Old is Gold! Old School is Back to a New School of Learning.

Abstract

Abstract COVID-19 has challenged the way students' learn and gain knowledge. The purpose of this research project was to investigate how students adapted to remote learning due to COVID-19. We selected a group of undergraduate Biomedical Science students at the University of Birmingham, England with the intent of understanding their new approaches to learning and whether remote teaching discriminated against the less fortunate. Our google form survey received 40 responses. 27 students said they forgot how to learn, with only 15 obtaining new ways of learning. This demonstrated how the adjustment to online teaching detracted from the time and energy students could put into learning. 75% of students did not enjoy university as much as they did pre COVID-19, and 3 students liked no aspects of online teaching. 22 students learnt worse online, while 10 felt no difference. Choosing when to watch lectures improved some students time management, self motivation and discipline. However, lack of externally-imposed routine brought new challenges as students had no time pressure, making it easier to fall behind. Cancelled laboratory work meant students missed out on vital skills. Our data showed that student satisfaction decreased, traditional learning methods were lost, and new ways of learning were hard to attain when transitioning to online teaching. With the prospect of learning returning to what the student’s consider normal, students fear this will accentuate how they have forgotten to learn in the traditional way, posing another disruption to their studies as they readjust to a post COVID world, whenever it comes. We anticipate that lessons learnt and forgotten in a pandemic-induced remote environment will remain a challenge to current students at large.