine the profiles and differences in their perceptions of burnout. Students’ experiences of studying were analysed qualitatively and differences between profiles were examined with Chi Square analysis. The results of this study show that an unreflective approach to learning is most strongly related to experiences of burnout and that experiences of online studying differed between profiles.