Zooming through a Pandemic: An Examination of Marketable Skills Gained by University Students during the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

As most college campuses across the U.S. switched to remote learning in March 2020 as a result of COVID-19, students began taking classes online, many of them using video conferencing tools such as Zoom asynchronously and synchronously. Quantitative and qualitative data from an online survey administered between April and July 2020 at two university campuses located in COVID-19 hotspots document the impact of this sudden pedagogical change on 295 respondents. Results showed many students acknowledged both practical and psychological challenges associated with the change, yet recognized that skills gained during the pandemic could be beneficial for their future careers. Overall, the study presents a look at the impact COVID-19 has had on university students and how a sudden change in education practices can affect learning, based on factors including self-efficacy, interaction, and motivation.

Keywords:

• Survey
• remote learning
• social cognitive theory
• COVID-19
• pedagogy