Abstract
Stressful events can cause a significant impact on education; however, it is not yet clear how the interplay between anxiety, work, and social dysfunction relates to learning impairments. In this study, we investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ learning and mental health. This study was conducted during four modules of a remote Psychopharmacology course between 5 October and 20 December 2020. We collected data from 28 Psychology undergraduate students at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. We used pre- and post-test multiple-choice questions to obtain a quantitative measure of learning. Students completed an online survey to report demographic information, functional impairment (Work and Social Adjustment scale; WSAS), generalized anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale; GAD-7), coronavirus anxiety (Brazilian adapted version of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale; CAS-BR), and self-perception with the remote lectures’ methodology. In our sample, 42.9% of respondents experienced symptoms of generalized anxiety disorders (GAD-7 ≥ 15), and 53.6% had moderate to severe functional impairment (WSAS > 20). We also observed an overlapping profile of highly anxious and dysfunctional students. A chi-square test of independence revealed a relation between pairs of multiple-choice questions answers and GAD-7 scores, indicating that less anxious students were more likely to perform better in pairs of pre- and post-tests. Intriguingly, the correlational analysis suggested that students with moderate to severe functional impairment (WSAS scores > 20) were less likely to change from an incorrect to a correct answer to pairs of pre- and post-tests. This data suggests that psychological distress and anxiety states might influence students’ ability to coordinate social and work activities and performance during remote learning. Although this study evaluated a small sample of students, our data highlights the importance of investigating anxiety and functional impairment measures as part of the remote-learning curriculum.
Highlights
Our results indicated that all students answered to a similar number of pairs of multiple-choice questions in all four study modules according to GAD-7 (t(26) = 0.38, p < 0.05; Figure 2A) and Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS) cut-scores (t(26) = 0.89, p < 0.05; Figure 2C)
This study examined the impact of ICT on students’ learning during a remote psychopharmacology college course during the COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship with students’ mental health
It is worth noting that when we look closely to the student sample in our previous study [3]; n = 104; age: M = 24.50, standard deviations (SD) = 5.63), CAS-BR (M = 2.53, SD = 2.88), GAD-7 (M = 11.42, SD = 5.29), and WSAS scores (M = 17.50, SD = 9.81) were very similar to the sample used in the current study (n = 28, see Table 1)
Summary
Since May 2020, the world has been facing the COVID-19 pandemic, and students have faced severe alterations in routine worldwide. Brazil is one of the leading countries in the number of infections and deaths and, as of 20 December 2020, Brazil held the third most significant number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world at 7,162,978 and the second most considerable rate of confirmed deaths from this disease at 185,650 deaths [1]. One of the few collective prophylactic measures nationally adopted in Brazil was the suspension of in-person learning activities. Most college courses were transferred to a remote environment to keep the undergraduate students actively enrolled in classes during social distancing [2]
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