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Original research article, insights into students’ experiences and perceptions of remote learning methods: from the covid-19 pandemic to best practice for the future.

• 1 Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute, San Francisco, CA, United States
• 2 Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship, Montclair, NJ, United States
• 3 Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

This spring, students across the globe transitioned from in-person classes to remote learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented change to undergraduate education saw institutions adopting multiple online teaching modalities and instructional platforms. We sought to understand students’ experiences with and perspectives on those methods of remote instruction in order to inform pedagogical decisions during the current pandemic and in future development of online courses and virtual learning experiences. Our survey gathered quantitative and qualitative data regarding students’ experiences with synchronous and asynchronous methods of remote learning and specific pedagogical techniques associated with each. A total of 4,789 undergraduate participants representing institutions across 95 countries were recruited via Instagram. We find that most students prefer synchronous online classes, and students whose primary mode of remote instruction has been synchronous report being more engaged and motivated. Our qualitative data show that students miss the social aspects of learning on campus, and it is possible that synchronous learning helps to mitigate some feelings of isolation. Students whose synchronous classes include active-learning techniques (which are inherently more social) report significantly higher levels of engagement, motivation, enjoyment, and satisfaction with instruction. Respondents’ recommendations for changes emphasize increased engagement, interaction, and student participation. We conclude that active-learning methods, which are known to increase motivation, engagement, and learning in traditional classrooms, also have a positive impact in the remote-learning environment. Integrating these elements into online courses will improve the student experience.

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the demographics of online students. Previously, almost all students engaged in online learning elected the online format, starting with individual online courses in the mid-1990s through today’s robust online degree and certificate programs. These students prioritize convenience, flexibility and ability to work while studying and are older than traditional college age students ( Harris and Martin, 2012 ; Levitz, 2016 ). These students also find asynchronous elements of a course are more useful than synchronous elements ( Gillingham and Molinari, 2012 ). In contrast, students who chose to take courses in-person prioritize face-to-face instruction and connection with others and skew considerably younger ( Harris and Martin, 2012 ). This leaves open the question of whether students who prefer to learn in-person but are forced to learn remotely will prefer synchronous or asynchronous methods. One study of student preferences following a switch to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that students enjoy synchronous over asynchronous course elements and find them more effective ( Gillis and Krull, 2020 ). Now that millions of traditional in-person courses have transitioned online, our survey expands the data on student preferences and explores if those preferences align with pedagogical best practices.

An extensive body of research has explored what instructional methods improve student learning outcomes (Fink. 2013). Considerable evidence indicates that active-learning or student-centered approaches result in better learning outcomes than passive-learning or instructor-centered approaches, both in-person and online ( Freeman et al., 2014 ; Chen et al., 2018 ; Davis et al., 2018 ). Active-learning approaches include student activities or discussion in class, whereas passive-learning approaches emphasize extensive exposition by the instructor ( Freeman et al., 2014 ). Constructivist learning theories argue that students must be active participants in creating their own learning, and that listening to expert explanations is seldom sufficient to trigger the neurological changes necessary for learning ( Bostock, 1998 ; Zull, 2002 ). Some studies conclude that, while students learn more via active learning, they may report greater perceptions of their learning and greater enjoyment when passive approaches are used ( Deslauriers et al., 2019 ). We examine student perceptions of remote learning experiences in light of these previous findings.

In this study, we administered a survey focused on student perceptions of remote learning in late May 2020 through the social media account of @unjadedjade to a global population of English speaking undergraduate students representing institutions across 95 countries. We aim to explore how students were being taught, the relationship between pedagogical methods and student perceptions of their experience, and the reasons behind those perceptions. Here we present an initial analysis of the results and share our data set for further inquiry. We find that positive student perceptions correlate with synchronous courses that employ a variety of interactive pedagogical techniques, and that students overwhelmingly suggest behavioral and pedagogical changes that increase social engagement and interaction. We argue that these results support the importance of active learning in an online environment.

Materials and Methods

Participant pool.

Students were recruited through the Instagram account @unjadedjade. This social media platform, run by influencer Jade Bowler, focuses on education, effective study tips, ethical lifestyle, and promotes a positive mindset. For this reason, the audience is presumably academically inclined, and interested in self-improvement. The survey was posted to her account and received 10,563 responses within the first 36 h. Here we analyze the 4,789 of those responses that came from undergraduates. While we did not collect demographic or identifying information, we suspect that women are overrepresented in these data as followers of @unjadedjade are 80% women. A large minority of respondents were from the United Kingdom as Jade Bowler is a British influencer. Specifically, 43.3% of participants attend United Kingdom institutions, followed by 6.7% attending university in the Netherlands, 6.1% in Germany, 5.8% in the United States and 4.2% in Australia. Ninety additional countries are represented in these data (see Supplementary Figure 1 ).

Survey Design

The purpose of this survey is to learn about students’ instructional experiences following the transition to remote learning in the spring of 2020.

This survey was initially created for a student assignment for the undergraduate course Empirical Analysis at Minerva Schools at KGI. That version served as a robust pre-test and allowed for identification of the primary online platforms used, and the four primary modes of learning: synchronous (live) classes, recorded lectures and videos, uploaded or emailed materials, and chat-based communication. We did not adapt any open-ended questions based on the pre-test survey to avoid biasing the results and only corrected language in questions for clarity. We used these data along with an analysis of common practices in online learning to revise the survey. Our revised survey asked students to identify the synchronous and asynchronous pedagogical methods and platforms that they were using for remote learning. Pedagogical methods were drawn from literature assessing active and passive teaching strategies in North American institutions ( Fink, 2013 ; Chen et al., 2018 ; Davis et al., 2018 ). Open-ended questions asked students to describe why they preferred certain modes of learning and how they could improve their learning experience. Students also reported on their affective response to learning and participation using a Likert scale.

The revised survey also asked whether students had responded to the earlier survey. No significant differences were found between responses of those answering for the first and second times (data not shown). See Supplementary Appendix 1 for survey questions. Survey data was collected from 5/21/20 to 5/23/20.

Qualitative Coding

We applied a qualitative coding framework adapted from Gale et al. (2013) to analyze student responses to open-ended questions. Four researchers read several hundred responses and noted themes that surfaced. We then developed a list of themes inductively from the survey data and deductively from the literature on pedagogical practice ( Garrison et al., 1999 ; Zull, 2002 ; Fink, 2013 ; Freeman et al., 2014 ). The initial codebook was revised collaboratively based on feedback from researchers after coding 20–80 qualitative comments each. Before coding their assigned questions, alignment was examined through coding of 20 additional responses. Researchers aligned in identifying the same major themes. Discrepancies in terms identified were resolved through discussion. Researchers continued to meet weekly to discuss progress and alignment. The majority of responses were coded by a single researcher using the final codebook ( Supplementary Table 1 ). All responses to questions 3 (4,318 responses) and 8 (4,704 responses), and 2,512 of 4,776 responses to question 12 were analyzed. Valence was also indicated where necessary (i.e., positive or negative discussion of terms). This paper focuses on the most prevalent themes from our initial analysis of the qualitative responses. The corresponding author reviewed codes to ensure consistency and accuracy of reported data.

Statistical Analysis

The survey included two sets of Likert-scale questions, one consisting of a set of six statements about students’ perceptions of their experiences following the transition to remote learning ( Table 1 ). For each statement, students indicated their level of agreement with the statement on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (“Strongly Disagree”) to 5 (“Strongly Agree”). The second set asked the students to respond to the same set of statements, but about their retroactive perceptions of their experiences with in-person instruction before the transition to remote learning. This set was not the subject of our analysis but is present in the published survey results. To explore correlations among student responses, we used CrossCat analysis to calculate the probability of dependence between Likert-scale responses ( Mansinghka et al., 2016 ).

Table 1. Likert-scale questions.

Mean values are calculated based on the numerical scores associated with each response. Measures of statistical significance for comparisons between different subgroups of respondents were calculated using a two-sided Mann-Whitney U -test, and p -values reported here are based on this test statistic. We report effect sizes in pairwise comparisons using the common-language effect size, f , which is the probability that the response from a random sample from subgroup 1 is greater than the response from a random sample from subgroup 2. We also examined the effects of different modes of remote learning and technological platforms using ordinal logistic regression. With the exception of the mean values, all of these analyses treat Likert-scale responses as ordinal-scale, rather than interval-scale data.

Students Prefer Synchronous Class Sessions

Students were asked to identify their primary mode of learning given four categories of remote course design that emerged from the pilot survey and across literature on online teaching: live (synchronous) classes, recorded lectures and videos, emailed or uploaded materials, and chats and discussion forums. While 42.7% ( n = 2,045) students identified live classes as their primary mode of learning, 54.6% ( n = 2613) students preferred this mode ( Figure 1 ). Both recorded lectures and live classes were preferred over uploaded materials (6.22%, n = 298) and chat (3.36%, n = 161).

Figure 1. Actual (A) and preferred (B) primary modes of learning.

In addition to a preference for live classes, students whose primary mode was synchronous were more likely to enjoy the class, feel motivated and engaged, be satisfied with instruction and report higher levels of participation ( Table 2 and Supplementary Figure 2 ). Regardless of primary mode, over two-thirds of students reported they are often distracted during remote courses.

Table 2. The effect of synchronous vs. asynchronous primary modes of learning on student perceptions.

Variation in Pedagogical Techniques for Synchronous Classes Results in More Positive Perceptions of the Student Learning Experience

To survey the use of passive vs. active instructional methods, students reported the pedagogical techniques used in their live classes. Among the synchronous methods, we identify three different categories ( National Research Council, 2000 ; Freeman et al., 2014 ). Passive methods (P) include lectures, presentations, and explanation using diagrams, white boards and/or other media. These methods all rely on instructor delivery rather than student participation. Our next category represents active learning through primarily one-on-one interactions (A). The methods in this group are in-class assessment, question-and-answer (Q&A), and classroom chat. Group interactions (F) included classroom discussions and small-group activities. Given these categories, Mann-Whitney U pairwise comparisons between the 7 possible combinations and Likert scale responses about student experience showed that the use of a variety of methods resulted in higher ratings of experience vs. the use of a single method whether or not that single method was active or passive ( Table 3 ). Indeed, students whose classes used methods from each category (PAF) had higher ratings of enjoyment, motivation, and satisfaction with instruction than those who only chose any single method ( p < 0.0001) and also rated higher rates of participation and engagement compared to students whose only method was passive (P) or active through one-on-one interactions (A) ( p < 0.00001). Student ratings of distraction were not significantly different for any comparison. Given that sets of Likert responses often appeared significant together in these comparisons, we ran a CrossCat analysis to look at the probability of dependence across Likert responses. Responses have a high probability of dependence on each other, limiting what we can claim about any discrete response ( Supplementary Figure 3 ).

Table 3. Comparison of combinations of synchronous methods on student perceptions. Effect size (f).

Mann-Whitney U pairwise comparisons were also used to check if improvement in student experience was associated with the number of methods used vs. the variety of types of methods. For every comparison, we found that more methods resulted in higher scores on all Likert measures except distraction ( Table 4 ). Even comparison between four or fewer methods and greater than four methods resulted in a 59% chance that the latter enjoyed the courses more ( p < 0.00001) and 60% chance that they felt more motivated to learn ( p < 0.00001). Students who selected more than four methods ( n = 417) were also 65.1% ( p < 0.00001), 62.9% ( p < 0.00001) and 64.3% ( p < 0.00001) more satisfied with instruction, engaged, and actively participating, respectfully. Therefore, there was an overlap between how the number and variety of methods influenced students’ experiences. Since the number of techniques per category is 2–3, we cannot fully disentangle the effect of number vs. variety. Pairwise comparisons to look at subsets of data with 2–3 methods from a single group vs. 2–3 methods across groups controlled for this but had low sample numbers in most groups and resulted in no significant findings (data not shown). Therefore, from the data we have in our survey, there seems to be an interdependence between number and variety of methods on students’ learning experiences.

Table 4. Comparison of the number of synchronous methods on student perceptions. Effect size (f).

Variation in Asynchronous Pedagogical Techniques Results in More Positive Perceptions of the Student Learning Experience

Along with synchronous pedagogical methods, students reported the asynchronous methods that were used for their classes. We divided these methods into three main categories and conducted pairwise comparisons. Learning methods include video lectures, video content, and posted study materials. Interacting methods include discussion/chat forums, live office hours, and email Q&A with professors. Testing methods include assignments and exams. Our results again show the importance of variety in students’ perceptions ( Table 5 ). For example, compared to providing learning materials only, providing learning materials, interaction, and testing improved enjoyment ( f = 0.546, p < 0.001), motivation ( f = 0.553, p < 0.0001), satisfaction with instruction ( f = 0.596, p < 0.00001), engagement ( f = 0.572, p < 0.00001) and active participation ( f = 0.563, p < 0.00001) (row 6). Similarly, compared to just being interactive with conversations, the combination of all three methods improved five out of six indicators, except for distraction in class (row 11).

Table 5. Comparison of combinations of asynchronous methods on student perceptions. Effect size (f).

Ordinal logistic regression was used to assess the likelihood that the platforms students used predicted student perceptions ( Supplementary Table 2 ). Platform choices were based on the answers to open-ended questions in the pre-test survey. The synchronous and asynchronous methods used were consistently more predictive of Likert responses than the specific platforms. Likewise, distraction continued to be our outlier with no differences across methods or platforms.

Students Prefer In-Person and Synchronous Online Learning Largely Due to Social-Emotional Reasoning

As expected, 86.1% (4,123) of survey participants report a preference for in-person courses, while 13.9% (666) prefer online courses. When asked to explain the reasons for their preference, students who prefer in-person courses most often mention the importance of social interaction (693 mentions), engagement (639 mentions), and motivation (440 mentions). These students are also more likely to mention a preference for a fixed schedule (185 mentions) vs. a flexible schedule (2 mentions).

In addition to identifying social reasons for their preference for in-person learning, students’ suggestions for improvements in online learning focus primarily on increasing interaction and engagement, with 845 mentions of live classes, 685 mentions of interaction, 126 calls for increased participation and calls for changes related to these topics such as, “Smaller teaching groups for live sessions so that everyone is encouraged to talk as some people don’t say anything and don’t participate in group work,” and “Make it less of the professor reading the pdf that was given to us and more interaction.”

Students who prefer online learning primarily identify independence and flexibility (214 mentions) and reasons related to anxiety and discomfort in in-person settings (41 mentions). Anxiety was only mentioned 12 times in the much larger group that prefers in-person learning.

The preference for synchronous vs. asynchronous modes of learning follows similar trends ( Table 6 ). Students who prefer live classes mention engagement and interaction most often while those who prefer recorded lectures mention flexibility.

Table 6. Most prevalent themes for students based on their preferred mode of remote learning.

Student Perceptions Align With Research on Active Learning

The first, and most robust, conclusion is that incorporation of active-learning methods correlates with more positive student perceptions of affect and engagement. We can see this clearly in the substantial differences on a number of measures, where students whose classes used only passive-learning techniques reported lower levels of engagement, satisfaction, participation, and motivation when compared with students whose classes incorporated at least some active-learning elements. This result is consistent with prior research on the value of active learning ( Freeman et al., 2014 ).

Though research shows that student learning improves in active learning classes, on campus, student perceptions of their learning, enjoyment, and satisfaction with instruction are often lower in active-learning courses ( Deslauriers et al., 2019 ). Our finding that students rate enjoyment and satisfaction with instruction higher for active learning online suggests that the preference for passive lectures on campus relies on elements outside of the lecture itself. That might include the lecture hall environment, the social physical presence of peers, or normalization of passive lectures as the expected mode for on-campus classes. This implies that there may be more buy-in for active learning online vs. in-person.

A second result from our survey is that student perceptions of affect and engagement are associated with students experiencing a greater diversity of learning modalities. We see this in two different results. First, in addition to the fact that classes that include active learning outperform classes that rely solely on passive methods, we find that on all measures besides distraction, the highest student ratings are associated with a combination of active and passive methods. Second, we find that these higher scores are associated with classes that make use of a larger number of different methods.

This second result suggests that students benefit from classes that make use of multiple different techniques, possibly invoking a combination of passive and active methods. However, it is unclear from our data whether this effect is associated specifically with combining active and passive methods, or if it is associated simply with the use of multiple different methods, irrespective of whether those methods are active, passive, or some combination. The problem is that the number of methods used is confounded with the diversity of methods (e.g., it is impossible for a classroom using only one method to use both active and passive methods). In an attempt to address this question, we looked separately at the effect of number and diversity of methods while holding the other constant. Across a large number of such comparisons, we found few statistically significant differences, which may be a consequence of the fact that each comparison focused on a small subset of the data.

Thus, our data suggests that using a greater diversity of learning methods in the classroom may lead to better student outcomes. This is supported by research on student attention span which suggests varying delivery after 10–15 min to retain student’s attention ( Bradbury, 2016 ). It is likely that this is more relevant for online learning where students report high levels of distraction across methods, modalities, and platforms. Given that number and variety are key, and there are few passive learning methods, we can assume that some combination of methods that includes active learning improves student experience. However, it is not clear whether we should predict that this benefit would come simply from increasing the number of different methods used, or if there are benefits specific to combining particular methods. Disentangling these effects would be an interesting avenue for future research.

Students Value Social Presence in Remote Learning

Student responses across our open-ended survey questions show a striking difference in reasons for their preferences compared with traditional online learners who prefer flexibility ( Harris and Martin, 2012 ; Levitz, 2016 ). Students reasons for preferring in-person classes and synchronous remote classes emphasize the desire for social interaction and echo the research on the importance of social presence for learning in online courses.

Short et al. (1976) outlined Social Presence Theory in depicting students’ perceptions of each other as real in different means of telecommunications. These ideas translate directly to questions surrounding online education and pedagogy in regards to educational design in networked learning where connection across learners and instructors improves learning outcomes especially with “Human-Human interaction” ( Goodyear, 2002 , 2005 ; Tu, 2002 ). These ideas play heavily into asynchronous vs. synchronous learning, where Tu reports students having positive responses to both synchronous “real-time discussion in pleasantness, responsiveness and comfort with familiar topics” and real-time discussions edging out asynchronous computer-mediated communications in immediate replies and responsiveness. Tu’s research indicates that students perceive more interaction with synchronous mediums such as discussions because of immediacy which enhances social presence and support the use of active learning techniques ( Gunawardena, 1995 ; Tu, 2002 ). Thus, verbal immediacy and communities with face-to-face interactions, such as those in synchronous learning classrooms, lessen the psychological distance of communicators online and can simultaneously improve instructional satisfaction and reported learning ( Gunawardena and Zittle, 1997 ; Richardson and Swan, 2019 ; Shea et al., 2019 ). While synchronous learning may not be ideal for traditional online students and a subset of our participants, this research suggests that non-traditional online learners are more likely to appreciate the value of social presence.

Social presence also connects to the importance of social connections in learning. Too often, current systems of education emphasize course content in narrow ways that fail to embrace the full humanity of students and instructors ( Gay, 2000 ). With the COVID-19 pandemic leading to further social isolation for many students, the importance of social presence in courses, including live interactions that build social connections with classmates and with instructors, may be increased.

Limitations of These Data

Our undergraduate data consisted of 4,789 responses from 95 different countries, an unprecedented global scale for research on online learning. However, since respondents were followers of @unjadedjade who focuses on learning and wellness, these respondents may not represent the average student. Biases in survey responses are often limited by their recruitment techniques and our bias likely resulted in more robust and thoughtful responses to free-response questions and may have influenced the preference for synchronous classes. It is unlikely that it changed students reporting on remote learning pedagogical methods since those are out of student control.

Though we surveyed a global population, our design was rooted in literature assessing pedagogy in North American institutions. Therefore, our survey may not represent a global array of teaching practices.

This survey was sent out during the initial phase of emergency remote learning for most countries. This has two important implications. First, perceptions of remote learning may be clouded by complications of the pandemic which has increased social, mental, and financial stresses globally. Future research could disaggregate the impact of the pandemic from students’ learning experiences with a more detailed and holistic analysis of the impact of the pandemic on students.

Second, instructors, students and institutions were not able to fully prepare for effective remote education in terms of infrastructure, mentality, curriculum building, and pedagogy. Therefore, student experiences reflect this emergency transition. Single-modality courses may correlate with instructors who lacked the resources or time to learn or integrate more than one modality. Regardless, the main insights of this research align well with the science of teaching and learning and can be used to inform both education during future emergencies and course development for online programs that wish to attract traditional college students.

Global Student Voices Improve Our Understanding of the Experience of Emergency Remote Learning

Our survey shows that global student perspectives on remote learning agree with pedagogical best practices, breaking with the often-found negative reactions of students to these practices in traditional classrooms ( Shekhar et al., 2020 ). Our analysis of open-ended questions and preferences show that a majority of students prefer pedagogical approaches that promote both active learning and social interaction. These results can serve as a guide to instructors as they design online classes, especially for students whose first choice may be in-person learning. Indeed, with the near ubiquitous adoption of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, remote learning may be the default for colleges during temporary emergencies. This has already been used at the K-12 level as snow days become virtual learning days ( Aspergren, 2020 ).

In addition to informing pedagogical decisions, the results of this survey can be used to inform future research. Although we survey a global population, our recruitment method selected for students who are English speakers, likely majority female, and have an interest in self-improvement. Repeating this study with a more diverse and representative sample of university students could improve the generalizability of our findings. While the use of a variety of pedagogical methods is better than a single method, more research is needed to determine what the optimal combinations and implementations are for courses in different disciplines. Though we identified social presence as the major trend in student responses, the over 12,000 open-ended responses from students could be analyzed in greater detail to gain a more nuanced understanding of student preferences and suggestions for improvement. Likewise, outliers could shed light on the diversity of student perspectives that we may encounter in our own classrooms. Beyond this, our findings can inform research that collects demographic data and/or measures learning outcomes to understand the impact of remote learning on different populations.

Importantly, this paper focuses on a subset of responses from the full data set which includes 10,563 students from secondary school, undergraduate, graduate, or professional school and additional questions about in-person learning. Our full data set is available here for anyone to download for continued exploration: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId= doi: 10.7910/DVN/2TGOPH .

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

GS: project lead, survey design, qualitative coding, writing, review, and editing. TN: data analysis, writing, review, and editing. CN and PB: qualitative coding. JW: data analysis, writing, and editing. CS: writing, review, and editing. EV and KL: original survey design and qualitative coding. PP: data analysis. JB: original survey design and survey distribution. HH: data analysis. MP: writing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We want to thank Minerva Schools at KGI for providing funding for summer undergraduate research internships. We also want to thank Josh Fost and Christopher V. H.-H. Chen for discussion that helped shape this project.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2021.647986/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords : online learning, COVID-19, active learning, higher education, pedagogy, survey, international

Citation: Nguyen T, Netto CLM, Wilkins JF, Bröker P, Vargas EE, Sealfon CD, Puthipiroj P, Li KS, Bowler JE, Hinson HR, Pujar M and Stein GM (2021) Insights Into Students’ Experiences and Perceptions of Remote Learning Methods: From the COVID-19 Pandemic to Best Practice for the Future. Front. Educ. 6:647986. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2021.647986

Received: 30 December 2020; Accepted: 09 March 2021; Published: 09 April 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Nguyen, Netto, Wilkins, Bröker, Vargas, Sealfon, Puthipiroj, Li, Bowler, Hinson, Pujar and Stein. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Geneva M. Stein, [email protected]

This article is part of the Research Topic

Covid-19 and Beyond: From (Forced) Remote Teaching and Learning to ‘The New Normal’ in Higher Education

Capturing the benefits of remote learning

How education experts are applying lessons learned in the pandemic to promote positive outcomes for all students

Vol. 52 No. 6 Print version: page 46

• Schools and Classrooms

With schools open again after more than a year of teaching students outside the classroom, the pandemic sometimes feels like a distant memory. The return to classrooms this fall brings major relief for many families and educators. Factors such as a lack of reliable technology and family support, along with an absence of school resources, resulted in significant academic setbacks, not to mention stress for everyone involved.

But for all the downsides of distance learning, educators, psychologists, and parents have seen some benefits as well. For example, certain populations of students found new ways to be more engaged in learning, without the distractions and difficulties they faced in the classroom, and the general challenges of remote learning and the pandemic brought mental health to the forefront of the classroom experience.

Peter Faustino, PsyD, a school psychologist in Scarsdale, New York, said the pandemic also prompted educators and school psychologists to find creative new ways of ensuring students’ emotional and academic well-being. “So many students were impacted by the pandemic, so we couldn’t just assume they would find resources on their own,” said Faustino. “We had to work hard at figuring out new ways to connect with them.”

Here are some of the benefits of distance learning that school psychologists and educators have observed and the ways in which they’re implementing those lessons post-pandemic, with the goal of creating a more equitable, productive environment for all students.

Prioritizing mental health

Faustino said that during the pandemic, he had more mental health conversations with students, families, and teachers than ever. “Because COVID-19 affected everyone, we’re now having mental health discussions as school leaders on a daily and weekly basis,” he said.

This renewed focus on mental health has the potential to improve students’ well-being in profound ways—starting with helping them recover from the pandemic’s effects. In New York City, for example, schools are hiring more than 600 new clinicians, including psychologists , to screen students’ mental health and help them process pandemic-related trauma and adjust to the “new normal” of attending school in person.

Educators and families are also realizing the importance of protecting students’ mental health more generally—not only for their health and safety but for their learning. “We’ve been seeing a broader appreciation for the fact that mental health is a prerequisite for learning rather than an extracurricular pursuit,” said Eric Rossen, PhD, director of professional development and standards at the National Association of School Psychologists.

As a result, Rossen hopes educators will embed social and emotional learning components into daily instruction. For example, teachers could teach mindfulness techniques in the classroom and take in-the-moment opportunities to help kids resolve conflicts or manage stress.

Improved access to mental health resources in schools is another positive effect. Because of physical distancing guidelines, school leaders had to find ways to deliver mental health services remotely, including via online referrals and teletherapy with school psychologists and counselors.

Early in the pandemic, Faustino said he was hesitant about teletherapy’s effectiveness; now, he hopes to continue offering a virtual option. Online scheduling and remote appointments make it easier for students to access mental health resources, and some students even enjoy virtual appointments more, as they can attend therapy in their own spaces rather than showing up in the counselor’s office. For older students, Faustino said that level of comfort often leads to more productive, open conversations.

Autonomy as a key to motivation

Research suggests that when students have more choices about their materials and activities, they’re more motivated—which may translate to increased learning and academic success. In a 2016 paper, psychology researcher Allan Wigfield, PhD, and colleagues make the case that control and autonomy in reading activities can improve both motivation and comprehension ( Child Development Perspectives , Vol. 10, No. 3 ).

During the period of online teaching, some students had opportunities to learn at their own pace, which educators say improved their learning outcomes—especially in older students. In a 2020 survey of more than 600 parents, researchers found the second-most-valued benefit of distance learning was flexibility—not only in schedule but in method of learning.

In a recent study, researchers found that 18% of parents pointed to greater flexibility in a child’s schedule or way of learning as the biggest benefit or positive outcome related to remote learning ( School Psychology , Roy, A., et al., in press).

This individualized learning helps students find more free time for interests and also allows them to conduct their learning at a time they’re most likely to succeed. During the pandemic, Mark Gardner, an English teacher at Hayes Freedom High School in Camas, Washington, said he realized how important student-centered learning is and that whether learning happens should take precedence over how and when it occurs.

For example, one of his students thrived when he had the choice to do work later at night because he took care of his siblings during the day. Now, Gardner posts homework online on Sundays so students can work at their own pace during the week. “Going forward, we want to create as many access points as we can for kids to engage with learning,” he said.

Rosanna Breaux , PhD, an assistant professor of psychology and assistant director of the Child Study Center at Virginia Tech, agrees. “I’d like to see this flexibility continue in some way, where—similar to college—students can guide their own learning based on their interests or when they’re most productive,” she said.

During the pandemic, many educators were forced to rethink how to keep students engaged. Rossen said because many school districts shared virtual curricula during the period of remote learning, older students could take more challenging or interesting courses than they could in person. The same is true for younger students: Megan Hibbard, a teacher in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, said many of her fifth graders enjoyed distance learning more than in-person because they could work on projects that aligned with their interests.

“So much of motivation is discovering the unique things the student finds interesting,” said Hunter Gehlbach, PhD, a professor and vice dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Education. “The more you can facilitate students spending more time on the things they’re really interested in, the better.”

Going forward, Rossen hopes virtual curricula will allow students greater opportunities to pursue their interests, such as by taking AP classes, foreign languages, or vocational electives not available at their own schools.

Conversely, Hibbard’s goal is to increase opportunities for students to pursue their interests in the in-person setting. For example, she plans to increase what she calls “Genius Hours,” a time at the end of the school day when students can focus on high-interest projects they’ll eventually share with the class.

Better understanding of children's needs

One of the most important predictors of a child’s success in school is parental involvement in their education. For example, in a meta-analysis of studies, researchers linked parental engagement in their middle schoolers’ education with greater measures of success (Hill, N. E., & Tyson, D. F., Developmental Psychology , Vol. 45, No. 3, 2009).

During the pandemic, parents had new opportunities to learn about their kids and, as a result, help them learn. According to a study by Breaux and colleagues, many parents reported that the pandemic allowed them a better understanding of their child’s learning style, needs, or curriculum.

James C. Kaufman , PhD, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut and the father of an elementary schooler and a high schooler, said he’s had a front-row seat for his sons’ learning for the first time. “Watching my kids learn and engage with classmates has given me some insight in how to parent them,” he said.

Stephen Becker , PhD, a pediatric psychologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, said some parents have observed their children’s behavior or learning needs for the first time, which could prompt them to consider assessment and Individualized Education Program (IEP) services. Across the board, Gehlbach said parents are realizing how they can better partner with schools to ensure their kids’ well-being and academic success.

For example, Samantha Marks , PsyD, a Florida-based clinical psychologist, said she realized how much help her middle school daughter, a gifted and talented student with a 504 plan (a plan for how the school will offer support for a student’s disability) for anxiety, needed with independence. “Bringing the learning home made it crystal clear what we needed to teach our daughter to be independent and improve executive functioning” she said. “My takeaway from this is that more parents need to be involved in their children’s education in a healthy, helpful way.”

Marks also gained a deeper understanding of her daughter’s mental health needs. Through her 504 plan, she received help managing her anxiety at school—at home, though, Marks wasn’t always available to help, which taught her the importance of helping her daughter manage her anxiety independently.

Along with parents gaining a deeper understanding of their kids’ needs, the pandemic also prompted greater parent participation in school. For example, Rossen said his kids’ school had virtual school board meetings; he hopes virtual options continue for events like back-to-school information sessions and parenting workshops. “These meetings are often in the evening, and if you’re a single parent or sole caregiver, you may not want to pay a babysitter in order to attend,” he said.

Brittany Greiert, PhD, a school psychologist in Aurora, Colorado, says culturally and linguistically diverse families at her schools benefited from streamlined opportunities to communicate with administrators and teachers. Her district used an app that translates parent communication into 150 languages. Parents can also remotely participate in meetings with school psychologists or teachers, which Greiert says she plans to continue post-pandemic.

Decreased bullying

During stay-at-home orders, kids with neurodevelopmental disorders experienced less bullying than pre-pandemic (McFayden, T. C., et al., Journal of Rural Mental Health , No. 45, Vol. 2, 2021). According to 2019 research, children with emotional, behavioral, and physical health needs experience increased rates of bullying victimization ( Lebrun-Harris, L. A., et al., ), and from the U.S. Department of Education suggests the majority of bullying takes place in person and in unsupervised areas (PDF) .

Scott Graves , PhD, an associate professor of educational studies at The Ohio State University and a member of APA’s Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education (CPSE), said the supervision by parents and teachers in remote learning likely played a part in reducing bullying. As a result, he’s less worried his Black sons will be victims of microaggressions and racist behavior during online learning.

Some Asian American families also report that remote learning offered protection against racism students may have experienced in person. Shereen Naser, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Cleveland State University and a member of CPSE, and colleagues found that students are more comfortable saying discriminatory things in school when their teachers are also doing so; Naser suspects this trickle-down effect is less likely to happen when students learn from home ( School Psychology International , 2019).

Reductions in bullying and microaggressions aren’t just beneficial for students’ long-term mental health. Breaux said less bullying at school results in less stress, which can improve students’ self-esteem and mood—both of which impact their ability to learn.

Patricia Perez, PhD, an associate professor of international psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and a member of CPSE, said it’s important for schools to be proactive in providing spaces for support and cultural expression for students from vulnerable backgrounds, whether in culture-specific clubs, all-school assemblies that address racism and other diversity-related topics, or safe spaces to process feelings with teachers.

According to Rossen, many schools are already considering how to continue supporting students at risk for bullying, including by restructuring the school environment.

One principal, Rossen said, recently switched to single-use bathrooms to avoid congregating in those spaces once in-person learning commences to maintain social distancing requirements. “The principal received feedback from students about how going to the bathroom is much less stressful for these students in part due to less bullying,” he said.

More opportunities for special needs students

In Becker and Breaux’s research, parents of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), particularly those with a 504 plan and IEP, reported greater difficulties with remote learning. But some students with special learning needs—including those with IEPs and 504 plans—thrived in an at-home learning environment. Recent reporting in The New York Times suggests this is one reason many students want to continue online learning.

According to Cara Laitusis, PhD, a principal research scientist at Educational Testing Service ( ETS ) and a member of CPSE, reduced distractions may improve learning outcomes for some students with disabilities that impact attention in a group setting. “In assessments, small group or individual settings are frequently requested accommodations for some students with ADHD, anxiety, or autism. Being in a quiet place alone without peers for part of the instructional day may also allow for more focus,” she said. However, she also pointed out the benefits of inclusion in the classroom for developing social skills with peers.

Remote learning has improved academic outcomes for students with different learning needs, too. Marks said her seventh-grade daughter, a visual learner, appreciated the increase in video presentations and graphics. Similarly, Hibbard said many of her students who struggle to grasp lessons on the first try have benefited from the ability to watch videos over again until they understand. Post-pandemic, she plans to record bite-size lessons—for example, a 1-minute video of a long division problem—so her students can rewatch and process at their own rate.

Learners with anxiety also appreciate the option not to be in the classroom, because the social pressures of being surrounded by peers can make it hard to focus on academics. “Several of my students have learned more in the last year simply due to the absence of anxiety,” said Rosie Reid, an English teacher at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, California, and a 2019 California Teacher of the Year. “It’s just one less thing to negotiate in a learning environment.”

On online learning platforms, it’s easier for kids with social anxiety or shyness to participate. One of Gardner’s students with social anxiety participated far more in virtual settings and chats. Now, Gardner is brainstorming ways to encourage students to chat in person, such as by projecting a chat screen on the blackboard.

Technology has helped school psychologists better engage students, too. For example, Greiert said the virtual setting gave her a new understanding of her students’ personalities and needs. “Typing out their thoughts, they were able to demonstrate humor or complex thoughts they never demonstrated in person,” she said. “I really want to keep incorporating technology into sessions so kids can keep building on their strengths.”

Reid says that along with the high school students she teaches, she’s seen her 6-year-old daughter benefit from learning at her own pace in the familiarity of her home. Before the pandemic, she was behind academically, but by guiding her own learning—writing poems, reading books, playing outside with her siblings—she’s blossomed. “For me, as both a mother and as a teacher, this whole phenomenon has opened the door to what education can be,” Reid said.

Eleanor Di Marino-Linnen, PhD, a psychologist and superintendent of the Rose Tree Media School District in Media, Pennsylvania, says the pandemic afforded her district a chance to rethink old routines and implement new ones. “As challenging as it is, it’s definitely an exciting time to be in education when we have a chance to reenvision what schools have looked like for many years,” she said. “We want to capitalize on what we’ve learned.”

Further reading

Why are some kids thriving during remote learning? Fleming, N., Edutopia, 2020

Remote learning has been a disaster for many students. But some kids have thrived. Gilman, A., The Washington Post , Oct. 3, 2020

A preliminary examination of key strategies, challenges, and benefits of remote learning expressed by parents during the COVID-19 pandemic Roy, A., et al., School Psychology , in press

Remote learning during COVID-19: Examining school practices, service continuation, and difficulties for adolescents with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder Becker S. P., et al., Journal of Adolescent Health , 2020

Recommended Reading

Contact apa, you may also like.

Remote Learning During COVID-19: Lessons from Today, Principles for Tomorrow

"Remote Learning During the Global School Lockdown: Multi-Country Lessons” and “Remote Learning During COVID-19: Lessons from Today, Principles for Tomorrow"

WHY A TWIN REPORT ON THE IMPACT OF COVID IN EDUCATION?

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education in over 150 countries and affected 1.6 billion students. In response, many countries implemented some form of remote learning. The education response during the early phase of COVID-19 focused on implementing remote learning modalities as an emergency response. These were intended to reach all students but were not always successful. As the pandemic has evolved, so too have education responses. Schools are now partially or fully open in many jurisdictions.

A complete understanding of the short-, medium- and long-term implications of this crisis is still forming. The twin reports analyze how this crisis has amplified inequalities and also document a unique opportunity to reimagine the traditional model of school-based learning.

The reports were developed at different times during the pandemic and are complementary:

The first one follows a qualitative research approach to document the opinions of education experts regarding the effectiveness of remote and remedial learning programs implemented across 17 countries. DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

WHAT ARE THE LESSONS LEARNED OF THE TWIN REPORTS?

• Availability of technology is a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective remote learning: EdTech has been key to keep learning despite the school lockdown, opening new opportunities for delivering education at a scale. However, the impact of technology on education remains a challenge.
• Teachers are more critical than ever: Regardless of the learning modality and available technology, teachers play a critical role. Regular and effective pre-service and on-going teacher professional development is key. Support to develop digital and pedagogical tools to teach effectively both in remote and in-person settings.
• Education is an intense human interaction endeavor: For remote learning to be successful it needs to allow for meaningful two-way interaction between students and their teachers; such interactions can be enabled by using the most appropriate technology for the local context.
• Parents as key partners of teachers: Parent’s involvement has played an equalizing role mitigating some of the limitations of remote learning. As countries transition to a more consistently blended learning model, it is necessary to prioritize strategies that provide guidance to parents and equip them with the tools required to help them support students.
• Leverage on a dynamic ecosystem of collaboration: Ministries of Education need to work in close coordination with other entities working in education (multi-lateral, public, private, academic) to effectively orchestrate different players and to secure the quality of the overall learning experience.
• FULL REPORT
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• Understanding the Effectiveness of Remote and Remedial Learning Programs: Two New Reports
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• Launch of the Twin Reports on Remote Learning during COVID-19: Lessons for today, principles for tomorrow

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• Open access
• Published: 31 May 2022

A case study addressing trauma needs during COVID-19 remote learning from an ecological systems theory framework

• Sharmeen Mahmud 1  

BMC Psychology volume  10 , Article number:  141 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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Mental health conditions related to trauma among American children are a concern, particularly because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Children, as students, carry the trauma they encounter with them into the classroom. Students impacted by trauma learn differently due to effects on the brain that relate to several impairments, causing them to perform poorly in school. However, teachers may not always understand this issue. This case study shows how certain dynamics within the EST layers impacted one school during the pandemic. The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers at the school experienced a trauma-informed online PD and SEL program intended to improve student outcomes, teacher perceptions, and teacher–student relationships. The six participants included teachers in a K-8 low-income, minority population charter school. The assessment tools used were the Teacher–Student Relationship Scale, Teacher Perception Scale, and Student Outcomes Survey. The teachers’ outlook on SEL improved, particularly online. This improvement helped the teachers implement community circles and SEL infused with mindfulness in their online classrooms, which may have helped them maintain their relationships with the students and may have helped the students with academic and stress outcomes. During unprecedented times, the maintenance, rather than the deterioration, of student outcomes and teacher–student relationships is an accomplishment and an area that necessitates further research.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Students impacted by trauma may learn differently due to effects on cognitive performance and the brain that cause low executive functioning, poor self-regulation skills, and memory and visual-learning impairments, causing them to perform poorly in school [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. The National Institute of Mental Health [ 5 ] defines a child’s trauma experience as “emotionally painful, shocking, stressful, and sometimes life-threatening”. When students experience such changes affecting the students’ ability, teachers may face teaching difficulties [ 6 ]. Additionally, trauma-impacted students may behave differently [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Thus, classroom management becomes an issue in that teachers need to be equipped with trauma-informed practices and social emotional learning (SEL) curricula [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. When teachers misinterpret trauma symptoms as behavioral problems, their response to students is often harmful to the learning process [ 6 , 10 , 11 ]. Student behavioral problems and teachers’ assumptions have led to high teacher turnover rates and unproductive environments in which extremely stressed teachers work with highly stressed students [ 12 , 13 , 14 ].

Mental health conditions related to trauma among American children are a concern, particularly because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to collective trauma [ 15 , 16 ]. Collective trauma occurs when a traumatic event is experienced by an entire society, leaves lasting memories impacting future generations [ 17 ] and includes world health crises such as COVID-19. Although children can receive trauma treatment through therapy and medical care, they often do not due to a lack of parental awareness and opportunity [ 18 ]. Schools can become cornerstones for children’s wellbeing, as children spend much of their time in the school setting [ 19 ]. Through schools, mental health becomes much more accessible, and children are more likely to receive the help they need [ 19 ]. As educators become the first to reach these children, teachers are placed in the healing process's foreground [ 19 ]. However, if teachers are not equipped to understand these children’s trauma-inflicted behaviors, then these students may not get the help that they need and may suffer academically.

The research problem addressed in this study was the negative impact of trauma on student learning outcomes, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several articles emphasized the need for trauma informed practices and connections in the classroom with the increase of trauma among students, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic [ 6 , 7 , 20 , 21 ]. A study exploring needs of students with past trauma in the classroom, acknowledges that this is becoming the daily undertaking of teachers and identifies required teacher efficacy in the areas of social emotional learning to support these at-risk students [ 22 ]. Research indicates that teachers need to engage students in social emotional learning by establishing safe environments and building relationships, which requires time and understanding of students as well as programs [ 22 ]. It has also been found that building relationships with students requires a relational perspective of interpersonal communication between teacher and student, rather than self-reflection by teachers, and that this perspective can be the focus of any teacher [ 23 ]. Yet, research shows that teachers who prioritize building relationships with their students and teaching them social emotional skills find the work challenging without the availability of trauma-informed trainings [ 20 ]. While there is some research addressing the need for bonding activities in the classroom that help build teacher student relationships during COVID-19 [ 20 , 22 , 23 ], they do not specifically address how to do these relationship building activities in online classrooms, such as the use of community circles and mindfulness. This study informs teachers about community circles and mindfulness to build teacher-student relationships and attempted to change teacher perceptions of the possibilities of their use to help alleviate trauma symptoms in the online classroom.

Underlying factors affecting the underperformance of trauma-impacted students

The factors related to and potential underlying causes for the underperformance of trauma-impacted students were framed in Bronfenbrenner’s [ 24 ] ecological systems theory (EST). EST posits that individuals interact within five environmental systems: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem [ 25 ]. The five EST layers contain the core of a student’s environment, and this study focuses on the microsystem, exosystem, and chronosystem. In the microsystem, family and teachers influence children. Once children start school, teachers become an important part of the microsystem, as they work daily with children, generally at least five days per week. Among the many significant underlying causes in the microsystem, teachers can be a primary factor in the educational outcome of students who have encountered trauma [ 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Studies have consistently found a positive correlation between warm, supportive teachers and trauma-impacted students’ success [ 26 , 29 , 30 ]. Warm relationships, in which there is trust between teachers and students, are positively associated with school adaptation, while teacher–student relationships dominated by conflict are negatively associated with school adaptation [ 26 ].

Students may face circumstances entirely out of their control and unrelated to them. This environmental layer in a student’s life is the exosystem. Factors in this layer interact with microsystem factors, apart from the student, to impact the student’s development. For example, school policies and budgeting decisions can impact a teacher’s mindset, which can affect how a student is taught. Milkie and Warner [ 27 ] found that the lack of material resources is related to students’ mental health. When teachers feel that they do not have the resources to help students with greater needs, such teachers may give up and be less engaged in helping their students. On the other hand, opposite student outcomes were found for teachers who receive support in helping their students [ 27 ]. Teachers who have positive influences in their lives showed a relation to positive student outcomes in a qualitative phenomenological study in which teachers were trained in positive psychology strategies [ 31 ]. When teachers had supportive strategies, they reflected on being more calm and able to commit to more one-on-one time with students [ 31 ], which could help build teacher–student relationships. Teachers reported more positive outcomes for their students, as they were calmer in the classroom, more engaged, and completed more work [ 31 ]. This study showed that teacher training could positively influence teachers, and school administrations should consider professional development (PD) for teacher wellbeing, which may more often than not be overlooked and leave teachers feeling unsupported.

Life-impacting events such as natural disasters, divorce, or even traumatic human-made disaster experiences such as school shootings are considered chronosystem factors. Chronosystem factors change the environment in which a person lives as well as the behaviors or nature of a person, weaving themselves into the other layers of the person’s life [ 25 ]. This study's time frame is in 2020, under the impacts of COVID-19. The school in which the study was conducted was under school closure mandates and carrying out distance learning [ 32 , 33 ]. The majority of the student population in the school live in poverty. These children are expected to be more disadvantaged due to school closures because they relied on the school for meals and their home environments may not have been conducive to learning at home [ 33 ]. The COVID-19 school closures and resultant distance-learning circumstances meant that the learning gap among low-income students might be enlarged. COVID-19 was a factor that changed the environment in which students lived, with guidelines for social distancing and health precautions. In addition to the learning disruption that this large societal circumstance may have presented, it also posed a sense of threat and danger, impacting the students socially and emotionally. These life-threatening feelings and thoughts can have lengthy impacts [ 34 ]. Children living through tragic societal situations should not be overlooked because the danger is real to them. If educators remained untrained on the after-effects of such large-scale impacts on the chronosystem, student learning is likely to suffer due to misunderstandings and the lack of appropriate support [ 34 ].

While all layers of EST define the student, the focus of this study was on the microsystem, exosystem, and chronosystem. These layers of EST were chosen to focus on because research indicated that teacher-student relationships were important in the student learning process, particularly for students who experienced trauma [ 20 , 22 , 27 , 35 , 36 ]. It was also obvious that there were traumatic impacts that can interfere with student learning during COVID-19 [ 5 , 15 ]. It appeared to be important to address teacher perceptions about SEL and trauma among students under these circumstances. This study does not directly address the macrosystem and mesosystem because they are not within the scope of the study. However, as the layers of the EST framework are interrelated, the values and cultures within the school which fall in the macrosystem were affected as SEL tools ware implemented in the school and teacher perceptions about these tools evolved. Likewise, the factors in the mesosystem were impacted as well, however, it was outside the scope of this study.

Addressing Chronosystem-related trauma in the classroom

This study focused on teacher–student relationships in the microsystem and teacher perceptions in the exosystem to address the concerns of traumatic stress from the chronosystem. The study addresses the boundaries of online learning on teacher–student relationships and the traumatic impacts that can interfere with student learning during COVID-19. The objective is to improve student outcomes related to grades and behaviors by improving teacher perceptions and teacher–student relationships through teacher training.

Teacher professional development

Several researchers have studied teachers’ perceptions about trauma and their abilities to help trauma-impacted students, which involve educating teachers on the neuroscience of trauma [ 37 , 38 , 39 ]. Understanding the neurobiology of youth who have undergone trauma is essential for those individuals providing care and services to this vulnerable, at-risk population [ 40 ]. Teachers have more empathy for observed behaviors when they receive trauma awareness PD and understand the reasons behind student behaviors [ 39 ]. When teachers respond with empathy, they are more likely to positively react to and work through the situation, which causes students to feel that they are cared for and results in better relationships between teachers and students [ 39 ]. Providing teacher PD on trauma awareness and the outcomes of trauma effectively supports teacher–student relationships, which is evident in studies that pioneered trauma-informed school movements [ 38 , 39 ]. As 18 teachers in Melbourne, Australia in government schools started to understand how students were affected by trauma, they were motivated to adjust to student needs and shift their teaching methods [ 37 ]. This finding facilitated a greater understanding between teachers and students, and students felt more secure learning from their teachers as the students felt understood [ 37 ].

Relationship between mindfulness and trauma in the classroom

The relationship between mindfulness and trauma has become central for many studies because “mindfulness is a protective factor against the development of trauma-related psychopathology” [ 41 ]. This finding means that students who may face adverse experiences that can cause emotional wounds or trauma can be protected if they practice mindfulness. As the qualities of mindfulness practice are related to children’s “increased awareness and acceptance of their responses to threatening stimuli after exposure to trauma,” it may decrease the degree of PTSD symptoms when a person is subjected to trauma [ 41 ], therefore mindfulness may be an effective source of trauma prevention in schools.

Recently, researchers considered whether mindfulness could reduce psychological trauma among children and adolescents after a hurricane [ 41 ]. The results indicated a negative relationship between students who used mindfulness strategies and trauma symptoms that were externalized and internalized [ 41 ]. Perceived life threats and internalizing symptoms were also lower among students who indicated more mindfulness attributes [ 41 ]. The results of this study contribute to the value of mindfulness in helping students exposed to trauma. The effectiveness of teaching mindfulness to students can also be seen in student academic performance [ 42 ]. Eight teachers from the United States and Australia teaching mindfulness in their classrooms indicated that they thought when students were taught mindfulness it not only improved academic outcomes, but simultaneously boosted overall wellness [ 42 ]. Mindfulness can help to regulate and reduce anxiety, creating the foundation for students to have better relationships. It is a practical way for youth to self-regulate and build resiliency.

Community circles help to reduce trauma in the classroom

Building safe connections to help with mindfulness endeavors may be easier if community circles are incorporated to ensure a safe place for students to share their thoughts and experiences while building character and strong student–teacher relationships [ 43 , 44 ]. Classroom community circles constitute a practice of sitting in a circle with the classroom community while a teacher facilitates safe and engaging conversations [ 43 ]. The practice is expected to improve communication and understanding among classroom members, thus enhancing relationships. Silverman and Mee [ 45 ] found that community circles in a middle school classroom helped to reduce conflict and led students to feel that they were in a safe environment. A safe environment is a key part of helping students with trauma to reduce their hypervigilance and improve their ability to focus on relevant tasks. Similar results were found in a semirandom controlled trial, in which children in the experimental condition felt safer in the classroom than did children in the control condition, which is important for traumatized children [ 44 ]. Elementary school children can relate better to each other, which helps with communication [ 44 ]. A study that examined the use of community circles in high schools found that the interaction creates opportunities for teachers and students to become acquainted with each other and gain a sense of community [ 46 ]. The study also found that teachers built more positive connections with students from different backgrounds and groups when the teachers used community circles [ 46 ]. Therefore, the use of community circles is promising for building teacher–student relationships and providing a safe environment in which students can express themselves. A school community circle is defined by a safe place to have discussions where all students and teachers can see each other’s faces and students can build their community with mutually agreed upon rules and expectations [ 43 , 44 ]. Therefore, even though not in person, it is quite feasible to conduct a community circle online as all members in an online classroom can see each other’s faces and the teacher can have set expectations, such as to keep cameras on.

Current study

The present study hoped to improve teacher perspectives of student outcomes in the classroom through improvements in teacher perceptions and teacher–student relationships using PD on empirically founded online SEL tools. A 10-week intervention was designed based on mindfulness, community circles, and teacher PD research. The research questions that guided this study were as follows: (RQ1) Do teachers’ perceptions about working with trauma-impacted students improve after completing the 10-week intervention? (RQ2) How can we characterize teacher–student relationships after the 10-week intervention? (RQ3) To what extent do student stress and academic performance change after the 10-week intervention? (RQ4) Does teacher satisfaction with classroom outcomes improve after the 10-week intervention?

This was a convergent mixed-methods design case study that followed the experience of six educators who participated in the intervention at a low-income and minority population transitional kindergarten-to-eighth-grade charter school in San Bernardino, California. The school offers a dual-language (Spanish) immersion program; therefore, the students, staff and teachers are primarily Latinx. The school was physically closed due to COVID-19 during the study. Because remote learning had been implemented and the school had to quickly adapt to it, the teachers and students were adjusting and experiencing high emotional demands. Teachers were teaching a full daily curriculum online as was expected prior to the pandemic. In addition, participating teachers were also including social emotional learning either in the mornings before starting the lesson plan for the day or during a brief break in instruction. Community circles were used virtually during these times.

Participants

All 35 teachers at the school were invited to participate in the intervention program via email. A convenience sample of six teachers was achieved. The six participants were all fully credentialed teachers ranging from novice first-year teachers to experienced teachers with more than 10 years of teaching experience. Table 1 shows the basic demographics of the teachers.

The study was implemented entirely online in three stages: preintervention, intervention, and postintervention. Data were collected during each intervention stage, including the researcher’s field notes.

Preintervention

In the preintervention stage, the teachers were emailed the preassessment questionnaires when they responded to the email and agreed to participate in the study. The consent and preassessment questionnaires were completed by a sample of six participants (N = 6). The teachers had two weeks to complete the preassessments prior to starting the intervention.

Intervention

The study implemented a teacher-training program based on trauma-informed practices in the classroom, including mindfulness and community circles, which the researcher created and entitled Calm with Character (2C). All components of the intervention program were delivered virtually by the researcher, a licensed mental health professional with a background in mindfulness and school-based therapy. The 10-week intervention included PD in the first week. The two-hour PD addressed trauma-impacted student needs in the classroom and taught the teachers how to use mindfulness and community circles in the classroom to address these needs. Three weeks after the PD (week four), the teachers received a 30-min modeling session in their online classrooms in which mindfulness and community circles were demonstrated with their students. Three weeks later (week seven), a second 30-min modeling session was conducted in the online classrooms. During each modeling session, the participants completed a modeling session checklist that was emailed to them. The researcher prompted the participants to complete the checklist during the modeling session demonstrations. The researcher also collected field notes during the 10 weeks of intervention. As part of the intervention, the participants also received 10 weekly emails with mindfulness lessons and community circle prompts. The teachers received one email on Mondays and a second email on Thursdays with reminders that included the same content and a teacher wellness tip. The lessons incorporated evidence-based community circle protocols and mindfulness content that included breathing techniques, grounding, gratitude, self-compassion, visualization, and movement. The teachers had flexibility and independence as to when they used the lessons in their classrooms, however most incorporated the lessons into short breaks between their regular lessons plans or at the beginning of the day.

Postintervention

At the end of the 10 weeks, postassessments that were identical to the preassessments were administered to the participants. The questionnaires were emailed to the participants to complete.

Teacher–Student Relationship Scale (TSR)—Teacher Version

Brinkworth et al. [ 47 ] Teacher–Student Relationship Scale (TSR)—Teacher Version consists of 12 questions and is considered to have both good and undesirable aspects. The TSR shows strong psychometric properties [ 47 ] for validity and reliability. The participants responded on a 5-point Likert-type scale, and the measure assessed the quality of the relationship between the teachers and the students from the teachers’ perspectives. Some examples of questions from the scale include the following: (a) “How caring are students toward you?” (b) “How much do you understand your students' personalities?” and (c) “How often do you say something that offends students?”.

Teacher Perception Scale

The Teacher Perception Scale assesses a teacher’s sense of resources, knowledge, and training in educating students impacted by trauma. The measure includes 12 questions adapted from the Teacher SEL Belief Scale [ 48 ] and a Survey of Teachers’ Knowledge, Perceptions, and Practices [ 49 ]. The teachers responded on a 3-point Likert-type scale for the researcher-developed Teacher Perception of SEL (TP) Survey. Some questions on the Survey asked if the teachers understood how to recognize signs of trauma in students and if they were confident in their abilities to identify students with socioemotional or mental health needs and make referrals.

Classroom and Student Outcomes Survey

The Classroom and Student Outcomes Survey assesses long-term student outcomes, including student academic performance and stress, as well as teacher satisfaction with their classroom environments. The Classroom and Student Outcomes Survey was composed of two quantitative questions answered on a 4-point Likert-type scale and four open-ended qualitative questions.

Modeling Session Checklist

The Modeling Session Checklist consisted of seven questions on a 3-point Likert-type scale, with options to give open-ended responses. A sample question is the following: “I feel comfortable using community circles and doing mindfulness exercises in my classroom.” This instrument was intended to measure the change in teacher beliefs about their classrooms and the student outcomes and their abilities to implement the tools they had received from 2C in the classroom between various time frames. It assessed changes between the PD and first modeling session and changes between the two modeling sessions. The Modeling Session Checklist assessed the short- and mid-term study outcomes.

As the mixed-method convergent design required, the quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed separately per Creswell and Plano-Clark [ 50 ]. The results were compared for interpretations of the findings. The researcher considered how the qualitative and quantitative data were related to each other and resulted in a complete understanding of the study.

Quantitative data

The quantitative surveys were reviewed for scale scores. The analysis was conducted using the Social Sciences Statistical Program (SPSS) [ 50 ]. Descriptive data were computed to explore “general trends” [ 50 ] within the variables. Pre- and postchanges in the quantitative data were examined. The effect size of the intervention for each survey was calculated using Cohen’s D statistical analysis. For the instruments, the author noted no biases. Pre-existing quantitative instruments were used which had established reliability and validity.

Qualitative data

The qualitative survey data were analyzed using emergent coding by reading through the responses for emerging themes. Common answers showed a common theme, which was coded as a broad category of themes. The code labels came from words extracted from the responses, which involved in vivo coding per Creswell and Plano-Clark [ 50 ]. Qualitative codebooks were developed. Regardless of the low participants, qualitative data saturation was reached by the 6th participant. The researcher’s field notes contributed to the qualitative data and incorporated the researcher’s observations during the 10-week intervention. The field notes were then a priori coded to consider themes, such as teacher patterns, school policy relationships, and pandemic impacts. The codes were categorized to develop seven themes. The primary investigator kept memos for the qualitative portion and no biases were observed. The validity of the qualitative questions was determined by using multiple coders and thick, rich field notes. An external reviewer reviewed qualitative questions for validity before the study was approved.

A profile is given for each participant using the participants’ responses from the questionnaires and the qualitative data to highlight the unique experiences of each participant. Then, the study results are presented and summarized through the four research questions.

Teacher One

Teacher One showed an improvement in perception toward the feasibility of using SEL and working with trauma-impacted students. According to the qualitative data, this teacher went from using the 2C SEL program once per week at week four to twice per week at week seven, supporting an improved perception of feasibility and comfort level. Based on the researcher’s field notes, this teacher showed an eagerness to learn and help the students and actively sought out interventions and activities. Teacher One showed an improvement from the pre- to the post-TSR. This finding is supported by the qualitative data, which showed that the teacher felt that at week four, communication was ‘somewhat improving’ with the students, but by week seven, communication with the students had improved ‘a lot’, and the students were self-regulating ‘a lot better’. The teacher felt satisfied with the classroom environment at the end of the 10 weeks, stating, “I am satisfied with their behavior. I think that it is on me to make sure that the class environment is welcoming, and I feel that I have pretty good classroom management.” The teacher believed that the students were self-regulating, and that this ability was contributing to maintaining their stress levels. This teacher felt that the student learning outcomes had not improved but neither had they deteriorated. The teacher’s feelings about the learning outcomes were poignantly expressed: “It feels like we are stuck or frozen in regard to student learning outcomes. I think it will be better when we return to in-person learning.”

Teacher Two

Teacher Two showed a significant improvement from pre- to post-TP. The teacher indicated in the modeling session checklist that he or she consistently used the 2C SEL once per week in the classroom. The teacher stated that he or she was consistently comfortable using SEL. This teacher invited the researcher to model sessions and to work with the class. The teacher told the researcher that the students “truly need this”. The TSR for Teacher Two showed improvement from the pre- to the postassessment, which aligned with the qualitative data in which the teacher indicated that student communication improved more by the seventh week compared to week four. The teacher stated that he or she was satisfied with the classroom environment and took responsibility for its outcomes: “I am fairly satisfied. I think much of it depends on me”. This statement coincides with the student learning outcomes that the teacher indicated, as the learning outcomes were maintained for these students with pre- to post-assessment scores remaining the same and in the high range.

Teacher Three

Teachers’ perceptions of SEL feasibility and the ability to work with trauma-impacted students were reduced for Teacher Three. This teacher indicated discomfort with SEL at the beginning of the intervention, and he or she stated that they were not using SEL at week four. By week seven, the teacher stated that he or she had begun using SEL at least once a week, but he or she was still uncomfortable using it. This teacher’s discomfort with SEL coincided with the reduced perception of feasibility and the ability to work with trauma-impacted students. The teacher indicated that he or she was satisfied with the classroom environment and student behavior at week four of the study and indicated less satisfaction at week seven. The inability to easily use SEL may have contributed to this result. The teacher was also ambivalent about the student learning outcomes and stress at the end of the ten weeks.

Teacher Four

The TSR Scale pre- and postassessments remained the same for Teacher Four. The teacher perceived relatively strong relationships with the students that were maintained. The scale results were supported by the qualitative data in which the teacher indicated improvement in communication with the students from week four to week seven. The teacher also felt that the students could self-regulate, and skills had improved throughout the intervention. While the qualitative data indicated that the teacher periodically used SEL in the classroom and he or she was only somewhat comfortable with its use, the TP Scale showed a decrease from pre- to postassessment. The teacher felt that the student learning outcomes were progressing poorly, yet the students were “amazing”. The teacher seemed happy with the students regardless of the struggles with engagement and productivity. This teacher showed discomfort with SEL use and did not use it regularly; coincidentally, the teacher felt that the student academic outcomes were poor.

Teacher Five

This teacher indicated that he or she used SEL daily. He or she felt that because the students were younger, they had a greater need to learn coping and behavioral skills. The teacher tried more to manage classroom behavior than to focus on academics. The qualitative data indicated that by week seven, the teacher felt communication with the students improved considerably, and the students self-regulated considerably better and controlled their emotions. While the teacher perceived the relationships with the students as improving, as indicated by the qualitative data, the TSR Scale for Teacher 5 showed a decrease in the teacher–student relationship between the pre- and postassessment. Based on the pre- and post-TP scales, the teacher maintained his or her perception of SEL feasibility in the classroom. This perception was confirmed by the weekly use of the SEL. The teacher expressed that he or she was satisfied with the classroom outcomes, as the teacher stated that the students were “engaged online using online programs and technology”. This teacher indicated that the student grades were average, which may have contributed to the satisfaction in the classroom outcomes. However, the students were still stressed according to the teacher.

Teacher Six

This teacher consistently used SEL in the classroom twice per week during the 10 weeks. According to the qualitative data, the teacher slowly increased in comfort level when using SEL. Accordingly, the TP score improved from pre- to postassessment. This teacher indicated that he or she did not have knowledge of the term SEL in the preassessment; therefore, the change in understanding of SEL and use of the SEL program was progress for this teacher. Although the teacher’s perception of SEL feasibility and the ability to work with trauma-impacted students improved, the TSR score decreased from pre- to postassessment. This finding may be related to the teacher’s lack of satisfaction with the classroom outcomes, as he or she stated, “it could be better.” The teacher felt that the student-learning outcomes were very slow and that the students were not engaged, which could mean that the teacher felt a lack of communication and connection, resulting in the TSR score.

Each teacher showed some positive results. The following section presents the study results synthesized according to the research questions.

Research question one

The first research question was do teachers’ perceptions about working with trauma-impacted students improve after completing the 10-week intervention. The pre- and post-TP scale scores were used to measure the change in the teachers’ perceptions about SEL and their abilities to work with trauma-impacted students after working through the study's 2C intervention process. The TP change for each teacher is depicted in Fig.  1 . The teachers’ perceptions of SEL and working with trauma-impacted students were also evaluated through the modeling session checklist responses, as the participants indicated their comfort levels and how often they used the 2C SEL with their students.

Teachers’ perceptions pre and post intervention

Three teachers showed improvements in TP, and one maintained. Two teachers showed a reduction in TP. The average TP changed positively between the pre- (M = 2.36, SD = 0.31) and the postscore (M = 2.46, SD = 0.37), with a mean before and after difference of 0.10. The effect size of the intervention was small (0.3) using Cohen’s D statistics. Although the effect size was small, the improvement in teachers’ perceptions about the feasibility of using SEL and working with trauma-impacted students was supported by the qualitative data indicating that most teachers felt that their students were able to self-regulate and that they all increased their use of 2C SEL.

The researcher’s field notes may reveal a reason for the decrease in TP for certain teachers. The student SEL lesson videos received many views, which indicated that the teachers used the videos to help with student wellness. However, in the last three weeks, the lesson video views plummeted, which might be attributed to the increase in the stress the teachers experienced. This finding is because, according to the researcher's field notes, the last three weeks of the study also showed an increase in administration and teacher conflicts. During this time, the school site also experienced an increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Therefore, the teacher focus was not on the SEL emails or lessons at this time. The fact that the postassessments were completed during this critical time may have also impacted the participant responses. The field notes’ themes indicated that the organizational climate contributed to teacher stress and created a threat to the system. Teacher wellness was an important theme that emerged, and it seemed to impact the teachers using the SEL lessons.

Research question two

The second research question was how can we characterize teacher–student relationships after the 10-week intervention. The change in teacher–student relationships for each teacher is depicted in Fig.  2 . Data from the modeling session checklist also supported the results for each teacher’s TSR score. The average score declined between the pre- (M = 3.65, SD = 0.30) and the postscore (M = 3.53, SD = 0.29), with a mean before and after difference of 0.12. The effect size of the intervention was calculated using Cohen’s D statistical analysis. The effect size was found to be small (0.4). Although the average teacher–student relationship slightly declined, it started strong and remained relatively strong with a very small change. Overall, most of the teachers indicated that their communications with the students increased. However, the researcher’s field notes indicated that the teachers struggled to engage the students, which may be connected to the teachers’ abilities to build relationships with their students. The school administration also pressured the teachers to engage the students, as noted in the researcher’s field notes. The teacher–student relationship decrease may also be attributed to teacher stress. Based on the researcher’s field notes, during the entire 10 weeks, a consistent theme was teacher wellness. The teachers showed interest in self-care and appreciated the weekly emails on staff wellness sent to them. Therefore, teacher stress may have been extensive, and they likely needed and sought help with wellness and self-care.

Teacher–student relationships pre and postintervention

Research question three

The third research question was to what extent do student stress and academic performance change after the 10-week intervention. This question was assessed using a Student Outcomes Survey (SOS) pre- and postintervention. The SOS had two quantitative and four qualitative questions. The quantitative and qualitative data helped triangulate the findings on the student and classroom outcomes.

The quantitative questions asked about student grades and student stress on a 4-point Likert-type scale. The two questions were as follows:

“What are your overall student grades like?”

“How stressed are your students?”

Most of the teachers (83.4%) responded that their student grades needed improvement or were average in both the pre- (M = 2.83, SD = 0.41) and the postassessment (M = 2.50, SD = 0.84). The teachers also thought that their students were either somewhat or mostly stressed in both the pre- ( M  = 2.50, SD  = 0.84) and the postassessment ( M  = 2.50, SD  = 0.84). Therefore, the quantitative data indicated that the intervention did not improve student grades or stress; however, grades and stress levels were maintained (i.e., they did not deteriorate).

The qualitative data were open-ended survey responses for the student outcomes. The qualitative data triangulated the quantitative data for the student outcome participant responses. The participants responded to four open-ended questions on the student outcomes, and responses were analyzed using emergent coding. The codes were confirmed by three coders. Both the pre- and post-SOS survey results showed one consistent theme: Student learning progress was slow. This finding supported the quantitative results that the teachers thought the student grades were average or needed improvement. The qualitative data indicated that the teachers thought the students were engaged in learning when the teachers provided support and online learning accommodations. The postassessment also indicated that active engagement occurred through teacher-facilitated technology use and collaborative work.

Another theme from the preassessment's emergent coding was that the students learned to self-regulate as a whole class, and the younger students needed extra support. Therefore, the teachers sought additional help for the younger students, which this intervention provided. The analysis of the postassessment indicated that the students could self-regulate despite challenges, which indicated the lack of change in student stress levels in the quantitative data. This finding also indicates that the SEL lessons the teachers used with their classes helped, and the students could manage their stress levels so they did not increase.

Research question 4

The fourth outcome evaluation research question was does teacher satisfaction with classroom outcomes improve after the 10-week intervention. Teacher satisfaction with classroom outcomes was evaluated through the qualitative data from the SOS, modeling session checklists, and the researcher’s field notes. A theme that emerged from both the pre- and post-SOS qualitative survey questions was that the teachers were satisfied with their classroom environments, considering the pandemic. Although the teachers responded that the student learning progress was slow, the teachers reflected that the students were engaged in the teachers’ efforts and self-regulating. These findings might be the reasons the teachers were satisfied with their classroom outcomes. The teachers were satisfied with behavior and classroom management despite the slow academic progress of their students. The teachers thought the slow progress was due to the pandemic and believed it was acceptable because of uncontrollable circumstances.

However, the researcher’s field notes reflected how the teachers struggled with classroom engagement. The teachers expressed concerns that it was difficult to maintain student engagement due to distance-learning dynamics. Despite this observation, teacher–student relationships were indicated to be relatively strong, according to the post-TSR Scale ( M  = 3.53, SD  = 0.29). The teachers’ understanding of mindfulness and community circle practices, along with their perceptions of the students’ ability to self-regulate, showed confidence increases, according to Modeling Session Checklists 1 ( M  = 2.57, SD  = 0.65) and 2 ( M  = 2.89, SD  = 0.47). These findings might be further reasons the teachers felt satisfied with their classrooms.

This study examined how teachers at a school that is conducting remote learning during COVID-19 experience a trauma-informed online PD and SEL program that could benefit their students. The case study examined teachers’ perspectives on student stress and grades, classroom outcomes, SEL and teacher–student relationships. The findings showed no statistically significant decreases, which was important when considering student grades and behaviors. Considering the pandemic, the students might have become more stressed; however, this finding was not indicated by the surveys. The teachers commented that the students could either maintain their grades or, with additional teacher attention, progress slowly. The teachers also stated that the students self-regulated. Teacher 4 commented, “They [the students] are amazing.” Therefore, 2C might have helped prevent the increase in student stress. Regarding grades, one teacher commented, “It feels like we are stuck or frozen in regard to student learning outcomes.” Although learning progress would be beneficial, the students seemed at least to be holding steady. Overall, the teachers were satisfied with their classroom outcomes because the pandemic created conditions around which they worked. This intervention might have sustained teacher–student relationships and helped the student outcomes remain stable rather than worsen. Success was defined as maintaining stress levels and academic outcomes for the students in the middle of this kind of trauma. The literature indicates that children experiencing trauma display problems in school with learning and behaviors, such as self-regulation [ 51 ]; however, this study showed how these concerns could be mediated to prevent escalation.

One valuable outcome was that teacher tolerance for SEL, particularly in an online situation, increased. Although the post-TP Scale did not show a statistically significant change in teachers’ perceptions, the teachers indicated that they became more comfortable using the practices that 2C provided them in an online format. The TP Scale results increased from 33.3% to 83.3% for informal SEL lessons as part of the participants' regular teaching practice. This finding was a significant improvement and demonstrated the achievement of regularly using mindfulness and community circles in the teachers’ classrooms. Studies have shown that even the smallest mindfulness SEL [ 52 , 53 ] and teacher–student conversations [ 45 ] can make vast improvements, notably during traumatic times. Therefore, teacher comfort with SEL tools, such as mindfulness and community circles, may have increased their recognition of the need for teacher–student relationships, which can curb mental health concerns.

The teachers' use of mindfulness and community circles in the classroom showed that the PD, emails, and modeling sessions were effective. The literature indicates that ongoing PD follow up is important, with opportunities for contact and conversations [ 54 , 55 ]. These opportunities were offered with the two modeling sessions and weekly emails with videos of the lessons. The emails and modeling sessions allowed opportunities for ongoing conversations for the participants, which Mezirow [ 56 ] indicated led to critical reflection for growth and transformative learning. State et al. [ 57 ] discussed that effective, ongoing training should include reminders about strategies and online modules, which the emails did weekly. State et al. [ 57 ] emphasized modeling the concepts taught in PD, which the two modeling sessions did in this study. Research also indicates that for best results the follow up professional development for teachers should incorporate their students [ 55 ], which this intervention did through the modeling sessions in the teacher’s classrooms, and this may have helped the results.

It was unexpected that the average teacher-student relationships scores started out fairly strong and remained in the same range. Given the baseline was on the higher end, there was little room for growth. However, in this situation, participant representation should be considered, as Brinkworth et al., [ 47 ] indicated, since these participants may have been more interested in working on their teacher-student relationships due to their initiative to volunteer for the study. There may have also been participant response bias as to why teachers stated that their relationships were good from the start and remained good [ 4 , 58 ]. Research indicates that teachers who have high self-efficacy will indicate stronger teacher-student relationships in comparison to what their students may perceive [ 59 ]. The slight decrease in the score, which is not statistically significant could reflect on the impacts of the online learning situation during COVID-19. Literature indicates that there were declines in connections in the classrooms and frustrations in online learning were evident during COVID-19 [ 13 , 60 ]. As teachers reported more frustrations with their work environment leading to increased stress, this can be a reason behind the reduction in teacher student relationships because higher stress has been found to be related to lower teacher-student relationships [ 59 ].

While the increase in stress factors may have impacted the teachers and their interaction with students to a certain level, despite the slight decline the average teacher-student relationship stayed on the positive range of the scale. Supporting teacher wellness might also have helped maintain teacher–student relationships, which the teachers indicated to be strong in both the pre- and posttests; therefore, few changes occurred. Research has indicated that teacher wellness builds positive relationships with children, and teacher-training programs that include mindfulness might contribute to this outcome [ 61 , 62 ]. When teachers participate in mindfulness training, they build focus, emotional regulation, and tolerance for uncertain times [ 63 ]. These mindfulness practices were likely contributors to their wellness and ability to continue focusing on their relationships with students.

This study's process, which included a weekly second email regarding staff wellness and a reminder about the lesson plans, led to some interesting outcomes. Although teacher wellness was beyond this study's scope, the researcher’s field notes regarding these emails showed that they were an important factor. The researcher received random emails and verbal comments from the participants regarding the wellness emails, indicating that the participants appreciated and valued the emails. The high demand for wellness support was not expected in this study. The literature on teacher wellness indicates that teacher wellbeing can change teaching practices in ways that impact student school outcomes [ 31 , 59 ]. Turner and Theilking [ 31 ] found that positive influences, such as positive psychology strategies, related to teachers’ feeling calm and, under such circumstances, teachers could commit to more one-on-one time with students. The wellness strategies that the teachers were emailed each week seemed to have a similar effect.

The researcher's field notes also indicate that teacher wellness was an important part of whether they carried out the weekly SEL lesson plans delivered to them. When the teachers were frustrated or highly stressed due to administrative and COVID-19 dynamics, the video lesson views significantly dropped, indicating that they most likely did not use these platforms. This outcome is congruent with the literature; Milkie and Warner [ 27 ] found that school policies and staff relationships can impact a teacher’s mindset, affecting how a student is taught. According to Milkie and Warner [ 27 ], teachers were less motivated to help students who required additional support when teachers did not feel supported and connected. Willis and Nagel [ 28 ] discussed that empowered teachers could be role models in traumatized children's lives. Although it was not within this study's scope, the literature and current research findings both indicated that maintaining teacher wellness is a significant aspect of student outcomes.

The student stress levels were maintained rather than worsened throughout the study. Therefore, the mindfulness practices taught to them through the 2C program were most likely beneficial. Sheinman et al. [ 36 ] demonstrated that mindfulness taught in a whole classroom model helped children cope with daily challenges. Due to the pandemic, the students were challenged daily in this study and needed a source for coping strategies. During the 10 weeks of this study, the teachers offered one such source in the form of mindfulness practices. Simultaneously, the teachers built relationships with the students, in congruence with research that mindfulness helped in this area [ 64 , 65 ]. Mindfulness programs with routines and space for self-expression ensure safety and security, which helped the students feel comfortable and connected with their teachers, as did the training using the 2C program.

Limitations and implications for future research

The pandemic that occurred during this study created certain undeniable dynamics. The historical effects of this study could have impacted its results. Historical effects on validity refer to all the events that occurred between the pre- and posttests [ 66 ]. According to the researcher’s field notes, many such events were organizationally related to the pandemic, which might have contributed to more stress and complexities. As with any study, this one has limitations. This was a small case study with only six participants. Therefore, this study cannot be assumed relevant to all teachers and students. However, the data are important and require further research on a larger scale. A larger and more diverse sample is needed to make the results of this study generalizable.

This study showed how certain dynamics within the EST layers impacted one school during the pandemic in an attempt to implement SEL online to improve student outcomes, teachers’ perceptions, and teacher–student relationships. As the study evolved, it became apparent that exosystem influences on the teachers impacted how they used SEL in their classrooms. The teacher wellness component became an important theme in the effective use of SEL. This finding showed the need for schools to begin examining the wellness of their staff to ensure productivity. The chronosystem factors were immense due to the pandemic stressors and impacted all stakeholders at the school, which is even more reason to emphasize staff wellness and SEL.

The current circumstances bring to the forefront the student learning experience, as factors such as trauma and online learning have to be considered. This study reveals some ways of mediating these classroom problems with programs that use trauma-informed training, mindfulness, and community circles. This study also shows how SEL can be conducted virtually in a whole-classroom format. The intervention that was implemented cannot be overlooked. The 2C model was timesaving for the teachers and required no preparation; thus, during hectic circumstances such as a pandemic it could serve as a helpful resource for the teachers. Teachers generally have an overwhelming amount of planning to do, even in the absence of a pandemic, leading many teachers to sideline SEL. The 2C model eliminated the planning and much of the time that SEL lessons could otherwise require. The delivery of the 2C lessons was short, lasting two to eight minutes, with community circles lasting approximately 15 min, depending on the class size. Because teachers need more academic time in classrooms, these short SEL lessons were well received, as each could be used during break times. This finding may be a significant future factor due to interruptions in student learning, particularly as the pandemic requires teachers to learn more about their students’ social situations [ 33 , 67 ]. The 2C program can easily be led by any interested party; therefore, further research should examine its effectiveness with broader populations and larger sample sizes. Furthermore, 2C should be considered to determine how this type of SEL can be conducted online.

In conclusion, because this study was implemented virtually, it addressed the boundaries of online learning in teacher–student relationships and the unintended traumatic impacts on student learning. Improving interactions and communication between teachers and students will hopefully help teachers to understand their students and student needs better. The teachers were encouraged to build communication strategies and relationships with the students using community circles which may be hampered during online learning. Teachers’ perceptions about SEL and their ability to help trauma-impacted students were targeted through training and follow up. The research found improvements in the teachers’ outlook on SEL, particularly online. This improvement helped the teachers to implement SEL infused with mindfulness and community circles in their online classrooms, which may have helped them to maintain their relationships with students and may have improved students’ academic and stress outcomes. During unprecedented times, the maintenance, rather than the deterioration, of student outcomes and teacher student relationships is an accomplishment and an area that necessitates further research.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the nature of this research and participants did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Mahmud, S. A case study addressing trauma needs during COVID-19 remote learning from an ecological systems theory framework. BMC Psychol 10 , 141 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-022-00848-y

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Embracing educational disruption: a case study in making the shift to a remote learning environment

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education

ISSN : 2050-7003

Article publication date: 8 December 2020

Issue publication date: 27 January 2022

As an institution that has invested in e-learning infrastructure and technology for e-learning delivery, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak conducted The Digital Educator Series as a means of embracing this educational disruption. In particular, this paper reports on the first three courses held under the Digital Educator Series that aims to equip teachers with practical and effective online teaching to school teachers in Sarawak. While the training is still in effect, preliminary results are shared, and implications for practice and recommendations for further research are considered.

Design/methodology/approach

Approximately 136 questionnaires containing close-and open-ended items were distributed to the teacher participants of the Digital Educator Series. Close-ended items were designed to gather general information about their perceptions of online teaching and learning. Items were constructed to gather insights on familiarity with online teaching and learning, perceived usefulness of platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Google Classrooms. The open-ended items were designed to gather information on areas of improvement for the courses and professional development needs of teachers for online teaching.

The findings revealed very mixed responses in terms of teachers' familiarity with online teaching and learning. Nonetheless, it was encouraging that the majority of teachers felt positively about the impact and usefulness of the courses in the Digital Educator Series and have expressed that would like to learn more about online teaching pedagogy. Teachers reported the greatest familiarity with Google Classroom and were very positive about the applicability the Google Classroom Course (91.2%) in their own teaching practice. Conversely, all of the participants reported they were unfamiliar with Microsoft Teams. Accordingly, the teachers did not perceive its applicability to be as high as the Google Classroom. The qualitative findings further corroborated this and expressed the need for specific professional development programmes that include pedagogical and technological support. Overall, the teachers are strongly focussed in their professional development in order to improve their online teaching,

Research limitations/implications

Like other research, this too has its limitations. The sample size in this study was restricted to those who attended the Digital Educator Series training. Hence the results of this study, whilst have been enriching, and to a certain extent are supported by the current literature, the accuracy of the description may be unique to this particular group of individuals, within this particular setting. Additionally, the study only relied on self-reports from both the questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews. This study accepts that self-reports have shortcomings. Not all experiences of the courses would have been readily accessible through the teachers' conscious reflections. This makes it difficult to construct a complete picture of the experience, challenges and identify all salient factors within a particular workshop or training.

Practical implications

Although the adoption of teaching and learning to online platforms is undoubtedly the way to maintain continuity of learning for students, it has also unveiled glaring inequities in Sarawak. Therefore, continuous and personalised professional development needs to be provided, focussing on pedagogical and technological support. There is a need to embrace these changes as a long-term response that will develop and improve over the next few years. That response should include better infrastructure, policies for quality improvement, accessibility standards and strategic plans for continuous access in the future. This includes advocating for platforms that can fit into the core technology environment and for teachers to adopt an innovative mindset.

Originality/value

In light of the complex and multifaceted challenge of transitioning to online learning in Sarawak Malaysia, it was evident that the need for innovative solutions to optimize educational endeavours has become accelerated. To ensure that students are well-supported and widening participation and access to education, it is imperative that the education disruption be embraced. This starts with addressing teachers' digital literacy through a professional development programme of online reaching.

• Online teaching
• Online learning
• Remote teaching and online learning
• E-learning readiness
• Teachers and teaching

Adi Badiozaman, I.F. , Leong, H.J. and Wong, W. (2022), "Embracing educational disruption: a case study in making the shift to a remote learning environment", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education , Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-08-2020-0256

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Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

1. Introduction

The rapid pivot to remote learning due to COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated the inequities across all levels in the education institutions globally. In a recent UNESCO report, approximately 143 countries have had to close schools nationwide since the COVID-19 outbreak. The closure of schools has disrupted the learning and education of an estimated 1.2bn students. This sudden shift to remote learning has disrupted the education system in unprecedented ways, highlighting a range of issues from the students' readiness and access for remote learning, to the digital divide in teachers' digital literacy ( UNESCO, 2020 ).

Malaysia is no exception. The disruption in learning has exposed deep education inequalities in the country's education system and the education system's capacity. As the burden of COVID-19 does not fall equally, there is a disproportionate effect on students who already experience barriers accessing education ( Walters, 2020 ). In Malaysia, although much focus has turned to online learning platforms, there are many schools that are still desperately under-resourced. Consequently, learning has not been set up to use these learning platforms as schools may not have functioning Internet access to support this ( Ebrahimi and Jiar, 2018 ). This is particularly true for students who are in remote locations, where technology has not been fully embedded in the system and where Internet availability is limited or non-existent ( Raman et al. , 2019 ). Such disruption calls for technological innovation from educators, to focus on most accessible technologies and methods to suit the very diverse student demographic and education context.

When the lockdown took effect on the 18th March 2020, remote emergency teaching ( Hodges et al. , 2020 ) became the new reality. The nation was compelled to rapidly adjust to and required swift transformation to emergency remote teaching and learning. As a means of containing the spread of COVID-19, the traditional face-to-face classrooms were substituted with online learning. These policies culminated in students learning from home and teachers preparing their teaching–learning from home either in a synchronous or asynchronous mode.

During the pandemic, Sarawak as the largest state in Malaysia had to swiftly move 423,962 students and 1,458 schools (pre-school: 22 959; primary:193 secondary: 238, 183) in the 12 divisions (see Figure 1 ) to immediate online learning ( Sarawak State Education Department, 2020 ). Throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO) and the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) issued by the Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee, teachers continued to conduct teaching and learning via various online platforms. The complex geographical distribution of students in Sarawak exacerbated the challenges of transitioning to online learning. Teachers were not only faced with learning new skills in the digital world but also creating engaging content through online programmes and making it accessible to students who may not have equitable access to technology.

In light of the complex and multifaceted challenge of transitioning to online learning, it was evident that the need for innovative solutions to optimize educational endeavours has become accelerated. To ensure that students are well-supported and have widening participation and access to education, it is imperative that the education disruption be embraced.

As an institution that has invested in e-learning infrastructure and technology for e-learning delivery, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak conducted The Digital Educator Series as a means of embracing this educational disruption. In particular, this paper reports on the first three courses held under the Digital Educator Series that aims to equip teachers with practical and effective online teaching to school teachers in Sarawak. While the training is still in effect, preliminary results are shared, implications for practice and recommendations for further research are considered.

2. Literature review

2.1 moving into an online environment.

Online education has been studied for decades. Numerous research studies have focused on online teaching and learning theories and evaluation criteria on quality online learning and online course design ( Brown, 2016 ; Kebritchi et al. , 2017 ; Rasheed et al. , 2020 ). Nonetheless, despite the importance and the benefits reported on online learning, very few advancements have been made in that very few teachers receive systematic support or instruction on how to design high-quality, interactive online learning experiences ( Archambault et al. , 2016 ).

Literature on online education has revealed that effective online learning results from careful instructional design and planning, using a systematic model for design and development such as that shown in Figure 2 . This design process of technology integration has to suit the education context as it has significant bearing on the quality of the instruction. In fact, Hodges et al. (2020) maintains that this careful design process that is time consuming, “will be absent in most cases in these emergency shifts” . Consequently, hastily moving teaching and learning to online platforms has shed light to the disproportionate access to technologies “necessary to be successful either as an online learner or as a teacher suddenly responsible for delivering content remotely” ( Lynch, 2020 , p. 189).

A survey by British Council as a global response to the change in English teaching and learning during COVID-19 disseminated from 9 April 2020 to 27 April 2020 on the “Support and Resources needed for teachers during COVD-19” revealed that online teaching has increased by 40% in the 11 countries. The teachers reported only moderate confidence in their online teaching, while teaching hours and preparation were reported to have increased. Approximately 77% spend 1–10 h, while 10% spend up to 15 h preparing online lessons (i.e. approximately 1:1 for teaching hour to preparation time). Challenges in remote teaching were attributed to various reasons including changing teaching style to suit online teaching (45%), Internet connection (46%), including all students in the lesson (53%) and unfamiliarity with teaching tools (32%). Additionally, the type of support reported by the teachers are mainly pedagogical in terms of seeking ways to increase student engagement during class hours, teaching methodology and designing materials for synchronous and asynchronous learning ( British Council, 2020 ).

Online teaching would be a new experience for most teachers, requiring them to adjust not only their approaches but their perspectives. A study on the professional development needs of online teachers revealed the extent of support to include administrative, personnel, pedagogical and technology support ( Martin et al. , 2019 ). Thus, it is expected that for many teachers, the shift from face-to-face teaching to an online teaching environment can be unsettling and requires teachers to redefine unrealistic expectations ( Gloria and Uttal, 2020 ). This is not surprising considering many teachers in Malaysia have not participated in any kind of learning experience, let alone teach online (see Cheok et al. , 2017 ; Had and Ab Rashid, 2019 ). Nasri et al. (2020) in their study further highlight that lecturers in Malaysia have varying levels of ICT literacy thus requiring training and a support system to accommodate their needs.

2.2 Teachers and digital literacy

One of the challenges of transitioning to online teaching is low digital literacy. During the pandemic, understandably, many teachers were ill-equipped for the transition to online learning. Furthermore, due to low digital literacy, teachers may experience difficulties in operating the applications and navigating platforms used for online learning. Teacher preparation time for online or blended environment is significantly increased due to the complexity of online and remote teaching ( Evagorou and Nisiforou, 2020 ).

The level of teachers' digital literacy, which significantly broadens the scope of potential sources of knowledge, can be derived from the aspect of the success of both their teaching and learning activities. Among the most important components of digital literacy are: “accessing, managing, evaluating, integrating, creating, and communicating information individually or collaboratively in a networked, computer supported, and web-based environment for learning, working, or leisure” ( Barnová et al. , 2020 , p. 12). According to Hague and Payton (2010) , digital literacy is made up of eight inter-related components or dimensions: functional skills, creativity, critical thinking and evaluation, cultural and social understanding, collaboration, the ability to find and select information, effective communication and e-safety . In the case of teachers, being digitally literate also means knowing when and why digital technologies are appropriate and helpful to the (educational) task at hand ( Hague and Payton, 2010 ). This means that teachers should have the competence in determining when the application of digital technologies is purposeful, meaningful and efficient and situations, when it is not.(i.e. Asynchronous e-learning or synchronous learning) ( Barnová et al. , 2020 , p. 14).Similarly, Baran and Correia (2014) maintain that in order to be effective online teachers, faculty must develop the know-how of online technologies. They further argue that it is critical for teachers to be given first-hand experience with both teaching and learning in online environments. In the case of this current educational disruption, many do not have that luxury, further compounding these challenges.

A study on the teaching challenges faced by Indonesian students during the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that the teachers need practical preparation to recognize applications, organise activities, maintain students' engagement and evaluate students' learning ( Atmojo and Nugroho, 2020 ). These challenges include but are not limited to creating content for online spaces, learning new delivery tools, understanding online pedagogy, engaging parents, addressing student mental health issues and attempting various pedagogical strategies to address both synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning ( Hartshorne et al. , 2020 , p. 138). König et al. (2020) in their analysis of school teachers in Germany further emphasise that information and communication technologies (ICT) tools, and in particular digital teacher competence and teacher education opportunities are fundamentally important in adapting to online teaching during this pandemic.

2.3 Bridging the digital divide

The first set, technological skills, relate to knowledge and ability to handle hardware and software issues. Next, the pedagogical skills refer to knowledge and ability to conduct and facilitate teaching and learning activities. Lastly, the evaluative skills refer to the analytical ability to assess the tasks and overall course and make necessary modifications to ensure language learning objectives are met” ( Compton, 2009 , p. 81)

In their study, Van Gorp et al. (2019) further organized each skill domain into four levels of expertise: limited, novice, proficient and expert . See Table 1 for description:

Baran et al. (2011) in their metaanalysis report that the importance placed on the online teachers' roles and competencies varies as it is context-dependent (i.e. education level and academic context). Nonetheless, the consensus is in designing high quality, interactive online learning experiences requiring systematic support or instruction ( Archambault et al. , 2016 ).

3. Methodology

3.1 the program: certified digital professional suit.

The impact of COVID-19 has resulted in extensive periods of remote teaching and learning in education institutions in Sarawak, Malaysia. For this reason, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus introduced a new short, practical training programme called “The Digital Educator Series” to elevate teacher's digital proficiency. The program, developed along the university's transformative digital journey, aims to ease participants into mobile ways of working with applications, cloud, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) using tools that are mostly free to use to mitigate the impact brought by the (COVID-19) pandemic. Continuous collection of different types of data collected from all stakeholder groups guided the course design. The Digital Educator Series aims to quickly equip educators with practical know-how in effective online teaching. A series of seven courses were developed and delivered online: (1) Online teaching and learning 1, (2) mastering Google Classroom, (3) cloud-based productivity tools, (4) online teaching and learning II, (5)working effectively away from office and netiquette, (6) cybersecurity in the digital workspace and (7) learning design workshops: E-activities. For example, the Microsoft Team's course demonstrates its ecosystems and trains the participants in using key MS Teams features to conduct classes online effectively. The learning outcomes of the course include: (1) creating MS Teams collaboration teams; (2) hosting, participating and presenting in MS teams; (3) being aware of security and privacy issues in MS teams and (4) engaging in digital collaboration tools.

3.2 Participants

A total of 136 primary and secondary teachers from all over Sarawak who participated in the online course were invited to participate in the study. The university had announced through its website and social media platforms that the digital educator program was being conducted, and we invited teachers to participate in the program. At the same time, the university directly invited a number of schools who had shown interest in or have made an enquiry of programmes such as these in the past. The breakdown of participants is as follows: (see Table 2 ).

3.3 Instrument

An online questionnaire was distributed upon the completion of each workshop to obtain participants' feedback. The survey was written in English, in short, simple sentences and consisted of items which were close-ended (15) and open-ended (2). Close-ended items were designed to gather general information about their perceptions of online teaching and learning. Items were thus constructed to gather insights on participants’ familiarity, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness with platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Google classrooms. The open-ended items were designed to gather information on areas of improvement for the courses and professional development needs of teachers for online teaching. The questionnaire was piloted to a group of primary and secondary school teachers ( n  = 5), and was approved by the management of the university, prior to being utilised. Participants were encouraged to respond to the questionnaire, but participation was strictly voluntary (see Table 3 ).

3.4 Data analysis

The SPSSv25 software was used to analysis the quantitative data from the close-ended items. Descriptive analysis was used to identify emerging and meaningful patterns ( Loeb et al. , 2017 ). A thematic analysis ( Gavin, 2008 ) was employed to analyse responses from the open-ended items, in which the following steps were followed: (1) identification of codes from keywords; (2) tabulating the frequency of codes; (3) merging codes intothemes; (4) ranking codes by frequency within themes and (5) reviewing themes for overlapping codes.

4.1 Quantitative findings

4.1.1 online teaching and learning.

It was interesting to note that there were quite mixed responses to the item seeking for teachers' familiarity with online teaching and learning. Some participants reported that online teaching and learning were not new to them as can be seen by their responses: strongly disagree (7.8%) and disagree (30.8%). On the other hand, about agree (30.8%) and strongly agree (7.7%) to the statement that online teaching and learning was new to them. Nonetheless, it was encouraging that the majority of teachers felt positively about the impact and usefulness of the online teaching and learning course. This was evidenced by the number of respondents choosing agree (30.8%) and strongly agree (46.2%) to the statements, “I will continue to engage and help my students using online tools even after the pandemic is over” and “I am keen to learn more about online teaching, learning pedagogy and tools” (Agree 30.8%; Strongly Agree 46.2%). The teachers also perceived the usefulness of online teaching and learning course very highly as indicated by the responses for the applicability of online teaching and learning for their practice: agree (46.2%) and strongly agree (30.38%) as shown in Figure 3 .

4.1.2 Google Classroom course

There were also quite mixed responses to the item seeking for teachers' familiarity with Google Classroom. Some participants reported that Google Classroom was not new to them as can be seen by their responses: strongly disagree (4.1%) and disagree (12.5%). Nonetheless, half of the participants responded that they were unfamiliar with Google Classroom as indicated by the participants who reported agree (33.3%) and strongly agree (16.7%) to the statement “I am familiar with Google Classroom”. Nevertheless, the teachers felt very positively about the applicability of the Google Classroom course. This was evidenced by the number of respondents choosing agree (58.3%) and strongly agree (29.2%) to the statements, “I will continue to engage and help my students using online tools even after the pandemic is over” and “I am keen to learn more about online teaching, learning pedagogy and tools”. Note that 37.5% responded agree and 58.3% responded strongly agree to the statement. The teachers also perceived the ease of use for Google Classroom very highly as seen through the responses for the applicability of Google Classroom for their practice. Note that respondents reported agree (58.3%) and strongly agree (33.3%) to the statement (see Figure 4 ).

4.1.3 Microsoft Teams

The majority of the teachers were very unfamiliar with Microsoft Teams as indicated by the participants who reported agree (28.6%) and strongly agree (71.4%) to the statement. Nonetheless, echoing the responses for the two former courses, the teachers felt very positively about the applicability of the Microsoft Team course. This was evidenced by the number of respondents choosing agree (35.7%) and strongly agree (57.1%) to the statements, “I will continue to engage and help my students using online tools even after the pandemic is over” and “I am keen to learn more about online teaching, learning pedagogy and tools” (agree 21.4%; strongly agree (78.6%). The teachers also perceived the ease of use for Microsoft Teams highly as indicated by the number of respondents choosing agree (50%) and strongly agree (35.7%) as shown in Figure 5 . Nonetheless, the teachers did not perceive its applicability as high as the Google Classroom.

4.2 Qualitative findings

Two main themes emerged from the qualitative data from the participants' feedback of the first three courses attended from The Digital Educator Series as areas of improvement and professional development needs of teachers: (1) pedagogical support and (2) technology support (See Table 4 ).

Overall, the consensus reported the benefits of the courses they attended in the Digital Educator Series. This is evident in the responses where participants reported gaining new knowledge: “I have a clearer mindset on setting Microsoft team for collaborative teaching and learning with the students”, and applicability for their own pedagogical practice “I can discuss projects with students and monitor their progress instead of just discussing one sided way through FB live” . Additionally, the teachers also reported positive impact on their motivation: “The class was very informative and useful for teachers who have yet to use Google Classroom…very motivating to use the so many useful features especially during this Movement Control Order (MCO) to enhance home-based learning and teaching”. Participants also reported increased self-efficacy, “As a teacher, being able to participate in this course gave us more confidence that online teaching will be of tremendous help in reaching out to our pupils with whom we have been tutoring face to face before Movement Control Order (MCO)”.

The participants reported that they require pedagogical support and training. Acknowledging they have very limited experience to none with either Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams, (i.e. “Most of us have never used Microsoft teams”), the teachers reported the need to have guidance for online courses, such as how to write objectives, how to facilitate online courses in line with learning outcome/objectives and setting up group work. Another area of pedagogical support was guidance on creating instructional resources, project-based and problem-based learning, as well as active learning techniques such as discussions. The teachers reported the need for a robust training programme and teaching strategies that are discipline-specific to teach online. One teacher wrote: “ Could you please create more programmes such as this in another topic that could also benefit us as educators…introduce applicable tools for Mathematics” .

Since teaching online is still emergent in Sarawak, the teachers have expressed the need for more training and supplemental resources (i.e. “prepare short notes for future reference after the session” and “I would like to know more about the differences between MS team and other platforms such as WEBex and Zoom”). Additionally, the findings revealed the need for more course examples and additional instructions and/or guidance. This was expressed through wanting more hands-on experience during the course. A teacher wrote: “Although I am aware of the limitations of an online course, I was expecting a bit more hands-on session. More guides or step by step”.

Understandably, the teachers reported the need to have technical support for the different learning management systems (LMS) typically used for online courses and the different communications and collaboration platforms. One participant reported: “I was not familiar with Microsoft Teams, so a lot of time was wasted in trying to get where I am supposed to be. Maybe the teacher can provide instructions on how to go to breakout groups or for group discussions” . Some teachers wanted to learn how to integrate online apps for teaching and learning: “I would have liked training on more online apps for teaching and learning could be introduced or shared for online learning using Google Classroom”. Overall, our data highlighted two major needs for enhancing the teachers' digital literacy; technological support and pedagogical support. To that effect, we need to be realistic about setting expectations for this surge of teaching online for both teachers and students who have never experienced this before. Lessons on digital skills and literacy is only the first step.

5. Discussion and implications

Due to the pandemic, the speed of moving to online instruction is unprecedented and staggering. More importantly, the current pandemic has highlighted the digital divide not just in terms of supporting technology but also teachers' preparedness. The study has revealed that the majority of teachers are new to remote/online teaching and thus are only moderately confident in their ability to do their job remotely. Like other studies, this is likely due to a significant gap in teacher preparation and training for emergency remote teaching, which ensures learning continuity ( Whalen, 2020 ; Whittle et al. , 2020 ). Nonetheless, the findings revealed that the teachers are strongly focussed on their professional development in order to improve teaching and learning during the pandemic. In fact, the teachers reported they need significant training to support the move to online teaching, moving forward. The following section will discuss implications for practice in light of the findings from the study.

5.1 Pedagogical and technological support

It has been argued that well-planned online learning experiences are meaningfully different from courses offered online in response to a crisis or disaster ( Hodges et al. , 2020 ). The findings of the study, however, have revealed that the teachers had limited knowledge about the pedagogy for online teaching and learning and collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom. This low digital literacy may lead to teachers who are not confident in using digital technologies and feel anxious about using them in the classroom as they feel that their own functional skills are not as developed as their students'(see Horvitz et al. , 2015 ; Rhode et al. , 2017 ; Vang et al. , 2020 ). Note that Archambault et al. (2014) suggests that “online teachers need to have not only an excellent grasp of their given content area but also an appreciation of how technology and the online environment affect the content and the pedagogy of what they are attempting to teach” (p. 87).

Nonetheless, in the case that a teacher is less experienced and knows less than a student about how to operate a particular piece of technology, it does not necessarily mean that he/she is digitally illiterate. Hague and Payton (2010) maintain that teachers are still more equipped with the higher order critical thinking skills and the subject knowledge to apply to digital technologies. Therefore, scaffolding teachers' pedagogical needs (i.e. instructional design needs and technology skills) was necessary to pave a path for all to navigate online learning. The reality of the pandemic has shown how important digital technologies in education are and that online education represents an efficient alternative when present forms of education are not available ( Barnová et al. , 2020 , p. 15).While maintaining quality learning for students, it is important to embrace an iterative process of design and instruction. That teachers reported many pedagogical needs, and support in the feedback indicates the importance placed by these teachers in designing and delivering effective courses. These are critical elements of online course design. For this reason, future training programs and relevant resources should be created to prepare the teachers for online teaching.

5.2 Teacher preparation and professional development

As indicated in the study, the teachers are strongly focused on professional development in order to improve their teaching. Various platforms and applications ranging from communication tools and learning management systems are utilised for online learning. Teachers must be trained with sufficient knowledge and skills for effective online teaching practices, particularly in a low technology context often faced by Sarawak teachers. The current context of education demands educators to have advanced literacy on information technology. In an increasingly pressurised environment, online professional development for in-service teachers is paramount. This is to ensure that their online teaching skills are further developed as they find their own online teaching voices ( Avgerinou and Moros, 2020 ).

There is a need to invest in the teachers' professional development as well as to upskill their digital skill. Although the Digital Educator Series was relevant and the programs could continue in the remote learning environment, continuous and personalised professional development needs to be provided. This was evidenced particularly in the qualitative data where participants reported for technological and pedagogical training and/or support. As argued by Hartshorne in his study, “it is important to prepare teachers in decision-factors for determining whether to use synchronous or asynchronous approaches in remote teaching and learning” ( Hartshorne et al. , 2020 , p. 143). It is also apparent that there is a need for teachers to be reflective, innovative and adaptive to changes. Because new learning modalities have become a reality during these unprecedented times, it has become important to advocate for platforms that can fit into the core technology environment in Sarawak. This can only be achieved through novel educational strategies and for teachers to adopt an innovative mindset.

Thus, in the case with the COVID-19 pandemic, what becomes apparent as we examine examples of educational planning in crises is that these situations require creative problem-solving. This transcends acquiring technological knowledge. Teachers have to generate various innovative solutions that meet the needs of learners. This encompasses thinking about delivery modes, methods and media that are most suited for the rapidly changing needs and limited resources, such as faculty support and training ( Hodges et al. , 2020 ).

There is a need to understand teachers' needs for professional development in online learning, so that programs can be better curated for effective online teaching. As argued by Rhode et al. (2017) a one-size fits-all approach to faculty development for online teaching often does not meet the needs of faculty that have different levels of experience, skills and self-efficacy. The focus of professional development for online teachers should be on their effectiveness as teachers. This can be supported by taking a more holistic approach to professional development instead of focussing narrowly only on technology skills or instructional design ( Martin et al. , 2019 ; Rhode et al. , 2017 ).

5.3 Opportunity in crisis

Although the adoption of teaching and learning to online platforms is undoubtedly the best way to maintain continuity of learning for students, it has also unveiled glaring inequities. The abrupt transition to remote teaching and learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified concerns about the digital divide, particularly for students with inequities of accessing the technology. Thus, it is critical for educators to inform solutions to resolve equity, accessibility issues.

Yes we need to act immediately, but we also need to be involved in the setting up the infrastructure, the training and the response for at least another school year…This is our opportunity to build and help all students in the future who are ill, who do not have the technology resources, who find themselves unable to come to class for whatever reason (Covid-19 Impact on Education, UNESCO, March 2020).

There is a need to embrace these changes as a long-term response that will develop and improve over the next few years. That response should include better infrastructure, policies for quality improvement, accessibility standards and strategic plans for continuous access in the future. Hartshorne et al. (2020) maintains that “ as we move beyond the survival phase of remote teaching and learning, it is critical now to transition to a thriving phase of remote teaching, learning and teacher education” (p. 138). This is because pedagogical integration of open educational resources allows for a digitally inclusive educational environment and “diminishes the negative effects of digital divide” ( Tudor, 2020 , p. 374). Overall, our research findings are in alignment with the literature on the challenges faced in transitioning to online teaching and professional development needs for teachers who have to pivot to remote teaching. Support for teachers in remote teaching and remote training pedagogy should be provided.

Like other research, this too has its limitations. The sample size in this study was restricted to those who attended the Digital Educator Series training. Hence the results of this study, whilst have been enriching, and to a certain extent are supported by the current literature, the accuracy of the description may be unique to this particular group of individuals within this particular setting. Additionally, the study only relied on self-reports from both the questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews. This study accepts that self-reports have shortcomings. Not all experiences of the courses would have been readily accessible through the teachers' conscious reflections. This makes it difficult to construct a complete picture of the experience, challenges and identify all salient factors within a particular workshop or training.

6. Conclusion

The pandemic has exposed the inequities in education. There are marked variations in technological access, academic expectations, teachers' digital literacy and self-efficacy when it comes to remote teaching. Therefore, it is imperative that the initiatives which attempt to address the digital skills and pedagogical knowledge should be further continued. As evidenced in this study, the teachers have revealed not only resilience but also genuine interest from educators to adapt / withstand future crises. There is a need to invest for the upskilling of Sarawak teachers for remote learning to ensure continuity of learning during unstable times. This includes advocating for platforms that can fit into the core technology environment and for teachers to adopt an innovative mindset.

Divisions in Sarawak

Classroom technology integration model

Breakdown of responses for online teaching and learning course

Breakdown of responses for Google classroom course

Breakdown of responses for Microsoft Teams course

Online teaching levels of expertise

Breakdown of participants according to courses

Breakdown of participants according to divisions in Sarawak

Emerging themes from the participants' feedback on the digital educator series

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Conflict of interest statement: On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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• Published: 20 May 2023

The sudden transition to remote learning in response to COVID-19: lessons from Malaysia

• Mohd Idzwan Mohd Salleh 1 ,
• Nor Aziah Alias 2 ,
• Suriyani Ariffin 3 ,
• Zainuddin Ibrahim 4 ,
• Ahmad Razi Ramli 5 &
• Sharifah Aliman 3  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  254 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Higher education students are frequently required to assess lecturers with a convenient, fast, and anonymous learning management system. Following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia (UiTM) adopted a remote teaching and learning approach. This study examined how lecturers’ professionalism, course impression, and facilitating conditions at UiTM affected undergraduate and graduate students’ remote learning pre- and mid-pandemic. The higher prediction accuracy of the model demonstrated that students’ remote learning activities were highly related to lecturers’ professionalism, course impression, and facilitating conditions. The structural model demonstrated that the t -statistics of all measurement variables were significant at 1%. The strongest predictor of students’ enjoyment of remote learning pre- and mid-pandemic was lecturers’ professionalism. In the importance-performance matrix, lecturers’ professionalism was in the quadrant for ‘keep up the good work’. Facilitating conditions and course impression did not require further improvement even during the pandemic. The influence of remote learning was demonstrated in the students’ graduation rates and grades. The results also presented theoretical and practical implications for the UiTM hybrid learning plan post-pandemic.

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Introduction.

The term ‘remote learning’ is frequently used interchangeably with ‘distance learning’, ‘electronic (e)-learning’, and ‘online learning’. In remote learning, students are physically distant from their instructors and require internet-connected digital devices, such as laptops, tablets, desktop computers, and smartphones. Remote learning is delivered synchronously (lecturers and students are online at the same time) or asynchronously (lecturers and students are online at different times and locations if internet access is poor for either party) (Nketekete et al., 2021 ; Syahruddin et al., 2021 ). There are various means of conveying remote learning, which range from traditional take-home materials (books) to modern online and digital resources. Mobile phones, television, radio, and online tutors are all viable options that enable remote learning (Muñoz-Najar et al., 2021 ). University students are encouraged to undertake remote learning due to the potential benefits, which include greater learning flexibility, enhanced learning experience, learning personalisation, improved access to distance learning resources (Kamble et al., 2021 ), and support for higher student enrolment (Morris et al., 2019 ).

On March 18, 2020, the Malaysian government enforced the Movement Control Order (MCO) to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread nationwide. During the MCO, all higher learning institutions were closed, and activities of learning and teaching shifted online. Thus, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), which is the largest Malaysian public university with 185,400 active students and 8,958 lecturers from 27 faculties and 27 UiTM branch campuses nationwide, was compelled to transition from in-person to remote learning.

During the pandemic, academic activities involved both asynchronous and synchronous remote learning. Students with low internet connectivity received learning materials via e-mail, while those with good internet connectivity used Google Meet or Webex for teaching and learning. Students with slow internet connections were given consideration in synchronous sessions, where sessions were flexible and could be moved to another scheduled time to avoid scheduling conflicts with other online sessions. Furthermore, lectures could be recorded and shared on Google Drive. Moreover, students could conduct self-paced asynchronous learning activities on the UiTM e-learning platform UFUTURE.

Nevertheless, the rapid transition from in-person to entirely online learning during the pandemic significantly challenged both instructors and students. One of the most challenging aspects of designing a good learning environment and student activities was developing online learning methods and courses that accommodated traditional methods (Amin et al., 2020 ). For example, Indian universities experienced a lack of facilities, instructional resources, and academic staff skilled in information technology (IT) staff. These deficiencies were expected to persist after the COVID-19 pandemic (Kaup et al., 2020 ). In Romania, students were predicted to demonstrate high perceived e-learning efficacy based on the internet connectivity availability in their homes and the university online learning infrastructure (Roman & Plopeanu, 2021 ). In Pakistan, societal views were associated with the shift to online learning. Students’ families conveyed irrefutable doubts or concerns about computers and networks, where the poorest families were unable to afford online learning devices. When parents and children are required to study or work from home, an unpleasant study and work environment can render work or learning increasingly challenging (Maqsood et al., 2021 ).

Students’ evaluation of teaching is prevalent in higher education. Students frequently evaluate their lecturers toward class completion or after the last semester class session. Student evaluations can provide lecturers with constructive feedback, which would improve the teaching methods of specific academic programme courses. Furthermore, such evaluations provide feedback on course instruction effectiveness, which is composed of delivery, substance, professionalism, assessment, grading, and innovation. Thus, most educational experts consider student evaluations an accurate, valid, reliable, and beneficial assessment tool (Darwin, 2017 ; North et al., 2018 ).

Before the pandemic, teaching and learning was mainly conducted in-person. A blended approach was used by lecturers, which included a learning management system (LMS) to provide lecture content, create topic discussion forums, and design coursework assessments tests and quizzes. Students from engineering, clinical, and arts courses participated in blended learning by attending formal lectures, working in labs or workshops, and participating in forum discussions online. At the end of the semester, students evaluated how well their lecturers taught, their lecturers’ professionalism, and what they had learned from the course.

Despite numerous studies on distance learning quality, satisfaction, and success (Azlan et al., 2020 ; Choi et al., 2021 ), Malaysian higher education research on measuring remote learning acceptance considering learning activities (LA), and lecturer professionalism (LP) is scarce. Thus, this study examined UiTM students’ remote learning acceptance through LP, course impression (CI), and facilitating conditions (FC) pre- and mid-COVID-19 outbreak.

Study hypotheses

The term ‘profession’ refers to a job that requires much expertise, focus on detail, and observance of recognised scientific and educational principles. The term ‘professionalism’ refers to a professional’s commitment to self-improvement. The LP is required to yield excellent performances that gratify all stakeholders, which include students, parents, and wider society (Hidayati & Siswati, 2018 ). As professionals, lecturers are required to possess numerous competencies to conduct their tasks appropriately, namely subject matter knowledge and skills; cognisance of their students’ knowledge, personality, and skills; and professional growth (Wiranto & Slameto, 2021 ). Vayre and Vonthron ( 2017 ) suggested that continuous support from lecturers and professors may aid students’ remote learning success. Shankar, Gowtham and Surekha ( 2020 ) reported that teachers’ professional and personal development is vital to enrich students’ learning experience. Creative and experienced lecturers design the intended LA based on current knowledge, content and delivery quality, and IT skills to increase student gratification (Almusharraf & Khahro, 2020 ; Wiranto & Slameto, 2021 ). Lecturers’ attitudes and competencies are important to develop positive student behaviours in technology-mediated distance learning (Rudhumbu, 2021 ). Furthermore, LP and infrastructure and facility quality influence alumni satisfaction with higher education institution learning (Azizan et al., 2022 ; Wiranto & Slameto, 2021 ). Thus, the following hypotheses (H) were proposed:

H1: The LP positively influences CI.

H2: The LP positively influences FC.

H3: The LP positively influences LA.

James et al. ( 2022 ) reported that meaningful online learning requires good pedagogical strategies, resources, and technology. Universities with a suitable IT infrastructure would enable greater student engagement and more effective study, as such an infrastructure establishes an appealing and conducive learning environment (Wiranto & Slameto, 2021 ). Conversely, students with poor home internet connections are likely to experience online learning issues (Kamble et al., 2021 ). Zakharov and Maybee ( 2019 ) stated that students with poor home internet connectivity were 10% more likely to study online ineffectively. Teo, Kim and Jiang ( 2020 ) demonstrated that the proactive role in constructing a solid learning network and facility infrastructure in Korea significantly influenced the national e-learning platform effectiveness.

Moreover, distance education efficacy can be affected by students’ traits, such as ethnicity, gender, and active participation in various e-learning community platforms (Alasmari, 2021 ). For example, remote learning efficacy was influenced and improved by dedicated LMS support platforms, such as Google Meet and Zoom, thus suggesting that university remote learning platforms were typically satisfactorily adapted to crises, which included the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, such platforms established safe, secure, and agreeable e-learning environments in developed and developing countries (Roman & Plopeanu, 2021 ). Based on the aforementioned information, the following hypotheses were proposed:

H4: The CI positively influences LA.

H5: The FC positively influence LA.

Study model

The model design was inspired by Danielson’s ( 2007 ) framework for teaching, which is a set of teaching performance indicators or standards measured by four-level evaluation scales or rubrics: content and pedagogy planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. The framework was modified to accommodate the context of Malaysian higher education, and included CI and FC as the new measurement variables. Figure 1 demonstrates the three independent variables (LP, CI, and FC) and one dependent variable (LA) proposed in this study.

Proposed remote learning acceptance model (drawn in partial least squares structural equation modeling).

The LP refers to self-awareness, commitment, professionalism, and leadership as desirable traits to improve personal and professional competence development throughout academic fields by satisfying all stakeholders, which are primarily students (Hernandez et al., 2021 ; Hidayati & Siswati, 2018 ). The CI refers to the learners’ expectations or self-reflection of knowledge gained, field relatedness, learning ability, and remote learning confidence level (Almaiah et al., 2016 ; Yuan et al., 2021 ). The FC refers to the student’s perception of available IT resources, tools, and support, which includes the related devices and internet data plans (de Witte et al., 2021 ; Patricia Aguilera-Hermida, 2020 ) used to achieve the planned learning objectives and outcomes. Lastly, LA refers to the degree to which learning becomes an enjoyable and important experience for students (Rizun & Strzelecki, 2020 ; Syahruddin et al., 2021 ). A positive relationship between LP, CI, and FC creates an enjoyable LA. Thus, students will enjoy their LA if they have a good first impression, good learning environment, and professional lecturers, which affect their perception and acceptance of remote learning.

Research design

The model in this quantitative study was converted into academic policy for lecturer teaching evaluation and has been applied since September 2010 (see Supplementary Information).

The online evaluation form contained four sections with 24 questions measured on a four-point forced Likert scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (4). Section A contained four questions on the overall CI, Section B contained seven LP questions, Section C contained 11 LA questions, and Section D contained two learning infrastructure questions.

Unit of analysis or data sources and data collection

The respondents were UiTM undergraduate and postgraduate students. Every learning semester, the students are required to evaluate their lecturers within six weeks (from week 11 to week 16) using Student Feedback Online (SuFO), which can be accessed through the LMS UFUTURE ( https://ufuture.uitm.edu.my/home ) . Typically, one student will evaluate at least five lecturers per semester based on the course credit hours registered. For example, a student who registers for seven courses (out of the 5000 courses are offered) involving 19 credit hours per semester must evaluate one lecturer per course. Lecturers can view their evaluation scores one week after the student examination results have been released.

Data analysis

The SuFO data for the October 2019 to February 2020 semester (pre-pandemic) and the March to August 2020 semester (mid-pandemic) were extracted. The descriptive data containing the respondents’ profiles were analysed in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The inferential data were analysed in the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) programme.

Descriptive analysis

A total of 92,752 students rated 7216 lecturers pre-pandemic, and 95,747 students evaluated 6647 lecturers mid-pandemic. The data underwent outlier checking to ensure data reliability and validity. The final pre- and mid-pandemic datasets contained 194,559 and 221,366 responses, respectively, which could be used for data analysis. Unengaged responses with a standard deviation value of <0.30 were discarded, as the respondents answered with the same scale for all questions; hence, these responses were not useful for data analysis (Lowry & Gaskin, 2014 ).

Table 1 presents the respondents’ demographic profile. Up to 95.4% (81,938) of undergraduates and 4.6% (3951) of postgraduates evaluated their lecturers pre-pandemic, while 95.1% (65,045) of undergraduates and 4.9% (3361) of postgraduates evaluated their lecturers mid-pandemic in three study clusters (science and technology, social science and humanities, and business and management). Up to 69.0% (1472) of undergraduate and 31.0% (661) of postgraduate programme courses were evaluated pre-pandemic, while 68.3% (1375) of undergraduate and 31.7% (639) of postgraduate programme courses were evaluated mid-pandemic.

Measurement model

The final pre- and mid-pandemic datasets were analysed in PLS-SEM, which measures the evaluation data from large sample sizes by evaluating two models: path measurement and path analysis (Hayes et al., 2017 ). Table 2 demonstrates that assessing the measurement model validity for both datasets required outer loadings, composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE), and discriminant validity. Multi-collinearity assessment determined that the independent variable tolerance levels ranged from 1.4 to 2.8, which were below the critical threshold variance inflation factor (VIF) of 5, thus indicating that there were no issues (Hair et al., 2011 ). For convergent validity, the LP, CI, FC, and LA outer loadings exceeded the critical value of 0.7 in both datasets, excluding the LP3 and LA8 indicators, which were subsequently removed. The indicators demonstrated high reliability (Hair et al., 2017 ). Furthermore, the CR of the measuring variables (LP, CI, FC, and LA) exceeded the required threshold of 0.7, and the AVE values exceeded the minimum threshold of 0.5, which indicated that both datasets had high convergent validity (Hair et al., 2017 ). Therefore, the mid-pandemic dataset reflected higher outer loadings of each construct indicator, CR, and AVE score.

Based on the lack of sensitivity, discriminant validity was assessed with the heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) criteria rather than Fornell-Larcker criterion and cross-loadings. All HTMT values between constructs in the pre-and mid-pandemic models were less than the cut-off point of 0.90 (see Table 3 ), which demonstrated sufficient discriminant validity (Henseler et al., 2014 ).

Structural model

The structural model predictive relevancy pre- and mid-pandemic was analysed. The LA denoted a strong coefficient of determination ( R 2 ) of 0.692 and 0.722 in the pre- and mid-pandemic models, respectively, which indicated that this dependent or outcome variable was described by approximately 50% of its variance by LP, CI, and FC. For effect sizes ( f 2 ), LP had a large effect on CI but a medium effect on FC. The LP had a large effect on LA, but CI and FC demonstrated small effects on LA in both models (Chin, 1998 ). Regarding significance, Hair et al. ( 2017 ) proposed that a t -value of at least 2.53 when the p -value is ≤0.01 (1%) indicated significance. The structural model was estimated using complete PLS bootstrapping with 5,000 subsamples. All tested hypotheses were supported, as all measuring variables were positive and significant at the level of 0.01 (see Table 4 ).

In both models, the strongest effect was LP on LA, which confirmed H3, followed by the effect of LP on CI (H1), LP on FC (H2), CI on LA (H4), and FC on LA (H5), which confirmed these hypotheses. The mid-pandemic dataset revealed higher scores for model prediction ( R 2 ), significance ( t -values), and effect sizes ( f 2 values).

Extended analysis

The importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) is an extended PLS procedure to measure LA as the target variable following the structural model evaluation. In this study, the IPMA objective was to identify variables that were important to the target construct (LA) but that underperformed, wherein managerial actions could be focused on that specific construct for improvement (Hair et al., 2017 ). Table 5 presents the IPMA results, where the highest total effect score was for LP (0.810) at the performance level 84.54 in the pre-pandemic model and for LP (0.830) at the performance level 85.45 in the mid-pandemic model. The results demonstrated an increase in LP from 84.5% pre-pandemic to 85.5% mid-pandemic. Conversely, the FC decreased from 78.8% pre-pandemic to 73.1% mid-pandemic.

The LP was in the ‘keep up the good work’ quadrant, which confirmed the significant result on the positive effect of LP on LA (see Figs. 2 and 3 ). The increased LP predicted increased students’ remote learning activity in pre- (Fig. 2 ) and even mid-pandemic (Fig. 3 ) academic sessions.

Increased remote learning activities pre-pandemic.

Increased remote learning activities mid-pandemic.

The year 2020 was challenging for UiTM students, as they were unable to learn in-person. Nevertheless, the lecturers demonstrated unequivocal commitment to ensuring that the students enjoyed distance learning and were able to share experiences. The lecturers were committed to remote teaching and constantly enabled students’ assessments and assignments throughout the semester, which indicated increased LP.

The findings were consistent with those of previous studies, where CI positively affected LA pre- and mid-pandemic (Alasmari, 2021 ; Hamadi et al., 2021 ; James et al., 2022 ). As students learn more about remote learning and its contents, they feel happier about their decision to use it in learning (Teo et al., 2020 ). Furthermore, the LA pre- and mid-pandemic positively affected FC. This finding paralleled that of Roman and Plopeanu ( 2021 ), who reported that learning infrastructure aided and supported distance education in Rome universities and that good IT infrastructure aided online learning by Malaysian university students (Munir et al., 2021 ). At UiTM, students from the B40 household group (income <RM2500 per month) were hampered by poor internet access, insufficient data plans, low-performing laptops, and unconducive learning environments. These issues contributed to their lack of motivation, tiredness, and learning passivity, which could worsen, cause depression and anxiety, and eventually lead to study postponement.

The LP significantly affected the CI and LA pre- and mid-pandemic, which corresponded to Vayre and Vonthron’s ( 2017 ) study. Kara, Tanui and Kalai ( 2016 ) confirmed that LP and the quality of teaching methods, the Internet, and learning module accessibility contributed to a high level of educational services and student satisfaction in Kenyan state universities. Distance education and e-learning success is determined by reliable online aid from teachers and professors (Almusharraf & Khahro, 2020 ; Roman & Plopeanu, 2021 ; Vayre & Vonthron, 2017 ; Wiranto & Slameto, 2021 ) and lecturers’ technological self-efficacy (Rudhumbu, 2021 ), which supported the significant result of LP on LA. Improving e-learning facilities and services can enhance LP (Alasmari, 2021 ; Wiranto & Slameto, 2021 ).

Essentially, conventional learning was converted to a new learning norm that involved more student-centred LA. A flipped classroom engages students more instead of requiring them to wait for lecture notes and assignments. Flipped classrooms enhance knowledge transfer and class time efficiency (Chiquito et al., 2020 ). Students acquire key concepts and terminologies by reading or viewing recorded lecture videos on their mobile devices before class, which facilitates flexibility and self-paced learning (Howell, 2021 ). The Universal Design of Learning requires lecturers to design self-instructional materials (SIMs) and learning processes based on students’ capability and accessibility using low- and high-tech devices and connectivity. Thus, the UiTM lecturers prepared materials in digital formats [portable document format (PDF), PowerPoint Presentation (PPT), or massive open online course (MOOC)] and shared the SIMs on UFUTURE and social networking platforms, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook group pages. The rapidly prepared SIMs enabled self-efficacy learning, where students’ understanding was subsequently reinforced in discussion or tutorial sessions. Learning flexibility was promoted when lecturers conducted video-based synchronous sessions in their first one-hour lectures before enabling learning personalisation in tutorials via WhatsApp and Telegram. Students mainly applied problem-based learning to group work and peer learning. These approaches were consistent with that of Vázquez-Cano and Díez-Arcón ( 2021 ), who demonstrated that remote learning university students used Facebook groups as an efficient learning tool. The online learning efficacy increased learner satisfaction, specifically regarding productivity and motivation.

de Brún et al. ( 2022 ) reported that lecturers at a large urban university in Ireland evaluated graduate students with the appropriate tools and techniques. The approach included exemplars, rubrics, explicit scoring, and feedback criteria in online assessment to provide constructive feedback and improve online assessment validity and accuracy. Student-centred online assessment via LMS can enhance personal and professional growth, deep learning, and transferable skills, such as critical thinking (Nelwati et al., 2018 ).

Under UiTM remote learning protocols, learning assessment was customised without affecting learning outcome achievement, specifically for exam-based courses, by modifying assessment methods, task number, duration, and parameters, and the application process. For example, an online test assessment could measure more than one course learning outcome, where there could not be more than four course assessment tasks. Furthermore, assessment durations and processes for exam-based courses were rescheduled throughout the semester rather than during exam weeks. Typically, online assessments were applied in UFUTURE and aligned with course learning outcomes. Specifically, students’ learning objective mastery or progress was measured with online formative assessment. Such assessment provided feedback on student learning improvement and contributed to the final grade. At the end of the learning semester, the students underwent a three-week online summative assessment to ensure that they had achieved the expected learning outcomes. These online formative and summative assessments were conducted in two situations:

Synchronous assessment, which were implemented if students had good internet access.

Asynchronous assessment, which allowed lecturers to plan and design assessments that could be conducted within a set period using different sets of questions but using the same level of difficulty.

The findings indicated that higher LP enhanced the students’ remote learning enjoyment. The significance test and IPMA results were compared with actual student achievement data on graduate-on-time (GOT) and the cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Remote learning enjoyment contributed to a slight decrease in the GOT rate of 1.5% among UiTM undergraduates in 2020 as compared to the pre-pandemic period in 2019. Similarly, the 2020 GOT among UiTM postgraduates who undertook Master’s degrees by coursework decreased slightly by 1.7% compared to the previous year. When overall academic performance during the pandemic year was evaluated using the CGPA, 83.1% of undergraduates achieved good and excellent CGPAs between 3.00 and 4.00. Comparatively, 48.7% of postgraduates in coursework programmes obtained good and exceptional CGPAs between 3.00 and 4.00.

The results demonstrated that the UiTM students obtained consistent GOT rates and CGPAs, which confirmed their satisfaction with the remote learning experience during the pandemic. The findings were supported by Refae et al. ( 2021 ), who reported that using new technologies and digital resources could aid university student performance improvement when they learned from home. Rajadurai et al. ( 2018 ) stated that distance learning technologies, course effectiveness and quality, and digital resource usefulness were some of the most important factors for improving student performance.

While increased LP benefited LA, criticisms involving excessive assignments, no feedback on assignments, inadequately experienced lecturers designing online lessons, and students encountering difficulty in understanding presentation platforms and methods were recorded. The lecturers were also unaware that the students experienced learning and accessibility limitations. Hebebci et al. ( 2020 ) stated that technological unpreparedness was a major disadvantage of distance learning. In India, Nambiar ( 2020 ) reported that the main online classroom concerns were technical issues, such as slow internet connections, bad video quality, and difficulty logging in to different courses. Additionally, there were a few instances of mental health issues and unsupportive families.

The UiTM lecturers were entirely new to the remote teaching approach and required time for adjustment. Nonetheless, they participated in the numerous weekly online comprehensive training sessions or courses offered by the university to equip themselves with the required IT knowledge and skills in their respective teaching fields. The training sessions and courses ranged from content development to online coursework assessment. Despite UFUTURE being the central LMS, the university did not restrict e-learning platforms to improve students’ learning experiences through numerous delivery techniques to achieve course learning objectives and outcomes. Thus, lecturers were able to use other LMS (Google Classroom, Microsoft LMS365, and Blackboard Learn) and the Zoom and Webex platforms for synchronous classes, and communicate and monitor students via social media platforms (Facebook and Telegram). This finding paralleled Irfan et al. ( 2020 ) qualitative case study, where LMS (Google Classroom and Edmodo) and video conferencing (Zoom and Skype) supported online learning during the pandemic in Indonesia and positively influenced teaching. Thus, technological quality and system content substantially influence students’ satisfaction with LMS and perception of its usefulness (Nguyen, 2021 ).

Conclusion and implications

This study evaluated UiTM students’ feedback regarding remote learning before and throughout the pandemic under the MCO. The students reported increased enjoyment of remote LA presented by dedicated and professional lecturers. The students were satisfied with their learning experience, which was confirmed by the steady GOT rates and satisfactory CGPAs. The findings confirmed that the students were prepared for remote learning and were good remote learners. The students’ academic achievements were sustained without a reduction in GOT targets of 80% during the pandemic year, despite the immediate change in learning mode that forced them to learn online from home. The students became more independent, self-directed learners, and active social media users in forum discussions and tutorials. Personalised learning was promoted and granted greater flexibility for examinations and assessment deadlines. Thus, the students changed how they learned, worked, and interacted with others to complete their studies on time with good results. Integrating LP with CI and FC demonstrated that the dependent variable LA denoted higher explanatory and predictive power, specifically during the pandemic.

To create enjoyable learning activities for UiTM students post-pandemic, policymakers should revise the current policy to empower LP through relevant training sessions and webinars on ethical design and digital content use, effective online communication, value-centred learning, collaborative teaching, alternative assessment, and psychological well-being learning management. Furthermore, university management should allocate a more substantial budget to improve UFUTURE as the primary e-learning platform with current assessment and pedagogical tools to enhance usage, student and lecturer confidence, and learning motivation post-pandemic. The management should emphasise CI and FC less, as they are less important when measuring students’ enjoyment of remote learning pre- and mid-pandemic.

This study established and validated a simplified model of the determinants of enjoyable remote LA among UiTM undergraduates and postgraduates with a large dataset of pre-and mid-pandemic academic sessions and significant findings. Thus, LP to promote enjoyable student LA at UiTM was an important determinant of remote learning acceptance pre- and mid-pandemic. Determining the factors that can increase LP is critical to continuously provide an enjoyable and meaningful learning experience to UiTM students. Nevertheless, B40 students were worried and dissatisfied with their required computers and networks for learning during the outbreak.

Malaysia has made significant progress in controlling the spread of COVID-19 by implementing strict measures such as lockdowns, travel restrictions, and widespread testing and vaccination programmes. These measures have resulted in a decrease in the number of new cases and deaths. Therefore, as the country moves towards the post-pandemic era, it is important for UiTM to carefully adjust its implementation plan for hybrid learning. This should be done to accommodate students’ emotional and learning needs to ensure that they will GOT with the necessary skills and competencies required for future jobs. Thus, the findings presented practical implications in the form of the following recommendations to UiTM for a better remote learning experience:

University policymakers can revise the existing teaching and learning policy to empower LP through 360° teaching evaluation by students, peers or colleagues, and self-reflection.

The revised policy should acknowledge students’ remote learning accessibility. Accessibility does not merely involve internet or computer access, as family conditions can influence levels of concentration and learning material access. Furthermore, online classes must emphasise tolerance, adaptability, and communication.

Faculties and state branches should assist in expanding students’ remote learning access by providing grants, equipment loans, and campus entrance to B40 students and students registered for practical, studio, and clinical-based courses.

The revised policy can also guide professors or lecturers’ pedagogical and psychological skills and their related personalities, which may affect the relationship with students in many ways.

Remote learning does not solely refer to course content, delivery, and assessment. Emergency remote learning during the pandemic necessitated a high degree of self-discipline, as students were required to manage their learning processes at home. Lecturers must continuously promote a positive attitude throughout the semester, while students must remember and be reminded to manage their workload systematically to achieve the expected course learning outcomes. To monitor learning, both lecturers and students can benefit from social platforms (WhatsApp and Telegram).

Instructional support may be presented as constructive feedback, responsive communication, forums, and discussion through UFUTURE and the relevant learning resources and activities. Additionally, student communities can be fostered by introducing peer connections or learning buddies.

Establishing remote learning communities would guarantee staff and student wellness and facilitate social and pastoral care. Digital access and literacy can be improved by promoting engagement and by lecturers who are flexible, kind, and patient.

Given that the study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the students’ perceptions could have been influenced by fear, stress, uncertainty, depression, distractions, and financial hardships, which are both limitations and opportunities. Students would be able to express themselves better if surveyed during the transition from pandemic to post-pandemic rather than later. The results should be considered with caution due to the aforementioned limitations. Future studies can consider other possible factors, such as personal attributes and competence, emotional intelligence, positive attitude, self-efficacy, learning satisfaction, and motivation, to extend the study model and evaluation instrument in forecasting university students’ enjoyable remote learning that eventually affects their overall learning outcomes and performance.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or during the current study are not publicly available due to the confidentiality of the respondents’ information but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request for academic purposes only.

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Salleh, M.I.M., Alias, N.A., Ariffin, S. et al. The sudden transition to remote learning in response to COVID-19: lessons from Malaysia. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 254 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01751-6

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Primary students’ experiences of remote learning during covid-19 school closures: a case study of finland.

1. Introduction

2. materials and methods, 2.1. participants and procedure, 2.2. digital learning procedures that were followed, 2.3. instant video blogging in experience sampling.

• Describe what you studied and did today.
• Where did you succeed today, and what was difficult?
• How did studying at home feel today?

2.4. Analysis of Instant Video Blogging Data

4. discussion, 5. implications for practice, 6. limitations, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest, research ethics.

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Loukomies, A.; Juuti, K. Primary Students’ Experiences of Remote Learning during COVID-19 School Closures: A Case Study of Finland. Educ. Sci. 2021 , 11 , 560. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11090560

Loukomies A, Juuti K. Primary Students’ Experiences of Remote Learning during COVID-19 School Closures: A Case Study of Finland. Education Sciences . 2021; 11(9):560. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11090560

Loukomies, Anni, and Kalle Juuti. 2021. "Primary Students’ Experiences of Remote Learning during COVID-19 School Closures: A Case Study of Finland" Education Sciences 11, no. 9: 560. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11090560

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How technology is shaping learning in higher education

About the authors.

This article is a collaborative effort by Claudio Brasca, Charag Krishnan , Varun Marya , Katie Owen, Joshua Sirois, and Shyla Ziade, representing views from McKinsey’s Education Practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a shift to remote learning overnight for most higher-education students, starting in the spring of 2020. To complement video lectures and engage students in the virtual classroom, educators adopted technologies that enabled more interactivity and hybrid models of online and in-person activities. These tools changed learning, teaching, and assessment in ways that may persist after the pandemic. Investors have taken note. Edtech start-ups raised record amounts of venture capital in 2020 and 2021, and market valuations for bigger players soared.

A study conducted by McKinsey in 2021 found that to engage most effectively with students, higher-education institutions can focus on eight dimensions  of the learning experience. In this article, we describe the findings of a study of the learning technologies that can enable aspects of several of those eight dimensions (see sidebar “Eight dimensions of the online learning experience”).

Eight dimensions of the online learning experience

Leading online higher-education institutions focus on eight key dimensions of the learning experience across three overarching principles.

Seamless journey

Clear education road map: “My online program provides a road map to achieve my life goals and helps me structure my day to day to achieve steady progress.”

Seamless connections: “I have one-click access to classes and learning resources in the virtual learning platform through my laptop or my phone.”

Engaging teaching approach

Range of learning formats: “My program offers a menu of engaging courses with both self-guided and real-time classes, and lots of interaction with instructors and peers.”

Captivating experiences: “I learn from the best professors and experts. My classes are high quality, with up-to-date content.”

Adaptive learning: “I access a personalized platform that helps me practice exercises and exams and gives immediate feedback without having to wait for the course teacher.”

Real-world skills application: “My online program helps me get hands-on practice using exciting virtual tools to solve real-world problems.”

Caring network

Timely support: “I am not alone in my learning journey and have adequate 24/7 support for academic and nonacademic issues.”

Strong community: “I feel part of an academic community and I’m able to make friends online.”

In November 2021, McKinsey surveyed 600 faculty members and 800 students from public and private nonprofit colleges and universities in the United States, including minority-serving institutions, about the use and impact of eight different classroom learning technologies (Exhibit 1). (For more on the learning technologies analyzed in this research, see sidebar “Descriptions of the eight learning technologies.”) To supplement the survey, we interviewed industry experts and higher-education professionals who make decisions about classroom technology use. We discovered which learning tools and approaches have seen the highest uptake, how students and educators view them, the barriers to higher adoption, how institutions have successfully adopted innovative technologies, and the notable impacts on learning (for details about our methodology, see sidebar “About the research”).

Double-digit growth in adoption and positive perceptions

Descriptions of the eight learning technologies.

• Classroom interactions: These are software platforms that allow students to ask questions, make comments, respond to polls, and attend breakout discussions in real time, among other features. They are downloadable and accessible from phones, computers, and tablets, relevant to all subject areas, and useful for remote and in-person learning.
• Classroom exercises: These platforms gamify learning with fun, low-stakes competitions, pose problems to solve during online classes, allow students to challenge peers to quizzes, and promote engagement with badges and awards. They are relevant to all subject areas.
• Connectivity and community building: A broad range of informal, opt-in tools, these allow students to engage with one another and instructors and participate in the learning community. They also include apps that give students 24/7 asynchronous access to lectures, expanded course materials, and notes with enhanced search and retrieval functionality.
• Group work: These tools let students collaborate in and out of class via breakout/study rooms, group preparation for exams and quizzes, and streamlined file sharing.
• Augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR): Interactive simulations immerse learners in course content, such as advanced lab simulations for hard sciences, medical simulations for nursing, and virtual exhibit tours for the liberal arts. AR can be offered with proprietary software on most mobile or laptop devices. VR requires special headsets, proprietary software, and adequate classroom space for simultaneous use.
• AI adaptive course delivery: Cloud-based, AI-powered software adapts course content to a student’s knowledge level and abilities. These are fully customizable by instructors and available in many subject areas, including business, humanities, and sciences.
• Machine learning–powered teaching assistants: Also known as chatbot programs, machine learning–powered teaching assistants answer student questions and explain course content outside of class. These can auto-create, deliver, and grade assignments and exams, saving instructors’ time; they are downloadable from mobile app stores and can be accessed on personal devices.
• Student progress monitoring: These tools let instructors monitor academic progress, content mastery, and engagement. Custom alerts and reports identify at-risk learners and help instructors tailor the content or their teaching style for greater effectiveness. This capability is often included with subscriptions to adaptive learning platforms.

Survey respondents reported a 19 percent average increase in overall use of these learning technologies since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Technologies that enable connectivity and community building, such as social media–inspired discussion platforms and virtual study groups, saw the biggest uptick in use—49 percent—followed by group work tools, which grew by 29 percent (Exhibit 2). These technologies likely fill the void left by the lack of in-person experiences more effectively than individual-focused learning tools such as augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR). Classroom interaction technologies such as real-time chatting, polling, and breakout room discussions were the most widely used tools before the pandemic and remain so; 67 percent of survey respondents said they currently use these tools in the classroom.

About the research

In November 2021, McKinsey surveyed 634 faculty members and 818 students from public, private, and minority-serving colleges and universities over a ten-day period. The survey included only students and faculty who had some remote- or online-learning experience with any of the eight featured technologies. Respondents were 63 percent female, 35 percent male, and 2 percent other gender identities; 69 percent White, 18 percent Black or African American, 8 percent Asian, and 4 percent other ethnicities; and represented every US region. The survey asked respondents about their:

• experiences with technology in the classroom pre-COVID-19;
• experiences with technology in the classroom since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; and
• desire for future learning experiences in relation to technology.

The shift to more interactive and diverse learning models will likely continue. One industry expert told us, “The pandemic pushed the need for a new learning experience online. It recentered institutions to think about how they’ll teach moving forward and has brought synchronous and hybrid learning into focus.” Consequently, many US colleges and universities are actively investing to scale up their online and hybrid program offerings .

Differences in adoption by type of institution observed in the research

• Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribal colleges and universities made the most use of classroom interactions and group work tools (55 percent) and the least use of tools for monitoring student progress (15 percent).
• Private institutions used classroom interaction technologies (84 percent) more than public institutions (63 percent).
• Public institutions, often associated with larger student populations and course sizes, employed group work and connectivity and community-building tools more often than private institutions.
• The use of AI teaching-assistant technologies increased significantly more at public institutions (30 percent) than at private institutions (9 percent), though overall usage remained comparatively higher at private institutions.
• The use of tools for monitoring student progress increased by 14 percent at private institutions, versus no growth at public institutions.

Some technologies lag behind in adoption. Tools enabling student progress monitoring, AR/VR, machine learning–powered teaching assistants (TAs), AI adaptive course delivery, and classroom exercises are currently used by less than half of survey respondents. Anecdotal evidence suggests that technologies such as AR/VR require a substantial investment in equipment and may be difficult to use at scale in classes with high enrollment. Our survey also revealed utilization disparities based on size. Small public institutions use machine learning–powered TAs, AR/VR, and technologies for monitoring student progress at double or more the rates of medium and large public institutions, perhaps because smaller, specialized schools can make more targeted and cost-effective investments. We also found that medium and large public institutions made greater use of connectivity and community-building tools than small public institutions (57 to 59 percent compared with 45 percent, respectively). Although the uptake of AI-powered tools was slower, higher-education experts we interviewed predict their use will increase; they allow faculty to tailor courses to each student’s progress, reduce their workload, and improve student engagement at scale (see sidebar “Differences in adoption by type of institution observed in the research”).

While many colleges and universities are interested in using more technologies to support student learning, the top three barriers indicated are lack of awareness, inadequate deployment capabilities, and cost (Exhibit 3).

Students want entertaining and efficient tools

More than 60 percent of students said that all the classroom learning technologies they’ve used since COVID-19 began had improved their learning and grades (Exhibit 4). However, two technologies earned higher marks than the rest for boosting academic performance: 80 percent of students cited classroom exercises, and 71 percent cited machine learning–powered teaching assistants.

Although AR/VR is not yet widely used, 37 percent of students said they are “most excited” about its potential in the classroom. While 88 percent of students believe AR/VR will make learning more entertaining, just 5 percent said they think it will improve their ability to learn or master content (Exhibit 5). Industry experts confirmed that while there is significant enthusiasm for AR/VR, its ability to improve learning outcomes is uncertain. Some data look promising. For example, in a recent pilot study, 1 “Immersive biology in the Alien Zoo: A Dreamscape Learn software product,” Dreamscape Learn, accessed October 2021. students who used a VR tool to complete coursework for an introductory biology class improved their subject mastery by an average of two letter grades.

Faculty embrace new tools but would benefit from more technical support and training

Faculty gave learning tools even higher marks than students did, for ease of use, engagement, access to course resources, and instructor connectivity. They also expressed greater excitement than students did for the future use of technologies. For example, while more than 30 percent of students expressed excitement for AR/VR and classroom interactions, more than 60 percent of faculty were excited about those, as well as machine learning–powered teaching assistants and AI adaptive technology.

Eighty-one percent or more of faculty said they feel the eight learning technology tools are a good investment of time and effort relative to the value they provide (Exhibit 6). Expert interviews suggest that employing learning technologies can be a strain on faculty members, but those we surveyed said this strain is worthwhile.

While faculty surveyed were enthusiastic about new technologies, experts we interviewed stressed some underlying challenges. For example, digital-literacy gaps have been more pronounced since the pandemic because it forced the near-universal adoption of some technology solutions, deepening a divide that was unnoticed when adoption was sporadic. More tech-savvy instructors are comfortable with interaction-engagement-focused solutions, while staff who are less familiar with these tools prefer content display and delivery-focused technologies.

According to experts we interviewed, learning new tools and features can bring on general fatigue. An associate vice president of e-learning at one university told us that faculty there found designing and executing a pilot study of VR for a computer science class difficult. “It’s a completely new way of instruction. . . . I imagine that the faculty using it now will not use it again in the spring.” Technical support and training help. A chief academic officer of e-learning who oversaw the introduction of virtual simulations for nursing and radiography students said that faculty holdouts were permitted to opt out but not to delay the program. “We structured it in a ‘we’re doing this together’ way. People who didn’t want to do it left, but we got a lot of support from vendors and training, which made it easy to implement simulations.”

Reimagining higher education in the United States

Takeaways from our research.

Despite the growing pains of digitizing the classroom learning experience, faculty and students believe there is a lot more they can gain. Faculty members are optimistic about the benefits, and students expect learning to stay entertaining and efficient. While adoption levels saw double-digit growth during the pandemic, many classrooms have yet to experience all the technologies. For institutions considering the investment, or those that have already started, there are several takeaways to keep in mind.

• It’s important for administration leaders, IT, and faculty to agree on what they want to accomplish by using a particular learning technology. Case studies and expert interviews suggest institutions that seek alignment from all their stakeholders before implementing new technologies are more successful. Is the primary objective student engagement and motivation? Better academic performance? Faculty satisfaction and retention? Once objectives are set, IT staff and faculty can collaborate more effectively in choosing the best technology and initiating programs.
• Factor in student access to technology before deployment. As education technology use grows, the digital divide for students puts access to education at risk. While all the institution types we surveyed use learning technologies in the classroom, they do so to varying degrees. For example, 55 percent of respondents from historically Black colleges and universities and tribal colleges and universities use classroom interaction tools. This is lower than public institutions’ overall utilization rate of 64 percent and private institutions’ utilization rate of 84 percent. Similarly, 15 percent of respondents from historically Black colleges and universities and tribal colleges and universities use tools for monitoring student progress, while the overall utilization rate for both public and private institutions is 25 percent.
• High-quality support eases adoption for students and faculty. Institutions that have successfully deployed new learning technologies provided technical support and training for students and guidance for faculty on how to adapt their course content and delivery. For example, institutions could include self-service resources, standardize tools for adoption, or provide stipend opportunities for faculty who attend technical training courses. One chief academic officer told us, “The adoption of platforms at the individual faculty level can be very difficult. Ease of use is still very dependent upon your IT support representative and how they will go to bat to support you.”
• Agree on impact metrics and start measuring in advance of deployment. Higher-education institutions often don’t have the means to measure the impact of their investment in learning technologies, yet it’s essential for maximizing returns. Attributing student outcomes to a specific technology can be complex due to the number of variables involved in academic performance. However, prior to investing in learning technologies, the institution and its faculty members can align on a core set of metrics to quantify and measure their impact. One approach is to measure a broad set of success indicators, such as tool usage, user satisfaction, letter grades, and DFW rates (the percentage of students who receive a D, F, or Withdraw) each term. The success indicators can then be correlated by modality—online versus hybrid versus in-class—to determine the impact of specific tools. Some universities have offered faculty grants of up to $20,000 for running pilot programs that assess whether tools are achieving high-priority objectives. “If implemented properly, at the right place, and with the right buy-in, education technology solutions are absolutely valuable and have a clear ROI,” a senior vice president of academic affairs and chief technology officer told us.

In an earlier article , we looked at the broader changes in higher education that have been prompted by the pandemic. But perhaps none has advanced as quickly as the adoption of digital learning tools. Faculty and students see substantial benefits, and adoption rates are a long way from saturation, so we can expect uptake to continue. Institutions that want to know how they stand in learning tech adoption can measure their rates and benchmark them against the averages in this article and use those comparisons to help them decide where they want to catch up or get ahead.

Claudio Brasca is a partner in McKinsey’s Bay Area office, where Varun Marya is a senior partner; Charag Krishnan is a partner in the New Jersey office; Katie Owen is an associate partner in the St. Louis office, where Joshua Sirois is a consultant; and Shyla Ziade is a consultant in the Denver office.

The authors wish to thank Paul Kim, chief technology officer and associate dean at Stanford School of Education, and Ryan Golden for their contributions to this article.

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‘Sky’s the limit’: a case study in fostering young children’s creativity during STEM online learning experiences

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• Kimberly Maslin   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9644-6274 1 ,
• Karen Murcia   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1900-2781 1 ,
• Susan Blackley   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7399-207X 1 &
• Geoff Lowe   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9413-7080 1  

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Fostering young children’s creativity is a desired outcome of STEM learning experiences. Such experiences often incorporate hands-on activities that encourage agency, curiosity, and experimentation. While educators generally have a good understanding of how to nurture creativity within a physical learning environment, less is known about creativity in an online context. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, little research focused on young children’s online learning. During the pandemic, studies involving this age group focused upon the experiences and perceptions of emergency remote learning, rather than intentional online education strategies. This gap creates an opportunity to explore the potential of STEM online learning experiences to meaningfully engage young children in creative thinking. This article analyses key themes emerging from video and interview data obtained during a series of STEM shows and workshops delivered by Scitech to Year 1 children in regional Western Australia, framed by the A-E of Children’s Creativity Framework. Findings illustrate how intentional online learning experiences can engage children creatively, and in turn supports a reframing of perceptions regarding the effectiveness of online delivery for young children.

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Introduction

Quality STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning experiences can effectively engage young children and foster their creativity (Murcia et al., 2020 ). Creativity has emerged as an essential twenty-first century skill, which can be nurtured through various learning experiences, including those that integrate STEM. Early years education has a significant impact on a young child’s development and academic journey, and engagement in STEM can prepare them for discovering their world and exploring complex and abstract concepts (Burger, 2010 ; Lind, 1998 ; Tippett & Yanez Gonzalez, 2022 ; Wan et al., 2021 ). In this, the learning environment, including the classroom setting, pedagogical approaches and people, plays a crucial role in children’s creative development (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014 ; Henriksen et al., 2021 ; Richardson & Mishra, 2018 ). A comprehensive body of research describes requirements for encouraging children’s creativity within physical classroom environments (Craft, 2010 ; Davies et al., 2013 ; DEEWR, 2009 ; Warner & Myers, 2009 ). However, strategies for fostering creativity online remains less explored (Maslin et al., 2023 ). Given the distinctive pedagogical skill set demanded by online learning, as opposed to face-to-face delivery, there is still much to learn (Sokal et al., 2020 ).

This study involves Year 1 children living in regional Western Australia (WA) who engaged in a series of synchronous STEM shows and workshops presented online by Scitech, a leading Science Discovery Centre located in metropolitan Perth. Specifically, the article addresses the following research question: How do STEM online learning experiences foster young children’s creativity?

Literature review

Young children’s creativity during stem learning experiences.

For over 70 years, creativity has enjoyed a research focus within education (Craft, 2005 ; Guilford, 1950 ; Hernández-Torrano & Ibrayeva, 2020 ) and is widely advocated as an essential twenty-first century skill (Donovan et al., 2014 ; Tok, 2021 ). Although an elusive and complex concept (Conradty & Bogner, 2018 ; Kupers et al., 2019 ), Murcia et al ( 2020 ) define creativity as “the ability to generate original ideas that are appropriate to the task at hand” (p. 1399). This definition incorporates the two core features of creativity generally agreed upon by researchers: originality (or novelty) and value (or appropriateness) (Runco & Jaeger, 2012 ).

The importance of creativity as a crucial twenty-first century skill is underscored by its inclusion in international education policies and guidelines (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022 ; UNESCO, 2015 ). STEM learning experiences are reported as one way in which creativity can be fostered in young learners. The STEM acronym is frequently referred to in education as the partial or full integration of the separate disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, with a focus on twenty-first century competencies (Koul & Fisher, 2005 ; Timms et al., 2018 ). Over the past decade, there has been an increased emphasis on STEM education across all levels of schooling (Education Services Australia, 2018 ; Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013 ). Importantly, young children are naturally curious, creative and collaborative, all characteristics essential for effective STEM education (Banko, 2013 ; Glauert & Stylianidou, 2022 ), and early childhood education shares similar qualities to targeted STEM experiences in its emphasis on hands-on, inquiry-based learning approaches, and collaboration (Cremin et al., 2013 ; Wan et al., 2021 ). Similarly, teachers interviewed by McLean et al. ( 2021 ) identified skills such as questioning, investigating, communicating and using inquiry-based pedagogies as approaches to foster creativity during science lessons. Research has demonstrated a positive and permanent effect of STEM education on the creative development of young children (Üret & Ceylan, 2021 ) and a review of empirical studies into STEM education in early childhood reports activities falling broadly into four categories: programming robots, traditional engineering design, digital games and comprehensive approaches (Wan et al., 2021 ). Among the non-digital activities, a consistent theme has been the implementation of hands-on experiences using a range of physical materials (Aldemir & Kermani, 2017 ; Malone et al., 2018 ; Tank et al., 2018 ).

Young children and online learning

The emergence of online learning within the K-12 context derives from the early 1990s (Barbour et al., 2013 ; Clark, 2013 ) and is generally understood as learning that takes place over the internet (Maor et al., 2023 ). Online learning experiences are planned specifically for online delivery but research into young children and online learning remains limited (Maslin et al., 2023 ) resulting in a lack of evidence-based pedagogical strategies for early childhood educators. Research undertaken predominately during the COVID-19 pandemic points to the potential of active participation and agency in engaging children’s creative thinking (Kalogeropoulos et al., 2021 ; Russo, 2021 ; Schwartz, 2012 ; Soltero-González & Gillanders, 2021 ) and aligns with the pillars of effective online pedagogy described by Archambault et al. ( 2022 ) which include: build relationships and community; incorporate active learning; leverage learner agency; embrace mastery learning, and; personalise the learning process. This was similarly supported by Ames et al. ( 2021 ) who found sending physical resources to primary-aged distance education learners to use during online science lessons to be effective for engagement. However, studies have also highlighted young children’s inability to focus when online, extensive passive screen time and a lack of responsiveness from teachers (Dong et al., 2020 ; Inan, 2021 ; Uzun et al., 2021 ).

In contrast to the pre-determined and intentional nature of ‘online learning’, the experience of ‘emergency remote teaching’ marked a temporary shift to remote teaching methods that would otherwise be delivered face-to-face, and return to face-to-face once the crisis or emergency has passed (Barbour et al., 2020 ). This is a significant distinction, given that the term ‘online learning’ was used extensively in reference to the global educational response to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time there was an inconsistent approach to online education, including synchronous versus asynchronous delivery, different activities, lesson frequencies and duration, as well as technology platforms (Hu et al., 2021 ; Kim et al., 2021 ; Munastiwi, 2020 ; Sharma et al., 2022 ; Yan et al., 2021 ) resulting in a complex understanding of what it means to participate in online learning, and no standardised approach for effective delivery, especially to young children.

Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework underpinning this study is the A-E of Children’s Creativity (Murcia et al., 2020 ). Drawing upon the Four Ps of Creativity (Rhodes, 1961 ), the framework outlines the role of the Product, the Person, the Place and the Process. At the Product level there are two key criteria, that the creative outcome is both original and fit-for-purpose. Products could be either physical (e.g. a picture) or abstract (e.g. an idea). At the Person level, Murcia et al. ( 2020 ) identify three perspectives on the child’s role in the creative activity: the child can be engaged by the educator’s creativity; the child can be involved in creative doing by following the educator’s example; and the child can be engaged in creative thinking through the generation of their own ideas. The Place elements and Process characteristics of the framework are outlined in Fig.  1 below. The framework has previously been used as a field of reference for analysing creativity in the context of children and digital technologies (Fielding & Murcia, 2022 ), making it an appropriate tool of analysis for this study.

An adapted version of the A-E of Children’s Creativity framework

Research design

This study is part of a larger project within the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. A qualitative, multiple case study approach was employed, with three children each serving as a case (Merriam, 1998 ).

Scitech , a leading Science Discovery Centre, located in metropolitan Perth was a key partner in this study. Their existing education outreach includes theatre shows, science incursions and STEM workshops, all typically conducted face-to-face. Their regional and remote outreach team aim to visit each town once every 3–5 years. For the purposes of this study, Scitech adapted a selection of their existing content for synchronous online delivery and used Microsoft Teams to connect with a class of Year 1–3 children located in a regional WA town 700 km from Perth. Scitech provided materials for the classroom teacher prior to the sessions, and the teacher then accessed Microsoft Teams using her laptop, which was connected to a classroom television. During the online sessions, a Scitech facilitator assumed the role of primary educator while the classroom teacher remained present with the children. She adopted a supporting role, assisting with re-directing the children’s focus, organising groups and assisting with fine motor skills. During the hands-on activities, the case study children remained in the classroom under the Scitech facilitator’s guidance, positioned close to the television, while the remainder of the class were relocated under the supervision of the classroom teacher. The researcher remained in the classroom with the case children.

Participants

Ethical approval to conduct the research was granted through Curtin University’s Human Research Ethics Approval process and Catholic Education Western Australia’s research process, and pseudonyms have been used to protect all participant identities.

The three case study children comprised of two girls and one boy: Beth, Mandy and Timothy. Initially, an introductory letter and participant information sheet was provided to the families of all children in Years 1–3 at the participating primary school, and case children were selected based upon their willingness to contribute and engage with all Scitech’s activities and elements of the research data collection process. Informed consent was provided for the case children, as well as the remainder who were involved as ‘incidental’ participants. The Year 1 classroom teacher, Miss Bird and the Scitech Facilitator, Katie were both interviewed for this study and provided consent accordingly, and Table  1 presents an overview of each participant.

Data collection and analysis

Interview data.

The use of children’s voices in this article is considered important for revealing previously undiscovered themes and perspectives. Each child was interviewed following their involvement in the Science shows and workshops. Short video compilations were presented to the children during their interviews to help stimulate recall and the use of the participant adult voices were included to provide additional perspectives.

In total, eight semi-structured interviews were analysed as part of this study. The interview questions focused on engagement, creativity and strategies from each of the STEM learning experiences and all interviews were audio recorded and subsequently transcribed. Initial thematic analysis was conducted using an inductive approach to identify emerging themes, followed by a deductive analysis utilising the A-E of Children’s Creativity framework.

Each Scitech session was video recorded, and multimodal video analysis carried out (Jewitt & Mackley, 2019 ). Again, this process began inductively with episodes defined by the nature of the communication. Episodes where moments of creativity were observed were chosen for deeper analysis against the A-E of Children’s Creativity framework. These episodes were also coded for the focus strategies that Katie employed while the children were creatively engaged. V-Note Pro analysis software was used to assist with the analysis. An overview of the codes is presented in Table  2 .

The findings are reported in two parts. Firstly, as the context of the Scitech sessions is relevant to the findings, a comprehensive summary of the seven STEM activities is accompanied by photographs for context. Then, the experiences of participants are reported via interview data and short dialogues observed during the sessions. The second part is structured under four themes: intersection between online delivery and physical resources; focus strategies that encouraged creativity; the intentionality of activities; and challenges .

Overview of sessions

See Table 3 .

Mini volcanos

Telephone cups

What’s in the Cup investigation

Quiet as a mouse puppet show

The intersection of online delivery and physical resources encouraged creativity

Emphasised across the interviews was the participants’ enthusiasm for the online learning experiences, with each speaking of their enjoyment for the shows and workshops. Regarding the nature of the sessions and their potential for creativity, Katie reflected:

I think given what we do, there’s a lot of opportunity to foster creativity in the online environment. And there’s certain activities which 100% would do a great job of that. Something like setting a task with a certain amount of materials and seeing how children solve that problem and be able to share that online would be a really great way of fostering creativity. I feel the sky’s the limit when it comes to fostering creativity through online engagement and the online medium.

Participation during the shows

All three children spoke positively about the two shows. For Timothy, being able to use his own DIY shaker was the highlight of the Quiet as a Mouse show. Miss Bird also reflected:

It was a lot of fun for them to be able to interact [with the show], using things they had made…I definitely could see they were loving it, getting to make a bit of noise [laughs].

Katie described how Scitech strategically designed the shows to be as interactive as possible. Speaking of Quiet as a Mouse :

By asking them to describe sounds and trying to get them to find a way to communicate sounds that their DIY shaker made… It was kind of a ‘show-workshoppy’ kind of thing, it did lean a bit more on the workshop side than normal [theatre delivery]. The reason for that was making sure the children weren’t sitting for 30 minutes staring at a screen watching me do a whole show.

Reflecting specifically on the Mini Volcano activity, Miss Bird explained:

I think it added lots of value. Having their own opportunity to take what they learnt from that first Science is Spectacular! show, and do an experiment was great. They loved it. They were very, very engaged.

Highlighting the connection between the children’s offline and online learning is the following exchange between Katie and the class the following day:

Katie: First, I want to know how you went with your volcano activity yesterday. Did you like that one?

Class: Yes!

Katie: Remember yesterday in our show we were talking about our observations and using our senses, and then using words to tell people about our discovery. So, does anyone want to share what happened with your experiment? [hands go up] Awesome, Miss Bird, I’ll get you to choose someone for me.

Timothy: It was so fun that it exploded so high!

Katie: Yeah, how high did we get? Was it so high it went over your heads [gesturing]?

Class: No! [laughing]

Timothy: Just this high [gestures with hands]

Katie: Oh sweet, so it went up and bubbled over, that is super-duper. Well, I’m glad you had that experience doing some experimenting because we are going to keep on experimenting today.

Agency and connecting

The children were given opportunities to take ownership over their learning, by making decisions during experiments and making activities. In reflecting on her design process during the DIY shaker activity, Beth said:

I made a bunny [out of my shaker]. The pipe cleaner gave me an idea, so I folded it around [the tube] and I kind of twisted and scrunched it and pulled to make a little bunny tail.

Focus strategies of ‘questioning’ and ‘responding’ encouraged creative thinking

Being curious.

Reflecting on the strategies Katie employed to encourage the children’s creative thinking, Miss Bird said:

I think Katie asked a lot of open-ended questions, which really got the children thinking. It wasn’t just a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, it was, ‘well, I thought this…’ I also thought Katie was very good at taking answers. Even if they weren’t always exactly aligned with the question, she would kind of bring it back in. She would find a way to connect it, which was great.

An example of a class discussion Katie facilitated after the children finished experimenting with their sound cups:

Katie: I want to know what you thought about the noises your cup made.

Child 1: It sounded like rain falling on a tin roof

Katie: That’s a great way to describe it. Anyone else?

Child 2: It kind of sounded like something dragging on the floor

Katie: Oh yeah, so something banging on the floor. Ok well, I’ve got a string and paperclip like we had inside of our cup, but if I rub this [demonstrates] I don’t get the same noises. So, why can’t I hear it here but I can hear it when I put the cup on top? Does anyone have any ideas why?

Child 3: Because the cup is harder than the string, that’s why.

Katie: Pretty good theory there. What our cup is doing is actually making the noise louder [picks up a slinky]. I want you to try and guess what kind of sound a slinky might make. I have my big amplifier here so hopefully we can hear it. I’ll give you ten seconds to make your guess.

[Children turn to one another and begin making their predictions].

Miss Bird described the impact of Katie’s questioning on Beth’s creative thinking:

She put her hand up a lot, which was really great… she was very engaged in the experiments and investigations, which for Beth isn’t very different... But I did feel like she was thinking a bit more deeply about things, and asking those questions.

Beth herself described the elephant toothpaste eruption, “ [Katie] went to do another activity and then elephant toothpaste, like caterpillars came out.” Mandy also made the connection that it looked like “snot”.

Intentionality of activities supported creative thinking

Speaking of the Bend, Twist, Stretch and Squash activity, Miss Bird described how the intentional nature of the activity encouraged the children to be curious:

I really liked that it was very hands-on and they got to explore …The children were doing things you wouldn’t expect with some of the items. You wouldn’t think that the tennis ball would twist, but they’d have a go anyway… [Mandy] was a bit more patient with these activities, because I feel like sometimes [in class], she’s kind of like, ‘I just want to do it now.’ Whereas with Katie she was very engaged in whatever they were learning about.

Reflecting on Bend, Twist, Stretch and Squash , Mandy said:

I liked the playdough. And umm they put a spoon and ruler there, it was quite silly, because you can’t do anything with them…I didn’t know that before I started experimenting.

Challenges impacting creative opportunities

Time constraints.

When asked to reflect on any limitations in the way activities supported children’s creativity, Miss Bird commented:

[ Bend, Twist, Stretch and Squash ] I wonder if they could go out and actually bend and twist other things in the classroom, not just the things they were given on the … They did have those extension questions that we could use, but I guess it’s just having the time… [ Sound Cups ] When we did the telephones, we spent quite a lot of time trying to make the telephones with the children, because it wasn’t easy for them to do independently…By the time we made them, we didn’t have much time left to experiment. But we did say we would put them out for Investigation Time, so we still get to use them.

Resource constraints

When asked to reflect on any limitations in the way activities supported children’s creativity, Katie reflected:

I think there were slightly less creative opportunities [during workshop activities] mostly because of the resourcing—needing to send a box and not having infinite craft supplies [laughs] did limit that a little bit.

The aim of this paper was to investigate how STEM online learning experiences can foster young children’s creativity. Each participant spoke of how they enjoyed the sessions delivered online by Scitech, with the classroom teacher noting several instances of the children demonstrating creative thinking.

Of particular importance was the intersection between the online and offline learning environments, in terms of active learning and creative thinking. While the children watched and listened to Katie on the television, there were also regular opportunities to participate with their own voices and hands. This resulted in four types of creative moments: making, experimenting, predicting and problem solving. Having the agency to investigate and create on their own fostered creative outputs such as Beth’s bunny-inspired DIY shaker, and the working telephone cups. During each of these activities, Katie actively watched the children through the screen, and provided verbal feedback. These examples highlight the potential of online learning to foster creative thinking, by intentionally providing opportunities for children to become active learners and aligns with effective online pedagogy as described by Archambault et al. ( 2022 ) and Ames et al. ( 2021 ), as well as incidental findings that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding positive outcomes when children were given agency (Kalogeropoulos et al., 2021 ; Russo, 2021 ). However, this study provides unique insights by specifically focusing on the intentional development of creative thinking in young children.

The structured, intentional nature of the investigative activities supported the children’s creative thinking. For example, Bend, Twist, Stretch and Squash involved children manipulating eight items and recording their findings. There was intentionality in both the design of the activity and the way children engaged with the materials. While guided by Katie, the nature of the task provided scope for agency as each child instigated their investigation. This activity could be regarded as somewhat prescriptive, at odds with the play-based learning approach so often advocated in early years (Bubikova-Moan et al., 2019 ; Danniels & Pyle, 2018 ). However, these activities were adapted from Scitech’s existing schedule of workshops, and align with an example offered to educators in the Early Years Learning Framework to “intentionally scaffold children’s understandings, including description of strategies for approaching problems” (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022 , p. 53) designed to help children develop learning and thinking skills such as problem solving and inquiry. Miss Bird remarked on how all three children, in different ways, demonstrated impressive levels of curiosity, exploration and deep thinking while engaged in Katie’s activities. She remarked specifically on how the activities appeared to encourage children who otherwise tended to rush, to slow down and engage with each task at a deeper level. This could be attributed to the way the activities scaffolded the creative thinking process, by providing the scope of investigation and modelling how to carry out the activities before giving the children independent exploration time. This was supported by Katie’s strategies for online delivery, in which she visually and verbally set the tasks, gave the children ‘quiet time’ to investigate at their desks and was present to respond to questions as they arose. Accordingly, it illustrates the need to consider the balance between open-ended and intentional learning opportunities and demonstrates how a combination of structured activities can support creative development.

Some strategies known to be effective in fostering creativity within a traditional classroom environment also appeared effective within the online learning environment, such as questioning. Questioning is reported as an effective technique in promoting children’s creative thinking and problem-solving skills (Cremin et al., 2018 ; Murcia et al., 2020 ). Katie was observed questioning the children numerous times throughout each session, both as a class during group discussions as well as individually during the small group work activities. Miss Bird commented on the effectiveness of Katie’s questioning, and the way the children responded by thinking deeply about her questions. Questioning encouraged dialogic conversations during each session, where children’s voices were not only heard but their ideas valued and responded to (Sedova et al., 2019 ). This suggests well-established pedagogical principles and strategies could serve well in an online learning context, potentially facilitating a smoother transition for existing STEM educators aiming to foster creativity through online delivery. It should also be acknowledged that the synchronous nature of the Microsoft Teams sessions facilitated real-time interaction and responsiveness, and the use of the television ensured all children could see Katie and her demonstrations.

Having enough time for young children to explore and be creative is an essential component of STEM learning experiences (DeJarnette, 2018 ; Murcia et al., 2020 ). Miss Bird reflected on time limitations during the sessions, but that they were going to continue exploring the Scitech resources during their own class Investigation Time. However, this challenge is not exclusive to the online learning environment. In their systematic literature review into STEM education, Wan et al. ( 2021 ) reported time constraints to be the most frequently cited challenge. Similarly, having a range of stimulating materials is important for encouraging creativity (Murcia et al., 2020 ) and this constraint was raised by Katie. Again, it should be noted that access to STEM resources is also an issue in face-to-face classrooms settings (Jamil et al., 2018 ; Park et al., 2017 ). In future online deliveries, this could be overcome by Scitech providing an ‘additional materials’ list for teachers, as well as encouraging children to explore the immediate environment for extra materials to investigate.

The findings from this study contrasts with perceptions that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic that online learning is boring and passive (Dong et al., 2020 ; Inan, 2021 ) and raises the importance of context. This study set out to explore the potential of intentional online delivery in which children participate in STEM outreach activities while physically in a classroom. This is a starkly different context to children engaging in emergency remote learning at home through a hybrid of synchronous and asynchronous activities.

This article has explored how STEM online learning experiences can foster young children’s creativity. It has reported on a series of synchronous shows and workshops delivered by Scitech to Year 1 children located in a regional town 700 km from Perth, via Microsoft Teams. Given limitations of time and resources preventing more frequent face-to-face delivery, the purpose of this study was to explore the potential for increasing Scitech’s connection with regional and remote schools through online delivery to complement their outreach services. The experience was enjoyed by all participants but critical to its success was Scitech providing materials to the class so the children could actively engage in hands-on activities under Katie’s guidance. This made the pre-session preparation for Miss Bird easy, given the materials were clearly packaged for each workshop activity. The clearly defined roles of Katie and Miss Bird enhanced the intersection between online and offline, with the children engaging with Katie as the primary educator while simultaneously receiving support from Miss Bird in the classroom. Further, Katie’s effective use of communication strategies such as questioning encouraged children’s creative thinking and problem-solving. Interestingly, rather than being limiting, the structured and scaffolded approach to investigative activities was found to encourage children’s creativity as they slowed down and thought deeply about possibilities, while exploring STEM concepts. While the constraints of time and resources were raised, these are not unique challenges to online delivery. Further, these challenges have the potential to be minimised by providing classroom teachers with a list of suggested additional materials, as well as encouraging them to allow extra investigation time following the online sessions. These two strategies would provide children with a wider range of stimulating materials and additional time for creative exploration. This study has demonstrated how the A-E of Children’s Creativity Framework can be used by researchers or educators to evaluate children’s creativity during STEM activities by providing guidance on what process characteristics to look for and what elements need to be present.

Initially, five children volunteered to participate as case studies but due to unforeseen circumstances two were unable to participate for the duration of the study. As case studies are characterised by their detailed insight into smaller numbers of individuals, the number of cases provided adequate level of analysis for this study (Ward & Delamont, 2020 ). While this may limit the ability to draw broader conclusions about the implementation of STEM online learning experiences for young children, it can offer opportunities for transferability. By providing a detailed summary of the online STEM learning experiences, other educators can determine the extent to which these conclusions could apply to their own contexts. Additionally, the study did not explicitly explore the impact of online learning experiences for children with learning difficulties. Future research could explore how STEM online learning experiences can effectively cater to the needs of a diverse range of learners. The study has also attempted to reframe perceptions around the effectiveness of ‘online learning’ by acknowledging the nuances that exist within online contexts. It is therefore recommended that academics and media differentiate between intentional ‘online learning’ and ad-hoc ‘emergency remote learning’ when discussing the opportunities and limitations of online delivery. Importantly however, the findings illustrate the potential for synchronous online delivery of STEM to foster meaningful creative learning opportunities in young children, an important avenue in the pursuit of advancing STEM education (Education Services Australia, 2018 ; Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013 ).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank and acknowledge the contribution of Scitech in this study. Scitech made no financial contribution, but provided opportunity for context for research. Due to the uniqueness of the organisation within a Western Australian context, along with the permission we received, we have named them in this article.

Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. This research forms part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child core projects, ‘Digital Scitech: Exploring children’s creativity and connected learning experiences with digital technologies’.

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Nursing students’ use of social media in their learning: a case study of a Canadian School of Nursing

• Catherine M. Giroux   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1352-8501 1 &
• Katherine A. Moreau   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5955-1689 2  

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Social media has diverse applications for nursing education. Current literature focuses on how nursing faculty use social media in their courses and teaching; less is known about how and why nursing students use social media in support of their learning.

The purpose of this study was to explore how nursing students use social media in their learning formally and informally.

This exploratory qualitative case study of a Canadian School of Nursing reports on the findings of interviews ( n  = 9) with nursing students to explore how they use social media in their learning. Data were analyzed using a combined deductive and inductive coding approach, using three cycles of coding to facilitate category identification.

Results and conclusions

The findings demonstrate that participants use social media for formal and informal learning and specifically, as a third space to support their learning outside of formal institutional structures. Social media plays a role in the learning activities of nursing students studying both face-to-face and by distance. Accordingly, social media use has implications for learning theory and course design, particularly regarding creating space for student learning communities.

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Social media are online platforms that allow users to connect with other users, curate lists of connections, and interact with each other within the same online platform [ 1 ]. They have applications for both formal and informal learning in health professions education (HPE). Formal learning refers to planned educational experiences, such as courses or assignments [ 2 ] whereas informal learning refers to what is learned through extracurricular activities [ 3 , 4 ]. With social media, formal learning may include such activities as using YouTube videos in class, while informal learning may involve students scrolling through Twitter and finding relevant learning content on their leisure time. Within the HPE literature, social media have been shown to facilitate electronic communication, networking, and real-time collaboration [ 5 , 6 ]. They have also assumed key educational and communicative roles during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Furthermore, they continue to allow individuals to engage in independent, informal learning on their own terms and in places of formal education, work, or broader social circles [ 10 ]. Several studies demonstrated how social media can be used to facilitate clinical and professional performance tasks, question-and-answer sessions, and the exploration of complex topics collaboratively; social media can also provide professional learning opportunities and facilitate networking with international practitioners [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Moreover, instructors have used Twitter to provide students with formative feedback in assessment, stimulate reflection and sharing, share daily learning goals, hold journal clubs, notify students of recent topical publications, and orient learners to clinical sites and educational rotations [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. The literature suggests that the connections that students make using social media can translate to opportunities for mentorship and scholarship [ 18 ]. Moreover, social media may also engage geographically dispersed individuals to create or share content, collaborate in groups, and ultimately form a virtual community [ 19 , 20 ].

Within the nursing education literature, social media is well described as a tool selected by faculty for diverse formal teaching and learning purposes. For instance, several studies described using blogging to facilitate reflections as a teaching strategy for topics such as cultural competence, empathy, the therapeutic relationship, transitions to practice, and self-care [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. The feedback system of the blogging interface provided students with opportunities to practice their reflection and problem-solving skills [ 26 , 27 ]. Some studies used social media to simulate patient encounters or transition experiences for nurses [ 25 , 28 , 29 ]. For example, Thomas et al. used a blog to simulate a new nurse who had just transitioned to practice; the blog was written from the new nurse’s perspective to help final year nursing students consider issues of delegating and supervising, adapting to change, risk and quality management, and legal and ethical issues as they prepared to transition to practice [ 25 ]. Students had to read the blog and post responses. Other studies focused on using Facebook or YouTube as collaborative and interactive tools to help nursing students prepare for examinations like the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) [ 30 , 31 , 32 ]. Still, issues of professionalism arose in the nursing education literature, with some studies noting concerns about students’ online behaviour and potential implications for their reputations and licensure [ 5 , 33 ]. A 2021 narrative review found that learning about digital professionalism concepts as they relate to social media influenced how students behaved online [ 34 ]. Despite these potential professionalism implications, social media appears to be an effective tool to support formal learning in nursing education. A 2018 systematic review explored the effectiveness of using social media in nursing and midwifery education [ 35 ]. The authors found that the collaborative, interactive, and semi-synchronous nature of social media platforms may support knowledge and skill acquisition in nursing students.

Much of the extant undergraduate nursing education literature explores how social media is used in formal learning, specifically from the perspectives of the faculty who select the platforms to suit specific assignments or learning goals. Studies that focus on undergraduate students’ use of social media tended to explore specific platforms used and data analytics (i.e., hashtags used, number of views or shares). Less is known about how and why undergraduate nursing students themselves select social media platforms as an adjunct to their formal and informal learning activities. Thus, this exploratory qualitative case study aimed to address how and why undergraduate nursing students use social media to support their learning.

Theoretical considerations

Social learning theories like social constructivism are appropriate for framing studies involving social media because they view learning as an active and collaborative process [ 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Social constructivism is based on three assumptions: (1) meanings are constructed by humans as they engage with the world they are interpreting; (2) humans engage with their world and make sense of it based on their historical and social perspectives; and (3) the basic generation of meaning is social, arising from the interaction with a human community [ 36 ]. Social constructivism claims knowledge is acquired when subjective meanings are created in interaction with others, drawing on material from previous experiences to guide learning [ 36 , 37 , 38 ]. This study was informed by social constructivism, which influenced our research questions, data collection instruments, and approaches to data analysis.

Research design

The objective of this study was to explore how students at one Canadian School of Nursing used social media to support their learning. We addressed this objective through an exploratory qualitative single case study. Yin [ 39 ] describes a case study as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth within its real-world context even when the boundaries between the context and phenomenon may not be evident. Case studies comprise an all-encompassing method, which influences the logic of design, data collection techniques, and approaches to data analyses. Case study research is particularly useful for answering how and why questions; single case studies are appropriate for cases that are critical, unusual, revelatory, and longitudinal [ 39 ]. Our study site represented a critical case since the variety of program delivery methods and modalities were critically aligned with social constructivism. The study site also represented an unusual case, with four distinct program options – including a distance program – for students to achieve a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) degree. This was a unique program in Canada at the time of the study. The study site did not have any social media policies published to their public-facing website during the time of the study, nor did they have any public-facing references to using social media formally in their programs published on their website.

Case study site and participants

This study took place at a small, relatively northern, Canadian university with a student population of approximately 5,090 students [ 40 ]. The School of Nursing, which includes 1191 students, offers four distinct, English-language, options for students to complete their BScN degree. These options include: 1) a standard four-year direct-entry nursing program; 2) an onsite Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) to BScN bridging program for students who previously obtained an RPN diploma and who are looking to subsequently obtain their BScN degree; 3) a part-time blended learning RPN to BScN bridging program for students currently working as RPNs who are looking to obtain their BScN; and 4) a second entry accelerated program for students who previously obtained an undergraduate degree. Only two of the nursing programs occur at the case study site itself. The second entry program is held in a large city to the south of the case study site. Additionally, students who partake in the RPN to BScN bridging program through blended learning live geographically dispersed throughout the province in which the case study site is located. Given the different program options, the participants in this study consisted of a mixture of face-to-face students and distance students. Additionally, due to the nature of the program options, some participants had pursued their nursing program as their first degree while others were already working as RPNs and had returned to school to obtain their BScN degree.

Participant recruitment and data collection

Participants were purposively recruited from a previous study, which consisted of a digital artifact collection that explored what content nursing students shared to their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts related to learning [ 41 ]. The twenty-four nursing students who participated in our previous study were contacted by email and invited to participate in this qualitative case study exploring how and why nursing students use social media to support their learning. These students were identified as potential participants because they had confirmed using social media for learning and thus, would be information-rich interviewees for the present study. All potential participants were provided with a Participant Information Letter and Informed Consent form. The data for this study were collected using semi-structured interviews. All interviews were conducted virtually via Zoom in the Fall of 2019, using a semi-structured interview guide that had been developed based on the research questions, our theoretical framework, and the literature (refer to Additional file 1 : Appendix). Prior to using the interview guide, it was piloted with two registered nurses. This pilot involved conducting two mock interviews and debriefing the interview guide with the participants to discuss the feasibility and appropriateness of the interview questions. The average interview length was 32 min, with the shortest being 21 min and the longest being 44 min long. We piloted the interview guide with two registered nurses prior to commencing the study. Each interview was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Interview participation was incentivized with a $20 gift card to a local coffee chain.

Data analysis

We took a combined deductive and inductive approach to coding and analyzing the interview transcripts. We sought to achieve theoretical sufficiency, which is the stage at which codes and categories manage new data without requiring further modification [ 42 ]. To do this, we conducted three cycles of coding in MAXQDA (v.18.2). In the first cycle, a preliminary codebook − which was informed by our research question, theoretical framework, and the literature − facilitated descriptive and process coding [ 43 ]. In the second cycle of coding, we each independently inductively coded the data using both process coding and in vivo coding (i.e., using the participants’ own words) and compared and discussed our coding. In the third cycle of coding, we grouped these summaries into categories, themes, or constructs [ 43 ]. A combination of matrices and networks visually displayed the data and facilitated category identification [ 43 , 44 ].

Reflexivity and trustworthiness

Neither author is a Registered Nurse nor is affiliated with the case study site. Both authors have expertise in conducting educational research within the health professions and were involved in the study conceptualization, data collection, and analysis. We also took steps to ensure that our analyses were credible, dependable, confirmable, and transferable [ 45 , 46 ]. To establish credibility, we engaged in member-checking, wherein we provided the participants a copy of their interview transcripts so that they could ensure that their statements were accurately represented during transcription [ 45 , 47 ]. We also engaged in peer debriefing. In terms of dependability, each of us inductively coded the data, compared our coding, and discussed and resolved any inconsistencies. In addition, we used audit trails as a strategy to ensure confirmability. These audit trails documented each of our decisions made during the research process and would allow an independent auditor to follow our steps and decisions to establish the same conclusions about the data. Lastly, through purposeful sampling and information-rich interviewees, we were able to obtain thick descriptions of how and why the students use social media to support their learning. We also included detailed descriptions of our research processes. This level of description allows others to judge the contextual similarity and transferability of our study findings.

Ethical considerations

The interviews received formal institutional ethical approval (S-08–18-921) and approval from the study site (101916) in August 2019. We reviewed the informed consent form with each participant prior to commencing the interview and addressed any questions that they had. All participants verbally consented to participate in an interview and participants’ consent was recorded using Zoom video conference software, in accordance with our research ethics board approval.

Nine nursing students ( n  = 9) participated in the individual interviews. All participants were female and ranged in age from 18 to 49. Five participants attended classes online in a blended program format that occurred by distance and four participants attended classes face-to-face. The findings demonstrate that participants used social media in numerous ways for both formal and informal learning purposes. Table 1 provides a thematic overview of how the nursing student participants use social media in support of their learning.

Formal learning

Participants reported using social media for a variety of purposes pertaining to formal learning. Table 2 provides exemplary participant quotes outlining their experiences using social media for formal learning purposes.

Sharing and clarifying course content

Several participants reported using social media to share content related to their courses and to clarify course content. Participant 7 explained how “when it comes to having, like, a large quantity of information, I think Facebook’s a better platform for that. Um, you’re able to share different links, you’re able to share pictures, videos, news articles, almost anything, it seems now”. Two participants (Participants 05 and 07) shared contrasting experiences with using social media formally in their distance classes to clarify course concepts. In this instance, a professor had shared YouTube videos in the course. While Participant 7 appreciated the inclusion of videos, Participant 5 found this approach to be lazy, especially since the professor did not create the videos but rather included videos that, according to Participant 5, students would likely search for on their own to assist their learning.

Supplementing university services

Eight participants indicated that Facebook was a good platform to supplement or highlight existing university services. Participant 5 explained how, as a distance student, they used Facebook to learn about the services available to students, like the university’s tutoring service, which Participant 5 found helpful for statistics. Participant 6 described how they used Facebook specifically for sharing course resources, since that platform might be easier at times than the typical learning management system.

Assignments and exams

The participants described using social media as a mechanism to complete their course assignments and to study for course exams and the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). Social media appeared to be involved in the process of completing assignments; it also appeared to be the product of some assignments. Participant 5 described how “any group projects that we have to do would, which in an online program seems a little silly to me to do group projects but, um, we’d have to find a way to collaborate and it was often over Facebook or that sort of thing”. Participant 1 described creating a social media campaign for their community health class to help parents access vision care for their school-age children. Participant 3 shared how they found posts about how to pass the NCLEX the first time shared to social media and Participant 2 explained how they use social media to review for their course exams by dividing course content up amongst a small group of students and sharing review notes and summaries online. Participant 2 also described using social media platforms like Reddit to understand the patient experience based on what patients choose to share to these sites.

Informal learning

Participants indicated that they used social media for diverse informal learning purposes. Table 3 provides an overview of participants’ experiences using social media for informal learning.

Creating community

By far, students shared the value of social media for connecting with peers and the nursing community most frequently. Four participants spoke about how social media promotes connection between distance students. Participant 3 shared how social media “gives you that camaraderie that you’re missing in a classroom environment”. Four out of the five students who identified as an online student cited Facebook groups as being an important mechanism for connecting with their classmates who were spread throughout the province. One participant explained how “there is a group online, uh, [School Name] distance ed students so I use that quite a bit, um, just to get information on classes, um, what to expect from different professors, etc.” Five participants shared how social media helped them combat isolation in their learning. Participant 2 emphasized the importance of social media for connecting distance students, which was important since they did not have the same opportunities to meet their classmates face-to-face. Participant 1 described how participating in Facebook groups helped enhance both the academic and social aspects of their face-to-face learning experience. Participant 4 explained how “we find it’s been really useful, or even like finding little things, like finding rides to clinical and stuff like that. Like obviously not all of us can afford vehicles and stuff like that so just by helping each other out”. In fact, every participant who identified as a face-to-face student ( n  = 4) spoke about the importance of Facebook groups to their learning experience since they contributed to building community and sharing resources.

Similarly, six participants shared how social media connected them with the broader nursing community, outside of their programs and university. Participant 6 described how social media could connect people across the country with experts in the field and the resources they have created. Participant 9 explained how social media could be used to “take my learning outside of the avenues that can be addressed and presented within a program or any program, really. So, it allows you to kind of step outside of that, see what’s happening with other people, how they’re learning…” Participant 1 described how social media allows them to connect with the nursing community on both social and academic levels through sharing memes and experiences on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Participant 3 shared how social media “probably gives a good, like, um, a good alternative perspective on things, other than the teacher’s”.

‘Behind the scenes’ knowledge sharing

While the participants often spoke about content that was publicly available to them on social media, they also shared how they used social media for informal learning purposes in private or ‘behind the scenes’ ways. Five nursing students reported using social media to buy, sell, and share PDF versions of textbooks. Participant 5 shared how “people share PDFs of textbooks and all that sort of stuff, so it’s definitely saved me several hundred dollars”. Two participants expressed how they prefer social media to textbooks. Participant 9 described how their professors are “not the biggest towards textbooks because they said that the second they are printed they are out of date because of how fast information is changing within healthcare”. In this sense, Participant 9 found social media to be a helpful way to stay up to date with information that textbooks did not provide.

Similarly, three participants described using social media to discuss which professors were the best for each class. Participant 2 explained how “we often talk about which professors are the best for specific courses and so those classes tend to fill up really fast”. Participant 5 described how they use social media to ask questions about the university, share their perceptions of certain professors, and discuss which classes should or should not be taken at the same time. While eight of the nine interview participants actively participated in social media groups, three participants shared that the absence of faculty members in the social media groups could be problematic. Participant 2 suggested using more of the collaborative tools available on the university’s learning management system to eliminate some of the need for the social media groups and better include the faculty members. Participant 5 also found the absence of faculty members in the social media groups to be a problem and recommended involving faculty members in the private groups to correct misinformation and answer questions.

Scaffolding knowledge

In addition to sharing resources, three students indicated that the Facebook groups were essential for giving and receiving support throughout their nursing programs. Similarly, five nursing students shared how they use social media to review their clinical skills. Three participants used social media to review IV insertion. Participant 7 described how “I use Instagram, I follow someone, she, her, her tag is IV Queen or something like that, but she gives a lot of intravenous tips on how to insert IVs and how to care for them”. Participant 3 also described using YouTube videos to review IV compatibility. Participant 1 shared how they used YouTube to practice for their IV therapy lab. Participant 1 also described how “we have used some YouTube videos and tutorials and stuff in our labs where we’re able to view, like, for example just last week we were learning about central lines, um, so we looked at a video about how to do the dressing change for a central line”. Participant 1 also described how they use YouTube to learn about skills like ambulating patients prior to starting their surgical rotation so that they would understand what they were about to do on the rotation.

Why use social media

The study participants presented several reasons to use social media in support of their formal and informal learning activities; similarly, they also presented several reasons to be cautious of using social media for these purposes. Table 4 presents an overview of exemplary participant quotations presented thematically.

Credibility and relevance of sources

Seven participants discussed the credibility and relevance of the sources they found on social media. Participant 7 indicated that they find their friends and followers on social media do not tend to share a lot of content that “I don’t consider real, like the fake news, but it’s a lot of more credible sources, like major journal articles and stuff like that”. Participant 4 expressed that students are taking a risk in depending on social media rather than on their books and their notes. Other students, like Participant 6, emphasized the importance of developing critical thinking skills and being able to filter social media posts so that they could appropriately determine which sources were accurate or credible. Participant 8 indicated that relying on social media links provided by course professors was helpful since “you know if the instructors are posting those videos, then you know that they’re credible sources.”

Professors and professionalism

All nine nursing students shared how their professors, programs, and the importance of professionalism influenced their use of social media. Four participants shared that, perhaps with the exception of YouTube videos, their professors did not use social media in their teaching and discouraged its use by nursing students. Participant 6 explained that “social media is kind of shunned a lot in nursing because of that whole idea of don’t post anything, don’t share your clinical experiences and don’t, you know, breach privacy.” In some instances, participants reported that their professors did not use social media in their teaching but encouraged students to use it to complete course assignments, like learning portfolios. Participant 4 shared that “[the professors] really like the idea of us working together on things and utilizing each other to keep on track”, especially as it related to support during clinical placements.” Other participants described their professors incorporating podcasts, videos, and Reddit into their courses, which encouraged their use of social media for learning. Still, several participants expressed concerns related to professionalism on social media. Participant 3 explained how “I definitely avoid posting about like, things that involve substance use. I feel like there’s added pressure on people in certain, in various professions like healthcare and police that you should avoid because you’re supposed to uphold a certain image of the profession.”

Convenience and accessibility

Several participants discussed the convenience of social media. Two participants shared how it was easier for communication purposes than other methods (i.e., emails, calls, texts). Other participants described how social media provided a central repository for resources that could be easily accessed by classmates. However, Participants 3 and 5 highlighted some challenges to accessibility because of using social media for learning, notably poor internet connection and lack of transcriptions or alternative formats.

Engagement and distraction

Four participants shared how they found social media to be an engaging platform for learning in their nursing education. Participant 4 explained how social media helps highlight major class concepts in a variety of formats, which can be helpful for different learners. Several participants spoke about growing up with social media and how their previous experiences motivated them to use it as a tool to support their nursing education. Participant 6 explained how “I kind of grew up with technology and grew up with social media that I just know how to use it and know how to access it and don’t have a problem filtering out what I don’t need.” Despite how participants felt about social media’s potential for engagement, they also found it potentially distracting. This was a common theme amongst both face-to-face and distance students. Participant 2 described ending up in a “Facebook vortex, where I end up being on it for 2 h, not necessarily on that [program specific] group.”

The nursing student participants described multiple ways of using social media to support their learning. None of the students in this study described using social media for the same creative formal experiences as those published by Thomas et al. [ 25 ] wherein a course instructor developed a simulated student on Facebook for nursing students to interact with online. However, a couple of students outlined their experiences being required to use sites like Reddit to learn about the patient experience. Additionally, some participants described how they used social media to develop patient-oriented health advocacy campaigns for healthcare organizations, effectively demonstrating how social media is being used in their formal nursing education. The ways in which the nursing students use social media to support their formal learning demonstrate social media’s collaborative capacity for knowledge and information exchange for both on-campus and distance students [ 6 , 48 , 49 ]. The study participants used social media creatively to support their formal education; for instance, participants referenced program-specific Facebook groups where they could collectively decide on questions that they needed to ask their professors in class. This finding is consistent with that of Junco et al. [ 50 ], where they found social media to be a low-stress method for students to ask questions of their peers and educators.

Informally, participants indicated using social media to refresh their clinical skills before applying them in lab settings or during clinical rotations. While the findings of this study do not directly touch on the use of social media at the point-of-care, studies like that conducted by Hay et al. [ 51 ] demonstrate social media’s potential utility for enhanced clinical learning and patient safety. In this study, two participants described how they use social media, specifically YouTube videos, to help with patient education at the bedside. Moreover, the participants indicated that they took a cautious approach to using social media in their formal and informal learning out of concern for professionalism implications. Several students indicated that they had been warned about the repercussions of unprofessional online behaviour and had adjusted their behaviour accordingly. This finding is similar to that of a previous conducted narrative review by O’Connor et al. [ 34 ] that found that students were likely to change what content they shared using social media after learning about issues of professionalism.

Importantly, the participants in this study appeared to use social media as a third space. Aaen and Dalsgaard [ 52 ] describe the ‘third space’ as being one that emerges in boundaries or overlaps across spheres; they explain that third spaces emerge from a need for discourses that are unavailable or cannot be filled in existing settings. Participants described creating their own Facebook groups for their classes, cohorts, study groups, clinical groups, and programs. The students explained that faculty members were not present in their Facebook groups, although they did sometimes encourage students to join the groups to stay up to date on information. The participants shared that they used the groups to fill gaps in their education. Others described using the Facebook groups to create a sense of community they felt was missing in their distance learning. In fact, this study found that nursing students use social media in their education in several ways that are often hidden or ‘behind the scenes’. Aaen and Dalsgaard [ 52 ] found that Facebook formed a ‘third space’ that combined elements of academic, personal, and social communication that does not typically take place within conventional university structures or spaces. The findings of this study are similar in the sense that the nursing student participants used social media as a mechanism to collaborate, communicate, teach, and learn when traditional university avenues were unavailable to them.

This study has implications for learning theory in connected teaching and learning. Learning theories – and thus, approaches to teaching – have moved from behaviourist to constructivist in the age of technology [ 53 ]. Indeed, social learning theories like connectivism [ 54 ], Communities of Practice [ 55 ], and social constructivism [ 36 ] can reflect the realities of connected teaching and learning because they focus on collective learning and knowing in both physical and digital spaces. In the present study, social constructivism, specifically Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, is evident in the participants’ use of social media for formal and informal learning purposes. Vygotsky [ 56 ] defines the Zone of Proximal Development as “the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with capable peers” (p. 86). The participants in this study described using online social media groups to share information about course requirements, assignment information, and exam tips. Social media also appeared to be a method for students to consolidate, share, and engage in their learning as part of a larger social process. Several participants described experiences of scaffolding learning for their peers either within their own cohort or in cohorts behind them using social media groups. Scaffolding is a key component of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and has applications for online course design; technical scaffolding allows learners to experience just-in-time instruction and be provided with resources to solve problems and generate new learning and understanding collaboratively online [ 57 ]. Thus, the online learning environment should provide learners with the resources, tools, and supports they need to build their own knowledge; scaffolding fades as learners develop their own knowledge and expertise [ 53 ].

Implications for nursing education policy and practice

This study demonstrates that nursing students are using social media in their educational practices both formally and informally. This use of social media has implications for teaching and learning in nursing education. Faculty members must consider the purposes for which nursing students are using social media, especially informally. One finding of this study suggested that nursing students turned to social media to fill perceived gaps – both academic and social – in their learning experience. If faculty members and schools of nursing are aware that social media is being used by nursing students for formal and informal teaching and learning purposes, it can be leveraged to achieve specific competencies and learning objectives. Based on this study, we have highlighted recommendations for nursing education policy and practice.

At the policy level, professional and appropriate social media communication could be included as an educational competency in nursing education programs, if not already stated in guiding curriculum frameworks. The purpose of this recommendation is not to discourage social media use but rather to develop competent online communicators who are equipped to use social media for teaching, learning, advocacy, and knowledge translation purposes. At the institution level, increased training for both faculty members and students on digital literacies, identifying credible online sources, and managing misinformation could help ensure faculty and students feel equipped to use digital tools like social media effectively in their teaching and learning. Finally, at the course level, some participants valued using social media to extend their learning while others were more reluctant to use it; thus, approaching the use of social media with flexibility and allowing for choice is essential. Providing optional opportunities to extend learning may help encourage participation on social media and help students discover how social media platforms can be used as learning tools informally within the nursing profession.

Limitations and future directions

This exploratory qualitative case study included individual semi-structured interviews with nursing students from one Canadian School of Nursing. Despite incentivizing interview participation, we were only able to recruit 9 of the 24 possible participants. It is also probable that those who participated were more interested in social media than those who did not participate. The interviews consisted of self-reported data from the perspectives of the participants. Although participants spoke about how their professors used social media in their courses, the professors’ perspectives were not included in this study, leaving a potential imbalance and area for future research. Moreover, our small qualitative sample did not allow for a stratified analysis based on the program delivery method. This type of analysis would be interesting to conduct with a larger, quantitative dataset. Lastly, while the interview guide included questions about the nursing student participants’ experiences using social media, it did not include questions about their cultural backgrounds. In future, it would be interesting to explore how students’ culture backgrounds influence how and why they use of social media.

Conclusions

The nursing students in this study described and demonstrated using social media to support their formal and informal learning. The participants also used social media as a third space, one that is separate from the traditional confines of the university. Within this space, participants merged their personal and academic discussions to collaborate, share resources, mentor one another, and connect with nursing experts and professional institutions. This use of social media has implications for teaching and learning in nursing education, especially regarding learning theory, scaffolding, and online course design.

Availability of data and materials

Due to the qualitative case study nature of this research, the data generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available to maintain the anonymity of the study participants. Data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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C. G. and K. M. were equally responsible for conceptualizing the study, conducting data collection and analysis, writing the main manuscript text and reviewing the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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This study received formal ethical approval from the University of Ottawa Social Sciences and Humanities Research Ethics Board (S-08–18-921) and approval from the study site (101916) in August 2019. We reviewed the informed consent form with each participant prior to commencing the interview and addressed any questions that they had. All participants verbally consented to participate in an interview and participants’ consent was recorded using Zoom video conference software, in accordance with our REB approval from the University of Ottawa Social Sciences and Humanities REB (S-08–18-921). We followed Tri-Council ethics guidelines. Our reporting aligns with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist.

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Giroux, C.M., Moreau, K.A. Nursing students’ use of social media in their learning: a case study of a Canadian School of Nursing. BMC Nurs 21 , 195 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-022-00977-0

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Remote learning and students’ mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-method enquiry

Suzanne lischer.

Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts–Social Work, Werftestrasse 1, 6002 Lucerne, Switzerland

Netkey Safi

Cheryl dickson.

The disruption caused by Covid-19 in the educational sector may last longer than originally predicted. To better understand the current situation, this article analyses the mental health status of university students during the pandemic and investigates the learning conditions needed to support students. The sample included 557 undergraduate students who took part in an online survey. Overall, the students reported coping well during lockdown but indicated that lecturers were challenged by distance teaching, which created some stress for the students.

In light of rising concern about the current Covid-19 pandemic, a growing number of universities across the world, beginning from March 2020, either postponed or cancelled all such campus events as workshops, conferences, sports (both intra- and inter-university), and other activities. Universities moved rapidly to transfer various courses and programmes from face-to-face to online teaching (Sahu 2020 ). Due to the continuing sharp rise in the number of infections, the Swiss Federal Council declared the “extraordinary situation” as early as March 16, 2020, passing an ordinance that placed massive restrictions on public life. Primary schools as well as universities had to close immediately. Since June 8, Swiss universities were able to resume their teaching activities, under the condition that they apply strict security measures; however, teaching will remain restricted for an unlimited period. Colleges and universities are thus facing decisions about how to continue teaching while keeping their faculty, staff, and students safe from a deadly virus emergency that is moving fast and not well understood (Hodges et al. 2020 ).

Within this context, the question arises as to how to tackle the latent threat of Covid-19. As pharmaceutical interventions such as vaccines are on the horizon but not yet available, universities, even after the end of lockdown, must apply nonpharmaceutical interventions, including social and physical distancing to slow the spread of the disease and prevent the emergence of new diseases. Having been thrust into online learning, literally overnight, academics have been debating what will become the “new normal” for our institutions and teaching practices, and what is the best way forward (Tesar 2020 ).

On the one hand, the potential of digital technologies to enhance student learning had already been well established before the outbreak. In the last few years, much enthusiasm has surrounded the development of digital technologies along increasingly personalised, remote, adaptive, and data-driven lines. The concept of blended learning to combine the benefits of face-to-face and online teaching is gradually being integrated into institutions (Dziuban et al. 2018 ), and digital technologies are clearly integral to the future of university education around the world (Henderson et al. 2017 ). Faculty training to support this transition—as well as student engagement and connectedness—has been identified as crucial to its success (Barr and Miller 2013 ). Whilst the use of already-familiar applications, such as WhatsApp, proved useful for remote-learning during the early pandemic (mid-March), research has highlighted the need for more effective practices for the post-emergency stage (Wargadinata et al. 2020 ). However, due to the sudden emergence of Covid-19, most faculty members faced unforeseen challenges, including lack of online-teaching experience, lack of time for preparing distance-learning courses, and figuring out how to make use of support from educational technology teams (Bao 2020 ). Thus, students and teachers faced problems when studying and teaching at home. Literature highlights certain deficiencies, such as the weakness of online-teaching infrastructures, the inexperience of teachers regarding new technologies, the information gap, the complex environment at home, and so forth (Ali 2020 ). Furthermore, students have a wide range of distractions when studying at home. For example, not all are able to find suitable spaces for home learning, or studying may be constrained by insufficient hardware and unstable networks (Zhang et al. 2020 ).

Findings suggest that students, as well as the general population, may be experiencing psychological effects from the outbreak of Covid-19, such as anxiety, fear, and worry, among others (Cao et al. 2020 ; Li et al. 2020 ; Wang et al. 2020 ). A longitudinal study reveals that, compared to prior academic terms, individuals in the Winter 2020 term were more sedentary, anxious, and depressed. In addition, a wide variety of behaviours, including increased phone usage, decreased physical activity, and fewer locations visited, are associated with fluctuations in Covid-19 news reporting (Huckins et al. 2020 ). Findings from China in February 2020 indicate that college students’ anxiety regarding the pandemic was associated with their place of residence, source of parental income, whether living with parents, and whether a relative or an acquaintance was infected with Covid-19 (Cao et al. 2020 ). Some students might be at higher risk of social isolation and the development of mental health problems during the Covid-19 crisis. This is particularly true when they live by themselves, have less direct contact to close family members and friends, receive less social support, and are less well-integrated into a social network of students. Female students appeared to be at higher risk of facing negative mental health consequences (Elmer et al. 2020 ).

The disruption caused by Covid-19 in the educational sector may last longer than expected if a reliable solution for the virus is not found quickly and its spread continues. In this study, we aim to highlight the potential impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the education and mental health of university students. We investigated and analyzed the mental health status (in particular, anxiety) of university students during the pandemic for the following purposes: (1) to evaluate these students’ emotional situation during the pandemic; (2) to find out what learning conditions that university management and lecturers should establish in order to provide the best possible support for students during this pandemic or a future epidemic/pandemic.

In this article we examine the following questions:

• How do students at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts perceive the university’s support during the coronavirus pandemic?
• Which sociodemographic characteristics are associated with increased anxiety?
• To what extent were the students distressed—both psychologically and regarding the study workload—during the outbreak?
• Which Covid-19–related stressors are correlated with anxiety during the pandemic?
• What are, in the students’ views, the challenges and benefits of integrating distance learning in tertiary institutions, in response to the Covid-19 crisis?

We launched the survey for this cross-sectional study on April 23, 2020 and received responses through the end of May 2020. We designed and conducted the survey using the Enterprise Feedback Suite (EFS) Survey by Questback. The Central Switzerland Ethics Committee approved this study.

Study population and sample

The study population is all undergraduate students at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts is N = 5,200, across six faculties. The relevant departments informed the students about the survey in various ways (email, department website, and/or wider university website).

A total of 557 students took part in the survey. All participants voluntarily gave their informed consent to participate after being informed about the purpose of the study. The questionnaires were anonymous to ensure confidentiality and the reliability of data.

Variable specification

Sociodemographic variables.

We asked participants to report on their gender (male or female), age group (18–24, 25–34, 35–44, or 45–55 years), nationality (Swiss or non-Swiss), migration background (yes or no), discipline studied , living situation including relationship status (4 categories; see Table  1 ), number of children , and household type (6 categories; see Table  1 ). For the purposes of the analysis, the variable living situation was ultimately dichotomized into categories for cohabiting and for living alone in the community.

Table 1

Demographic characteristics of the sample and associations with PHQ-4 scores

a Effect sizes defined as follows: “small, d = .2, η 2   = .02”, “medium, d = .5, η 2   =  .13”, “large, d = .8, η 2  = .26”

Anxiety . In addition to sociodemographic questions that addressed the students’ situation during the Covid-19 pandemic, the survey included a validated anxiety scale. The 4-item Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) is a rapid self-reported measure. Respondents rate their symptoms using a 4-item Likert rating scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 4 (almost every day), and the total score ranges from 0 to 16 (Löwe et al. 2010 ). We used Cronbach’s α (Cronbach 1951 ) to measure the scale’s reliability—the internal consistency. The PHQ-4 is a well-validated screening instrument, demonstrating a high internal consistency (Cronbach’s ɑ = 0.81). The scale categorises the severity of clinically relevant depression and/or anxiety according to the PHQ-4 score, as follows: normal (1–4), mild (4–8), moderate (9–12), severe (13–16).

Covid-19–related stressors. We assessed Covid-19–related stressors using a set of questions. which were constructed by a group of researchers at the University Hospital Frankfurt. The first question, operationalized into 3 items, examined what effects students feared might occur as a result of the Covid crisis: Worry about economic impact ; worry about loss of social contact; and worry about academic delays . A 3-point scale was used to rate each item, as follows: So far, it is not an issue (1); that is what I fear (2); has already happened (3) (Frankenberg et al. 2020b ).

The second question examined concerns about health and the social environment. The survey asked students about the statements : I worry over personal health issues (becoming depressed); and, I worry about health issues for people close to me (e.g., parents, grandparents). Respondents reported their answers using a 4-item Likert rating scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (4) (Frankenberg et al. 2020a ).

Experiences with remote studying during the Covid-19 pandemic. We asked open-ended questions about participants’ experiences with home study during the outbreak, inviting the students to report on the challenges and advantages of home study. In addition, we asked them how they perceive the support given by the university and what kind of response they would like to receive.

Data analysis

We analyzed data using SPSS Version 22.0. We conducted an analysis of the descriptive statistics to illustrate demographic and other selected characteristics of the respondents (e.g., students’ self-reported anxiety levels) and used a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the means (PHQ-4 scores) between different groups (e.g., gender). We ran a regression analysis to explore the significant associations between Covid-19–related stressors (worry about: economic impact, delays in academic activities, loss of social contact, own health, and health of others) and different levels of self-reported anxiety (normal, mild, moderate, severe). We employed MAXQDA 2020 to analyze the students’ qualitative responses concerning home-study experiences during the outbreak.

In Table  1 , we present the demographic and selected characteristics of the study population. Among the sample of 557 undergraduate students who took part in the survey, from a total of six faculties, 448 provided information on their gender. The majority of respondents were female, and the mean age was 27 (median, 25). The response rate from the different faculties varied considerably: Social Work (40.4%), Engineering and Architecture (34.1%), Information Technology (0.5%), Art and Design (18.7%), Music (2.0%), and Business (4.3%).

Anxiety levels

Factors influencing anxiety levels: univariate analysis (anova).

The findings indicate that women had significantly higher mean anxiety scores (PHQ-4) when compared to men (F[1, 446] = 9.661,  p  = .001), respectively. However, the effect size was small ( p  = .002, Cohen’s d  = .319). We observed no significant difference in mean anxiety scores with regard to age ( p  = .057); also, there was no group difference in mean anxiety scores regarding nationality (Swiss vs. non-Swiss). Regarding migration background, students who had not migrated had significantly higher mean anxiety scores when compared to those who had migrated (F[1, 443] = 8.501, p  = .015). This effect was also very small ( p  = .015, d  = 0.25). Differences in relationship status and number of children were not related to the PHQ-4 mean scores. Couples with children had significantly lower average anxiety values than single-person households, couples without children, etc. (F[5, 447] = 2.468, p  = .032, η2 = .027).

In conclusion, it appears that an increased PHQ-4 score is not related to certain sociodemographic characteristics. The differences found (gender, age, migration background, type of household) have no significant effect.

Table  2 shows how the mental health of college students was affected to varying degrees during the outbreak. Of the responding students, 85.8% reported experiencing anxiety, for which the symptoms, in the majority of cases, can be classified as “mild”.

Table 2

Students’ self-reported anxiety levels (n = 458)

Correlation between Covid-19–related stressors and PHQ-4 anxiety scores

We show, in Table  3 , the results of the regression analysis between Covid-19–related stressors and PHQ-4 anxiety levels. Concerns about the economic impact of the pandemic were positively related to the college students’ levels of anxiety ( r  = 0.117, P  < .05). Moreover, concerns about academic delays ( r  = 0.135, P  < .01) or over personal health issues (becoming depressed) ( r  = 0.194, P  < .001) and worry about health issues for close others (e.g., parents, grandparents) also positively correlate (r = 0.171, P < .001) with the level of anxiety. Worry about loss of social contact was not correlated with anxiety levels (r = .073, P  = .132).

Table 3

Regression analysis of COVID-19-related stressors and self-reported anxiety levels (PHQ-4)

Students’ experiences of distance learning

As part of the open-ended questions about students’ experiences of distance learning, we asked them to report on what challenges and what opportunities distance learning brings in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. N = 370 of 557 students (66%) answered the question “What works well [regarding your current challenges in distance learning]?”; and 406 students (72.9%) answered the question “What are the difficulties?”.

As the following results show, the students handled the new situation pragmatically. While some students tackled the work with a high degree of discipline and explicitly emphasized the advantages of the increased personal responsibility and independent working, (n = 82), others expressed difficulties in concentrating and maintaining the necessary motivation for distance learning (n = 76). For some students (n = 24), time management was a particular challenge. Structural conditions, such as having only one room serving as both bedroom and study, complicated the situation. Eight students stated that they had difficulties with the limited available space.

Even though the students had already dealt with IT before Covid-19, the abrupt change to exclusively digitalized communication channels was a challenge. Students did not cope equally well with the technical requirements. Some saw the setup of the different IT tools as complex. Whilst some students emphasized that the technology worked perfectly (n = 17), other students complained about technical problems (n = 10), such as the slow internet connection. Overall, however, they assessed the tools (e.g., for the learning platform or video communication) as practical (n = 24). In particular, they very much appreciated the use of zoom for providing the classroom and for bilateral discussions (n = 57). However, they sometimes perceived group discussions via zoom as sluggish (n = 10).

If teachers give distance-learning work assignments, it is important from the students’ point of view that these are given at an early stage, that the assignment is clear, and that they know what further steps may be needed. Furthermore, the opportunity to clarify ambiguities must be provided, and the required workload must be proportionate. A total of n = 23 students emphasized that the work assignments were didactically meaningful and that the lecturers adequately communicated them. The performance of the lecturers received mixed reviews, though this is also the case for face-to-face classes. For example, the fact that teachers uploaded PowerPoint presentations to the learning platform without setting them to audio was seen as unhelpful (n = 11); n = 17 students negatively appraised the unstructured uploading of teaching materials to the learning platform Ilias. Group work in distance learning was described as challenging and sometimes unnecessary. Students expressed their wishes that this learning method be used carefully and purposefully in a digital environment (n = 39). Students' comments included:

Every lecturer has a different idea of how distance learning should work. A grid would help. Ideally, for example, this grid structure would be useful: In the run-up to the course, students prepare themselves by reading, then the topic is explained in an online sequence by a lecturer. Afterwards, there should be an opportunity to clarify questions and discuss the issue.

Work assignments are delivered in advance, there are forums available for questions.

Clear assignments, I can easily, sometimes even more simply, acquire most of the module contents in Distance Learning.

Zoom meetings are tiring but good for discussions, some of the lecturers lack digital literacy.

Respondents’ discussion reflected controversy over communication on the part of the university management. Overall, negative feedback with regard to communication predominated (n = 16). In particular, students evaluated critically the “flood of emails and information” to which they were exposed; they saw lecturers’ email communication as uncoordinated in some cases. Eleven students stated that they missed the direct exchange with the lecturers and, in particular, concrete feedback on work assignments that they had done.

A total of n = 51 students stated that they lacked personal exchanges with fellow students. However, they also noted that, on occasions where such exchanges had been possible, these had been highly appreciated (n = 10).

The overall conclusion is that the majority of students would like to see a return to face-to-face classes. N = 50 students were critical of Covid-19 conditional distance learning and would like to see a return to the teaching methods used before the outbreak. At the same time, 42.5% of the students agreed with the statement that a switch to higher levels of distance learning should also be targeted for the period after the Coronavirus pandemic.

Limitations and future directions

The current study has several limitations that could be addressed within future research. Firstly, of the approximately 5200 students at the university, only 557 students across all departments took part in the survey. This is a moderately low response; the results are therefore not representative. Second, students in some fields, such as music or computer science, are barely represented in the sample. In view of the fact that the area of study plays a very important role in the discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning, this is a major constraint of this study. The different response rates can be explained by the fact that invitations to participate in the study were distributed in different ways. The Departments of Social Work, Engineering and Architecture, and Art and Design sent the invitation by email with the survey link, while the Departments of Information Technology (IT), Music, and Business only posted it on the department’s website or on the internal website, without explicitly referring to the survey. Moreover, we did not find strongly significant effects on mental health. However, the exploratory evaluation using open-ended questions raises useful issues for further research work, such as whether student satisfaction will increase once streamlined digital processes and personalized support measures are fully integrated.

Conclusions

The Covid-19 outbreak has disrupted the lives of many people across the world. The rapid increase in cases of infection, worldwide, has created uncertainty and anxiety about what is going to happen. It has also caused a tremendous level of stress among students. Previous studies have suggested that public health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic can have many psychological effects on college students, which can be expressed as anxiety, fear, and worry, among others (Cao et al. 2020 ; Huckins et al. 2020 ; Li et al. 2020 ; Wang et al. 2020 ). This stress may lead to unfavourable effects on the learning and psychological health of students (Sahu 2020 ).

Whilst not designed to be representative, the survey aimed to gain insight about potential impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the education and mental health of undergraduate students. The survey gathered n = 487 responses from undergraduate students who are studying in one of the 6 departments of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Regarding anxiety and stress, the study reveals that 85.8% of the students reported symptoms of anxiety, although in the majority of cases these symptoms were mild (63.3%). The study did not confirm previous findings that students who live alone are at higher risk of developing mental health problems (Elmer et al. 2020 ). However, female students appeared to be at higher risk of facing negative mental health consequences, even though the effect size is small. Due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, we cannot know whether these symptoms existed before the pandemic. Yet, there are several plausible explanations for why students may feel stressed or anxious during the Covid-19 outbreak, including additional study-related uncertainties or worries about career prospects.

Nevertheless, the results of the survey suggest that the students coped well with stresses that occurred during the lockdown. Moreover, the majority of the students felt well supported and expressed their appreciation of the lecturers. However, this is no reason for either the university management or the lecturers to rest on their laurels. The results of the open-ended questions indicate that distance teaching was a challenge for lecturers, which in turn created stress for the students. Thus, perhaps more than anxiety and stress, the experience of a rapid online transition to remote teaching has revealed much about the deficiencies of the higher education sector and, perhaps, much about what needs to change in universities (Watermeyer et al. 2020 ). Lecturers as well as students have to be prepared for future times that require flexibility and probably a higher workload, and greater effort in order to study. Digital literacy is no longer a “nice to have” but dispensable competence for both lecturers and students. There are many reasons to believe that Covid-19 has created “a new normal” for the universities—one that will continue after the lockdown ends. The rapid evolution of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) and the increasing complexity that comes with its vast potential explains why integration of technology in education continues to receive special attention, particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic (Ali 2020 ). It is up to university management to provide both lecturers and students with the necessary tools to acquire these competences.

Biographies

has worked as a lecturer and project manager at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts–Social Work (HSLU) since 2008. She has been the head of the Centre of Competence for Prevention and Health, Lucerne, Switzerland, since 2017. Her main teaching and research interests focus on health-related issues.

has worked as senior scientific collaborator at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts–Social Work (HSLU) since 2019.

is a clinical psychologist with experience in clinical work and research. She specialized, post qualification, in the field of child and adolescent mental health, and, subsequently, in the field of gambling disorders.

Open access funding provided by Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Publisher's Note

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Contributor Information

Suzanne Lischer, Email: [email protected] .

Netkey Safi, Email: [email protected] .

Cheryl Dickson, Email: [email protected] .

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Yum! Brands’ Former CEO on Why You Should Never Stop Learning

A conversation with David Novak about essential habits of successful leaders.

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After 15 years leading the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, David Novak wanted to help others become better leaders. He believes the key is to put learning at the center of everything you do, whether you’re an entry-level worker or a multinational executive. Novak outlines three main areas for learning: from your own life experiences, from the people and situations available right now, and from the habit of curiosity. Above all, he says the most effective leaders turn their learnings into action, something that takes insight and practice. Novak’s new book is  How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World’s Most Successful People .

CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Curt Nickisch.

I’ll confess when I hear someone say, “That person has a lot to learn,” I picture someone in over their head or maybe new in their career just starting out in a corporate job or green in their dream role at a nonprofit. I don’t picture someone at the top of the organization, the executive director or CEO. But our guest today does picture that person, because our guest today was that person, a longtime executive who fundamentally believes that the best leaders recognize the need to learn continually, and they actively pursue the best ways to do that.

David Novak is the former chair and CEO of Yum! Brands, where he scaled KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell into one of the globe’s biggest restaurant companies. He didn’t have the education and pedigree you might expect, but he attributes his success to the fact that he’s always been hungry to learn.

Novak wrote the new book, How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World’s Most Successful People. David, thanks for coming on the show to share what you’ve learned.

DAVID NOVAK: Curt, it’s my honor. I look forward to the conversation.

CURT NICKISCH: Why is learning so important to you?

DAVID NOVAK: I can tell you that learning has been the single biggest skill that’s helped me succeed in life and in my career. I’ve always been a person that just took the opportunity to learn from new experiences, my environment, from other people, from ways to become more curious from the experiences that I’ve had, that I’ve always taken the time to learn.

And it became very important to me because as I was developing and growing Yum! Brands, I’ve always had to really try to identify the high potential talent or hire great people that could come in and make our company better. And I realized that the very best people we had in our company were avid learners.

And then when I moved on from Yum! Brands and I focused on my passion, which is developing leaders, helping people become the best leaders that they can possibly be. But what I wanted to do, Curt, was basically share everything that I’ve learned about learning and help people master that skill because I believe it defines the most successful leader.

CURT NICKISCH: How do you define learning? Or how do you think of it, yourself?

DAVID NOVAK: Well, I think learning is the capacity to build know-how that helps you develop as a person, helps you grow your business, helps you move up in your career. And as I wrote this book, How Leaders Learn, I focused in on three aspects of learning. One is to learn from the people and environments and the experiences that are available to you right now. This would be like, how can you learn from your upbringing? How can you learn from new environments? How can you learn from people that are already in your network that you can just access? So I really honed in on that.

The second thing is I think that you have to learn how to really be curious and open-minded and make that a habit. So I wanted to help people get the learning that would help them develop the thinking skills to be really successful. And that’s like learning to listen, which is so fundamental, but a lot of people just don’t do it. Learning how to ask better questions, learning to see reality, see the world the way it really is not the way you want it to be. Learning to take the time to reflect so that you can really understand who you are and what you need to become.

And then the third aspect of learning that I really tried to hone in is by learning from the experiences that you have in your life. And this leads to the insights that I think really drive action. And that’d be things like learning to recognize on purpose, which was the key to my success in building the culture that we had that I think really drove results. Learning to prepare. That’s really, really important. And learn by reflecting and taking the time to seek new knowledge.

CURT NICKISCH: What is your advice to somebody maybe earlier in the career or a leader who is trying to choose the environment for them to become the best senior leader they can be? How do you advise people to put themselves into a place where they’re going to get the most learning and have the best chance at being successful

DAVID NOVAK: When anything starts to be rote and when anything starts to just be routine and you’re just going through the humdrum of going to work and doing what you know how to do well, I always say that’s the time you want to seek new environments that push you and get you out of your comfort zone and will help you really grow. So I think you have to be in tune with yourself and you have to have a dissatisfaction with the status quo. Not only for the business that you might be working in where it pushes you to come up with new ideas and make new things happen, but have that healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo for yourself as well, so that you can really keep pushing yourself so that you grow and you build more skills and you can make a bigger impact for your company and help the people that you have the privilege of working with.

CURT NICKISCH: How do you know when the challenge is right? How do you assess that new environment that you’re deliberating is going to be the right place for you to go next?

DAVID NOVAK: Well, I think you have to have a real strong understanding of where you’re at in your life and in your career and how people see you. I used to run marketing for Pepsi-Cola Company, and every quarter I would go meet with Wayne Calloway, who was the chairman of PepsiCo, the holding company.

And we always had these great conversations. And finally one day, Curt, he said to me, “What do you want to do, David, in your career? How are you looking at yourself?” And I said, “Well, I want to be a division president.” And PepsiCo had KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Frito-Lay, and Pepsi. I didn’t care which one, but I wanted to run a business. And he said to me, he said, “David, you’re a really good marketing guy.” And I said, “Well, Wayne, I want to be in charge of the P&L. I want to be in charge of the division. I want to really run the whole shooting match.” He says, “David, you’re a really good marketing guy.”

And that gave me the self-awareness that I was going to have to demonstrate to him that I was more than a marketing person. He even said, “David, I’ll make you head of marketing for PepsiCo so we can grow our talent that’s so important to us.” That’s not what I wanted. So a month or so later, the chief operating officer job came up at the Pepsi-Cola company, and I was the marketing person, I had to demonstrate I was more than just a marketing person, so I went to my boss and I asked for the new challenge, the new environment. I asked to become the chief operating officer of Pepsi-Cola Company without having operating experience.

CURT NICKISCH: And knowing that they didn’t see you that way.

DAVID NOVAK: You know, I actually I went to the CEO of Pepsi-Cola company, Craig Weatherup, and I said to Craig, “I understand there’s a risk in this, but if I’m not doing a great job in six months, you can either fire me or you can put me back in marketing. But this is something that I really know that I need to do, and I think I can do it.”

Now, why would he even think that I could do it? Well, I’d been put in new environments before and I had succeeded. And the track record that I had in doing that was enough to give him the motivation to say, “Okay, I’m going to give this guy a shot.”

CURT NICKISCH: You also had the opportunity to go to Frito-Lay and run that Snack Foods division. And that technically, based off of what we’ve been talking about, is something that maybe you should have done. It would’ve been another part of the company that you didn’t know very well. It would’ve been a new challenge, it wasn’t your area, and you said no and you don’t regret it. How so?

DAVID NOVAK:  Well, I think one of the things I’ve learned is that you need to focus on what truly gives you joy. I had worked with Frito-Lay and I had great respect for the company, and I’d also worked in Pepsi-Cola Company, and these are packaged goods businesses. They’re very different than the restaurant business.

I learned that I loved the restaurant business. I love food, so I love just going down when working with R&D themes and just developing new products. It was fun and it was relatively easy to do. I loved marketing. There was no industry I’d ever knew of or had been in where if you could start advertising on one day and three days later you could have 10% mix, it was almost like direct response. So it was like the marketing skill that I had was something that I really enjoyed and really had great applicability to it.

And I love people, and the restaurant business is all about people. You know, I love going out and working with the front lines, and I really love the humility of the restaurant business. These are people who just are… They wake up every day, they’re great Americans, they work their butt off. I just loved it.

And when I thought about going to Frito-Lay, I just didn’t have the same kind of passion for the packaged goods business. And so I turned the business down because I really believe you need to follow what gives you your joy and what makes you happy. And when you can get into a situation where you’re joyful about what you do and you look forward to it every day, you’re not really working, you’re really pursuing your hobby and your love. The only reason why I would’ve gone to Frito-Lay, it’d have been more prestigious, it would’ve been a bigger business, but that isn’t what really turns me on.

CURT NICKISCH: Yeah. Well, it’s interesting because you used the word passion here to talk about taking on new opportunities that you’re excited about, but also passion for doing what you like. So you may have those opportunities where you might be able to learn something new but just might not enjoy it. And you’re saying avoid those and make sure you seek out an opportunity where you can learn and can enjoy it at the same time.

DAVID NOVAK: Yeah, I do think that if you have that choice, that always works best, but you have to understand where you’re at in your career. Sometimes you have to take on some potential risk and some potential pain to get the learning that you’re going to need to get you to where you ultimately want to go. And that was the chief operating officer role for me at Pepsi. It wasn’t my cup of tea. I much preferred everything that I was doing in the restaurant business and running operations for Pepsi. But I learned so much by doing that that I don’t think I could have been nearly the kind of leader I was at KFC and Pizza Hut and Taco Bell and ultimately Yum! Brands without getting that experience.

CURT NICKISCH: Yeah. So how did you approach that just from a learning mindset?

DAVID NOVAK: I think you have to learn to fill your gaps. I would assess myself as a good leader, a good team builder, but I didn’t really understand operations. As a marketing person, I would go into the bottling plants and basically feign interest and be really thinking about all the marketing things that I needed to be doing. But I didn’t really understand the business from the ground up. And that’s probably why Wayne Calloway had questions about me because he probably saw me feigning interest and not really being into it that much.

So I needed to learn, and the best way I could learn is to fill the gap, the knowledge gap that I had on operations. So what I did is I brought in all the best operators in the company and I asked them what was working, what’s not working, what processes needed to be fixed.

The other thing that I did is I went out. Every week I would leave on Monday and come back on Friday, and I visited bottling plants and I met with the frontline and I had round tables and I would ask what was working, what’s not working. You have to be able to learn to listen. And so what I did when I was out there is I’d listened and I’d really understood what the problems were. And I had a lot of power in the Pepsi-Cola company because of the role I had.

And once I realized we had a problem, I could put the resources on that problem and get it fixed so that we come up with better processes that would help us with our route truck loading or better processes that could help us make sure we didn’t have out of stocks or better processes to work through the pricing models that we had.

So the fact that I listened to what the issues were and then took action. You know, you can be an avid learner and you can become really book smart. You can learn everything and be of interest to you, but what you have to do is take that learning and turn it into insights and action and use it to drive results. So I started out thinking the best leaders were avid learners – you got to be an active learner so that you take the learning that you get and you turn it into action.

CURT NICKISCH: As part of your work, you visited a team where somebody who’d been there for a long time was retiring. This man was named Bob. And you were there as they were going around and everybody was talking about everything that Bob had done for them and how important he was. And you noticed that Bob was at the end of the table there in tears, and you asked him about it.

DAVID NOVAK: Yeah, I said, people were all this praise on him and I said, “Bob, people love you. You’re the best at what you do. Why are you crying?” He said, “Well, I’ve been in this company for 47 years and I’m retiring in two weeks, and I didn’t know what people thought about me. I didn’t know that I was seen this way.” And that hit me in the gut, and it was like from that day on, I wanted to make sure that the people, the Bobs of the world, were appreciated for what they do. And I said to myself that I’m going to make recognition the number one cultural behavior I drive in whatever team or business that I lead.

CURT NICKISCH: So this was – that’s an active choice, I guess, is why I’m trying to draw that out, right?

DAVID NOVAK: Yeah, absolutely. I decided I was going to make it the biggest behavior that I would have as a leader. And that if I ever got a chance to run a company, I’d make it the distinguishing characteristic and behavior that would set us apart. And it’s interesting, when I did get to become the president of KFC, I started recognizing people by giving out this rubber chicken. It was fun that I did it, but what happened is everybody saw the power of recognition. And everybody on my team, they developed their own individual recognition awards. And then we cascaded it all around the world. And recognition became the number one key to our culture and the reason why we felt like we were able to attract and retain the best people.

CURT NICKISCH: You share then from your experiences and from a lot of the people that you’ve spoken to and interviewed, you share a lot in the book. And I just want to almost do a little bit of a lightning round and run through some of the advice that you have, some of these practical tips that you have. Learning by failure, that’s a common thing to hear. What’s your advice about learning from failure?

DAVID NOVAK: Failure is information. Take it, learn from it, and make sure that you move forward with new knowledge.

CURT NICKISCH: And by the same token, success is information too.

DAVID NOVAK: Winning is a great opportunity to learn from. Find the winners, find out why they’re winning, and then say, “How can I win too?”

CURT NICKISCH: Truth tellers. You write that you want to have those in your circle of friends and colleagues. Tell us about that.

DAVID NOVAK: Pursue truth with everything that you have. Chase it like it’s the most important thing. Make sure people know that you want the truth and that that’s so important to you, and then you’re going to get the kind of knowledge and learning that allow you to do the right thing.

CURT NICKISCH: Snap decisions. How do you see those?

DAVID NOVAK: Snap decisions can only be made well if you have the experience that gets you to the right end. I think snap decisions are dangerous. You got to have enough facts to make sure your decisions are correct.

CURT NICKISCH: Conversely, this idea of slowing down, listening, processing information, is that undervalued or overvalued?

DAVID NOVAK: I think you have to slow down to go fast. Too many times people skip the important steps to get people involved and committed, and it ends up taking them longer to get where they want to go.

CURT NICKISCH: What about pattern thinking and recognizing patterns?

DAVID NOVAK: Will make you smarter than you ever thought you could be. There’s so much information you can glean by looking how other people are doing things and then taking what seems to be a totally different category or a totally different business situation, and then asking yourself, “How could I take that learning and apply it in my business?” And it becomes one plus one equals three.

CURT NICKISCH: What’s a good example of that?

DAVID NOVAK: Well, my best example of pattern thinking is when I was working with Frito-Lay when I was in the advertising agency business. I knew that we needed to bring forward some new product ideas to help grow Doritos, which was our biggest account. So I took my team to the grocery store and I said, “Guys, we’re going to go up and down every aisle in the grocery and see what’s growing and see what’s happening in the industry.” And so we went up and down every aisle and we got to the salad dressing section. And at that point in time, ranch dressing was a new flavor and it had lots of facings, lots of point of purchase, which means that it was very successful and people were really trying it.

And so I came back with the team. I said, “This ranch dressing is very interesting. I wonder if we could do a Doritos with a ranch flavor.” And we all talked about it and I said, “That could be a good idea.” So I called Dennis Heard, the head of R&D at Frito-Lay and said, “Dennis, you think we could make a ranch-flavored Dorito?” And he says, “Absolutely.” And I said, “Well, let me tell you something. It’s the fastest growing flavor in the salad dressing market, and I think it could be a hit for us.”

And I’ll never forget going over to Frito-Lay with Dennis. When those ranch flavored Doritos came off the line, I mean, they were unbelievably good. They were so delicious, and we knew we had a winner. And then we did some pattern thinking on what had made Nacho Cheese Doritos so successful. Well, Nacho Cheese Doritos was successful because it took a known quantity – cheese – and then we named it with the unique image when we called it Nacho Cheese Doritos. Nacho was the unique image. I said, “Well, we need a unique image for Ranch.” And so we came up with the idea to call it Cool Ranch Doritos, and we launched Cool Ranch Doritos, and it was enormously successful.

And you’ll see ranch-flavored potato chips, ranch everything now. But we started that. And guess where that idea came from? Not by going up the snack aisle. It came from going to the salad dressing aisle and just by saying, “Okay, if ranch flavor is great in salad dressings, could it be great on a chip?”

CURT NICKISCH: Well, that came from a question too, and you also recommend learning how to ask better questions and being more deliberate in your interrogation of an idea.

DAVID NOVAK: Absolutely. The best question that I think you can ever ask is, “What would you do if you were me?” And I think if you want to pick up insights on how you can be a better leader or issues that need to be solved, ask that question. And one thing I will say, Curt, is don’t ask it once when you’re talking to somebody because they’ll say, “Oh, nothing. Everything’s great.” Then ask it twice and they’ll say, “Oh, things are really good.”

Then ask it that third time. And they’ll say, “Well, one thing we might should be working on is cutting the bureaucracy out that we have, or stop being so focused on our food costs because our product quality’s moving.” But people aren’t going to tell you if you have a lot of power what needs to be done unless they know that you really want to hear it. And so I think sometimes you got to ask that question more than once to get the answer.

CURT NICKISCH: Wow. Yeah. What are some of your other favorite questions?

DAVID NOVAK: One that I really think every leader should think about or everybody should think about is, “What would happen if a hot shot replaced me?” If somebody came in and took your job, what would they do? Well, you usually know what needs to be done, and you haven’t done it yet, so you might as well do it so you can keep your job.

So I did that when I was CEO. I said, “If somebody came in and took over the CEO job at Yum! Brands, what would they do?” I said, “Well, you’re growing, but you know who’s growing faster than you? McDonald’s. McDonald’s is outperforming you. Yeah, you’re doing well. The stock’s going up, et cetera, but you should be doing a lot better.”

So what we did is we went out and we studied McDonald’s. We had what we called a global immersion day on McDonald’s where every management team around the world went in and spent a day going into McDonald’s and trying to come up with the keys to their success. And then we coalesced around the things that we would do based on that learning to help us grow sales, like having an everyday value menu or making sure that we had a dessert or making sure that we leveraged our asset throughout the day because we didn’t have breakfast. We started doing those kinds of things, and sure enough, our same store sales improved.

CURT NICKISCH: Some listeners might be thinking, “I’m one of those people who sort of feels like I’ve learned what I’ve learned and I’m an expert and I’m here to basically tell things or explain things and I’m not sort of a naturally inquisitive, just perpetually curious person. So asking questions and thinking about learning and listening isn’t something that comes naturally to me.” Do you have to be an intrinsically curious person to be a good learner, to be an active learner? Or is that a behavior you can learn, do you believe?

DAVID NOVAK: Well, what I’m hoping that this book does, Curt, is help people learn how to be an active learner. Because a lot of times people have it within them, but they don’t do it. And a lot of these people who think that they’re at the point now where they’re in the telling mode, they’re going to be the one that stall out, so they’d better be happy where they’re at. They better be happy that, “This is where I’m at. This is my station in life.”

But they also better be aware because there’s going to be someone coming up that is learning more and is uncovering new things and is bringing forward the new ideas that can grow a business and you’ll ultimately get replaced. I think that if you’re able to move up an organization or you’re able to get a job, you have the learning capacity.

The sad thing is, is people don’t take advantage of it because they get so locked in on what they’re doing. They’re not looking outside enough so they can learn how to do it even better or make themself better. So I think it can definitely be taught, but obviously if you’re naturally curious, you have a big advantage.

And I really believe the most successful leaders in the world that I write about in this book, and there are over 80 people that we share stories with in this book, these people are very curious. They have this trait. So if you need any incentive to learn how to be a better learner, know that it’s a huge advantage for all the people that have been able to climb up to the top in almost any industry or vocation.

Let’s say you’re middle management and you’ve been assigned a project that you’re supposed to take and drive action on. I would recommend that whatever you’re working on that you ask yourself, “Where can I get know-how that will accelerate my learning and therefore get us to the best possible result?”

So let’s say you’re working on new products – I would really look at what everybody else is doing in the world of new products and say, “Okay…” Let’s say you’re at Taco Bell and you really admire what Adobe’s doing, okay? I would get a hold of that middle manager in Adobe that’s working on new products and say, “Hey, let’s share some information together” and I’d go learn from them.

I would try to get a know-how map and I’d identify every place where I could potentially go to build my know-how and my learning on whatever I’m working on. And I would start reading the book that I needed to read, going to see another company that I need to see, go talk to a leader that I admire, but I would figure out who are the people, who are companies, who are the authors that I can learn from that will help me get to where I need to go?

CURT NICKISCH: David, you’ve provided a lot of insights here into becoming a better learner and using that to accelerate your career. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and your expertise with our audience – sure appreciate it.

DAVID NOVAK: Curt, I’ve enjoyed it very much. And thank you for the great questions.

CURT NICKISCH: That’s David Novak, the former CEO of Yum! Brands and the author of the new book, How Leaders Learn: Master The Habits of the World’s Most Successful People.

And we have more for you to learn from. Nearly 1,000 episodes of IdeaCast and more podcasts to help you manage your team, your organization, and your career. Find those at hbr.org/podcasts or search HBR in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Thanks to our team, senior producer Mary Dooe, associate producer Hannah Bates, audio product manager Ian Fox, and senior production specialist Rob Eckhardt. Thank you for listening to the HBR IdeaCast . We’ll be back on Thursday for our tech series and with a regular episode on Tuesday. I’m Curt Nickisch.

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