Impact of the Digitization of Teaching on Undergraduate Students as the Result of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Transitioning to Online Learning

Abstract

The novel coronavirus pandemic has disrupted everyday life infrastructure and greatly impacted educational systems worldwide in many ways. More specifically, Covid-19 confinement has significantly impacted students’ learning abilities and their academic performance as they adapt to remote learning. There are significant differences between online learning and a traditional face-to-face format. Pandemic induced remote-learning negatively impacted students’ access to education, most notably, low-income minority students. This research study aimed to examine the challenges students faced and the strategies they utilized to overcome them during the covid-19 transitioning to online learning. The investigation took place at the City College of New York, an urban, minority-serving institute. The number of research participants was 156 and our method of data collection comprised a survey made up of Likert-type and open-ended questions. Our findings suggest that students faced many challenges as a result of moving to online learning due to household distractions, technology issues, lack of socialization and interaction with peers and instructors, decreased motivation, increased feelings of isolation, and higher difficulty level of assignments and examinations. We should highlight that students found that online learning negatively impacted their mental health and increased their anxiety levels around science courses. However, students also reported positive aspects of transitioning to online learning.