Do Higher Education Students Have the Means to Learn During the COVID-19 Pandemic? Student Demands for Distance Learning in a Suddenly Digital Landscape

Weltweit begann das Jahr 2020 unter dem Einfluss der Coronapandemie. Innerhalb sehr kurzer Zeit begannen Universitäten, Online-Kurse für den Fernunterricht zu entwickeln und implementieren. Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte anhand einer Online-Umfrage an einer deutschen Universität die besonderen Umstände, unter denen Studierende das digitale Sommersemester 2020 begannen. Von etwa 38 500 Studierenden nahmen N = 5563 Studierende aller Fakultäten an der Umfrage teil. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, wie gut die Studierenden mit Geräten für das digitale Lernen ausgestattet sind, welche Erfahrungen sie zuvor bereits mit dem Online-Lernen gemacht hatten und wie kompetent sie sich in Bezug auf das digitale Lernen fühlen. Die Studie liefert wichtige Einblicke in die digitale Hochschulbildung während der außergewöhnlichen Pandemiesituation. Die Ergebnisse können in studentische Beratungssysteme einfließen, sei es durch Unterstützung beim Zugang zu Geräten, durch Kurse zu digitalen Schlüsselkompetenzen oder durch Beratung von Studierenden mit besonderen sozialen Belastungen.Alternate :Across the globe, 2020 terms began under conditions incited by the corona pandemic. Within a relatively short amount of time, universities started to develop and implement online courses for distance learning. The current study is about an online survey at a German university investigating the unique circumstances under which students began the digital 2020 summer term. Of approximate ly 38 500 students, N = 5563 students from across all institutional faculties took part in the survey. Results indicate how well students are equipped with devices for digital learning, what kind of experiences they have already made with online learning, and how competent they reported feeling regarding digital learning. The study provides important insights into digital higher education during the exceptional pandemic situation. The results are intended to feed into student counselling systems via support by way of access to devices or courses regarding digital skills, or through counselling for students with special social burdens.

Stress development during emergency remote teaching in higher education.

Higher education includes e-learning in addition to on-site learning. Still, the shift to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) as reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic in the summer semester 2020, presented a challenging situation for students. Cross-sectional studies pointed towards higher stress levels of students. However, only a few studies addressed the development of students' stress across several dimensions (joy, worry, tension, demands) within one semester. The current study analyzed trajectories of stress in ERT in relation to age, gender, digital readiness, and experience of loneliness, based on a sample of N = 2795 German students. Latent Growth Curve Models (LGCM) revealed a significant increase in demands, tension and worries and a decrease in joy during the summer term 2020. The development of tension and demands was influenced by age, gender, digital readiness, and loneliness. The decrease in joy and increase in worries could be primarily attributed to digital readiness and loneliness.

Preservice Teachers’ Online Self-Regulated Learning: Does Digital Readiness Matter?

(1) Background: Teaching in today’s schools asks teachers to foster self-regulated learning and digital competences in children and young people. In order to do so, teachers first need to acquire and use these competences themselves. (2) Methods: Based on a mixed-methods approach, the study investigates self-regulated learning in online courses of N = 129 preservice teachers at a German university. (3) Results and conclusions: Perceiving their digital readiness as generally high, preservice teachers appear to not overly self-regulate their learning in the online environment. Finally, preservice teachers’ digital readiness was related only weakly to their online self-regulated learning. A discussion is offered which shows teacher education as a broader phenomenon and implies the need for professional development for teacher educators. Additionally, it is argued to link research on self-regulated learning more closely to research on online learning environments in teacher education.

The webcam and student engagement in synchronous online learning: visually or verbally?

Given that video conferencing serves as a crucial means for remote teaching, the current study investigated higher education students’ (non)use of webcams and engagement in synchronous online courses. Three phases were studied: (1) A state of engagement;(2) antecedents that influence it;and (3) consequences of engagement. The cross-sectional online survey encompassed 3,610 students. Results indicated that visual and verbal engagement were only slightly related to each other. Structural equation modelling revealed different direct and indirect influences on either visual or verbal engagement in synchronous online higher education courses. Due to the novelty of the research scope, results of this study provide a foundation for further investigation.

Helplessness among University Students: An Empirical Study Based on a Modified Framework of Implicit Personality Theories

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and within a very short period of time, teaching in the 2020 summer term changed from predominantly on-site to online instruction. Students suddenly faced having to adapt their learning process to new demands for which they may have had both insufficient digital skills and a lack of learning resources. Such a situation carries the risk that a substantial number of students become helpless. The aim of our empirical study was to test a hybrid framework of helplessness that includes both objective causes of helplessness and students’ subjective interpretations of them. Before lectures or courses began, students of a full-scale university were invited to participate in an online survey. The final sample consists of 1690 students. Results indicate that objective factors as well as their subjective interpretations contributed to the formation of helplessness.

Self-Regulated Resource Management in Emergency Remote Higher Education: Status Quo and Predictors.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring term 2020, students faced a sudden change from on-campus learning to online learning with synchronous and asynchronous online courses (emergency remote teaching). To study successfully, students not only needed to be prepared in terms of digital readiness (workspace, IT equipment, previous online learning experiences, and sharing information online), they also faced challenges that pertained to the self-regulated management of external resources (environment structuring, time management, and help-seeking). In the current study, we investigated students' digital readiness for the sudden switch to online learning; differences between students' intended and actual use of external resource management strategies; and the influence of students' digital readiness on their actual use of resource management strategies. Students enrolled in a full-scale, German university (N = 662) answered two online questionnaires (before and in the middle of the term). Descriptive statistics indicated that students seemed to be ready to study online. However, repeated measures ANOVA showed that students were not able to manage their resources during the term as frequently as intended. Finally, separate regression analyses revealed that availability of workspace and IT equipment predicted the use of environment structuring strategies. Additionally, IT equipment and information sharing behavior predicted students' help-seeking. Based on the current results, we discuss implications for the promotion of student self-regulated learning (SRL) in online emergency remote teaching based on both external resources and digital readiness.