Influence of COVID-19 Confinement and Pandemic on the Academic Performance of Students

Abstract

The outbreak of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2020 and the consequent confinement and other restrictions imposed by the authorities posed a great challenge for the entire society, and, particularly, it was a great challenge for the educational system. To analyse the effect that the pandemic has had on students’ performance, this paper analyses the academic results of three different courses at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV): before the pandemic (2018–19 academic year); at the beginning of the pandemic, where the strictest confinement measures were imposed (2019–20 academic year) and in later stages of the pandemic where the restrictions were eased (2020–21 academic year). We analysed three first-year physics courses from three different degrees. Despite the efforts made by teachers to try to achieve an evaluation as similar as possible to the situation before the pandemic, an apparent increase in the average grade was observed in the year of confinement. This increase can be explained because the evaluation was fundamentally online. Students were evaluated based on academic work and online exams, where they had at their disposal several means to help them to take those exams. After confinement, the academic results before the pandemic were recovered. This fact is very remarkable since it must be considered that these students are the ones who the previous year had completed a large part of the high school course in confinement conditions. In addition, they have followed the course in a semi-classroom modality recovering the face-to-face assessment. The fact that they had academic results that were similar to those before the pandemic indicates that the course's confinement and semi-attendance have not significantly affected their subsequent academic performance. The percentage of students who withdraw from the three courses has also been analysed.