There has been a preponderance of studies on student mental health, wellbeing and flourishing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Few studies have compared data on student mental health and wellbeing before and during the pandemic. The purpose of the current study was to compare mental health and wellbeing in undergraduate students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey research was conducted with three groups of undergraduate students (n = 905) from diverse scientific fields at a large, urban university in South Africa. Data was collected by means of electronic surveys, combining full-scale items from three instruments, the Mental Health Continuum Short Form, the Flourishing Scale and the Fragility of Happiness Scale. Data was analysed by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) and R software. The results indicate that while the mental health and wellbeing of students declined during the pandemic concerning their perceived ability to contribute to society, having supportive and rewarding social relationships and them being engaged and interested in their daily activities, it also improved in terms of their perceived ability to manage their daily lives (environmental mastery), being challenged to grow (personal growth) and in terms of their views that society was becoming better (social growth/actualisation).

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Comparing Mental Health, Wellbeing and Flourishing in Undergraduate Students Pre- and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the educational context. University students were exposed to an educational transition from a face-to-face context to emergency remote teaching (ERT). This change affected the educational experience of students and teachers in general, and impacted their educational performance, as well as their emotional and mental health, among other aspects. However, learning from the successes during the ERT and reflecting on good and bad practices will allow us to configure effective learning scenarios that respond to the new normal. The objective of this paper is to describe and present the lessons learned during ERT from the experience of university students in Latin America who have already returned to face-to-face instruction. The study used a qualitative inductive approach and a phenomenographic design. The sample consisted of 640 undergraduate students (63% women) of higher education who experienced online education during the year 2021 and a face-to-face modality during the first semester of 2022, belonging to universities in Chile, Venezuela, and Ecuador. The results suggest that new learning scenarios should consider specific pedagogical practices, including active, collaborative, meaningful, and problem-based strategies, together with a diversity of feedback practices. It is concluded that the ERT brought good practices that should guide university educational policies.

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Lessons Learned from the Educational Experience during COVID-19 from the Perspective of Latin American University Students

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an abrupt change in higher education that had a profound impact on students. Pandemic distance learning required students to regulate their learning more independently and to find new ways of communicating with their peers and instructors. This study focused on how students perceived the learning conditions that they encountered during the first semester that took place online compared to the time before distance learning. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether students’ internal resource management strategies, intrinsic motivation, and instruction format (synchronous, asynchronous, and face-to-face) preferences were associated with the perceived changes of the learning conditions. Students enrolled in a German university (N = 330) answered an online questionnaire at the end of the summer term in 2020. Findings from structural equation modeling showed that the regulative resources of attention and intrinsic motivation were significant factors that predicted how students perceived changes in relevance, quality, and support of online instruction compared to the time before distance learning. However, our results show that these factors did not impact perceived changes in social relatedness. Moreover, the results demonstrate that preferences for digital formats were significant related to student perceptions of changes in relevance, quality, and support, whereas preferences for the face-to-face format had significant negative effects on these factors. Only the face-to-face preference had a significant (negative) effect on social relatedness. Finally, the study revealed an indirect effect of attention on students’ perceived changes of learning conditions through preferences for lesson formats. This study has important implications for digital integration in higher education and suggests that institutions should implement various methods that foster social interaction and internal regulation strategies.

Student teachers’ perceived changes of learning conditions during COVID-19: The role of internal resource management strategies, intrinsic motivation, and preferences for lesson formats

Abstract University students faced unexpected challenges in online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings from early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic and before show that online learning experiences may vary from student to student and depend on several personal characteristics. However, the relative importance of different students’ personal characteristics for their online learning experiences at later phases of the Covid-19 pandemic is still unclear. This cross-sectional, correlational study investigates how personal characteristics of university students are related to five dimensions of online learning perception and to their engagement and performance in online courses. In an online survey, 413 students from German universities provided full information on their online learning experiences and personal characteristics in terms of demographic information, Big Five personality traits, self-regulation skills, three facets of self-efficacy, and two types of state anxiety. Results of multiple regression analyses show that students’ age was significantly positively related to all online learning perceptions and engagement in online courses. Our findings also confirm that self-regulation skills and academic and digital media self-efficacy are important factors in various online learning experiences. In contrast, students’ personality traits and state anxiety were less important for most online learning experiences. Noteworthy, several bivariate associations between personal characteristics and online learning experiences are not reflected in the multiple regression model. This underscores the need to consider relevant variables simultaneously to evaluate their relative importance and to identify key personal characteristics. Overall, our results show valuable starting points for theory development and educational interventions. 

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Online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic: How university students’ perceptions, engagement, and performance are related to their personal characteristics

En la actualidad, modalidades novedosas como la enseñanza híbrida representan herramientas importantes para garantizar la continuidad de las actividades académicas dentro de la educación superior. La presente revisión sistemática buscó analizar el impacto de la pandemia por COVID-19 sobre la educación superior, y el rol de la educación híbrida superior como una alternativa de solución para las actividades académicas en tiempos de nueva normalidad. Para ello, esta búsqueda se centró en recopilar información reciente sobre trabajos que estudiaran los cambios generados en el ámbito educativo propiciados por el COVID-19, con miras a una época de pospandemia. Los resultados dejaron en evidencia el reto que supuso lidiar con la pandemia dentro del ámbito educativo, así como la evolución que este campo ha sufrido en los últimos años. Aunque la educación híbrida representa una alternativa novedosa para ejercer las actividades educativas dentro de la nueva normalidad, todavía debe pasar por su respectivo proceso de mejora, del mismo modo en que ocurrió con la educación a distancia en su momento.

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Educación superior, modalidad hibrida en tiempos de pospandemia: Una revisión sistemática

Due to COVID-19, university students continued their academic training remotely. To assess the effects of emergency remote teaching (ERT), we evaluated the expectations and, subsequently, the experiences of university students about online education. This study employed a simple prospective design as its method. We assessed the expectations of 1,904 students from different discipline areas (1,106 women and 798 men; age M = 21.56; SD = 3.07) during the beginning of the first semester, March 2020 (T1), and their experiences at the end of the same academic period, September 2020 (T2). We used convenience non-probability sampling. Participants responded to the questionnaire on Expectations toward virtual education in higher education for students and the questionnaire on virtual education experiences in higher education. The results showed that students’ responses reflected low expectations regarding peer relationships and comparison with face-to-face education (T1). This perception was maintained during the evaluation of experiences (T2). Students reported positive experiences regarding online teaching and learning, online assessment, and their self-efficacy beliefs at T2. Statistically significant differences between measurements were found, with the expertise presenting higher averages than expectations. Furthermore, differences by gender were identified, reporting a positive change in the scores of women. In addition, results reflected differences according to the disciplinary area, showing Social Sciences and Medical and Health Sciences students a more significant size effect. Findings regarding the empirical evidence and the implications for future teaching scenarios in Higher Education are discussed.

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Carola Bruna Jofré

Papers

Expectations and Experiences With Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic in University Students