ABSTRACT
In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic thrust nearly 56 million students in the United States into remote education. By fall 2020, states' and school districts' differing public health measures resulted in the adoption of varying COVID-adapted learning modalities (i.e., in-person, remote, and hybrid). Using daily diary data with a nationally representative sample (N = 517, M age = 14.65 years), we investigated whether adolescents' academic engagement and connectedness to their teachers and classmates differed by COVID-adapted learning modalities. We also assessed whether adolescent connectedness mediated the link between learning modality and academic engagement. Results revealed that academic engagement and connectedness to teachers and classmates were higher for in-person learners than for students in hybrid and remote learning modalities. Moreover, students' connectedness to classmates and teachers explained the relationship between learning modality and academic engagement. • COVID-adapted in-person learners had higher academic engagement than other learners. • COVID-adapted in-person learners had higher connectedness than other learners. • Between- and within-student daily connectedness predicted daily academic engagement. • Connectedness fully explained COVID-adapted in-person learners' academic engagement. • Connectedness to teachers and classmates mediated paths similarly. [ FROM AUTHOR]
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The outbreak of COVID-19 changed many studies' teaching mode in higher education profoundly, including nursing. This study evaluated the impact of distance education on the course performance of nursing students in a nursing fundamentals course during the epidemic of COVID-19. METHODS: This is a comparative prospective and retrospective quasi-experimental study. Nursing students in a Sino-foreign cooperative program were allocated to either an intervention group (distance education, n = 48) or control group (face-to-face teaching, n = 36). A self-efficacy questionnaire, an academic engagement scale and grades of the final written examination were used to evaluate the students' self-efficacy, academic engagement and academic performance, respectively. The data in this study were analyzed by two independent sample t-tests and the Chi-square test. Students experiencing distance teaching had worse academic performance (p = 0.001) and lower levels of learning behavior self-efficacy (p<0.05). The total score of academic engagement (p = 0.04) for students experiencing distance teaching were significantly lower than the scores of those students in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: In the context of COVID-19, nursing students conducted using distance education had poor course performance.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 crisis has had significant impacts on mental health. Students are dealing with an uncertain context, not only due to COVID-19 but also because most of them have never been involved with the challenges of online school. The COVID-19 situation presents daily challenges that require students to respond adaptively. However, little is known about how students handle their daily emotions, in such challenging settings. Drawing on the broaden-and-built theory, we developed a multilevel model arguing that daily-positive affect would enhance daily engagement, and this would be positively related to students' end-of-the-day mental health. We also predict that the mediating path would be stronger for students with higher levels of self-leadership. To achieve the goals, we conducted a 5-day diary study (n = 64∗5 = 320). Results from multilevel modeling showed that positive emotions trigger academic engagement which, in turn, increases mental health, both at the within and between-person level. Results also demonstrated that self-leadership strengthened the positive mediating path, for students with higher levels of self-leadership. Positive affect appears to be a significant predictor of mental health in higher education settings. Moreover, developing self-leadership is an added value, that may be conceived as a personal resource, and may protect students from the uncertainty triggered by the COVID-19 crisis.
ABSTRACT
Given the well-established impact of COVID-19 on university students' health and lifestyle parameters, the current study sought to investigate these impacts within an Irish university setting. A cross-sectional design was employed, with a 68-item questionnaire instrument disseminated to all Year 2 undergraduate students in the host institution (N = 2752), yielding a 9.7% response rate (n = 266). This questionnaire elicited students' self-reported changes to health-related behaviours, mental well-being and academic engagement across 4 defined time-points: (T0: prior to COVID-19, T1: initial onset of COVID-19, T2: during COVID-19, and T3: time of data collection). Many items were adapted from previous Irish research and additional validated scales included the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) and the World Health Organisation's Well-being scale (WHO-5). Key findings revealed that at T1, substantially more males reported 'good/very good' general health than females (76.3% vs. 70.8%), while physical activity patterns followed a similar trend at both T0 (80% vs. 66.1%) and T1 (66.7% vs. 61%). A total of 78.4% of participants reported a body mass gain from T0 to T3, thus reflecting the reduced physical activity levels and compromised nutritional patterns across this period. Worryingly, AUDIT-C scale data revealed hazardous drinking habits were evident in both males and females, while fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity levels, and mental well-being among this cohort remained notably sub-optimal. Ratings of positive academic engagement also decreased substantially between T0 (90.3%) and T3 (30.4%). These findings substantiate the rationale for tailored health promotion interventions in university settings to support students' transition back to traditional programme delivery and, of equal importance, to improve general health and well-being post-COVID-19 within this cohort.