Home broadband and student engagement during COVID-19 emergency remote teaching

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics: Categorical variables

Categorical variable	N	%
Outcome
Worse student engagement	144	69.9
Worse student engagement (3rd year)	133	64.6
Worse student engagement (6th year)	114	55.3
Worse delivery of lesson content	95	46.1
Worse student attendance	158	76.7
Catchment area characteristics
High-speed broadband available for less than 90% of residences	112	54.4
Distance teaching methods used in most or all classes
Live video (e.g., Zoom, Google Hangouts):
Yes	121	58.7
No	84	40.8
Missing	1	0.5
Prerecorded video:
Yes	63	30.6
No	141	68.5
Missing	2	1.0
Kahoot or similar platform:
Yes	73	35.4
No	130	63.1
Missing	3	1.5
Google Classrooms or Microsoft Teams:
Yes	178	86.4
No	27	13.1
Missing	1	0.5
Shared presentation (e.g., PowerPoint, Prezi):
Yes	108	52.4
No	94	45.6
Missing	4	1.9
Paper-based (e.g., textbooks, worksheets):
Yes	69	33.5
No	131	63.6
Missing	6	2.9
School structural characteristics
Gender:
Mixed	145	70.4
Girls only	32	15.5
Boys only	29	14.1
School size:
Small (24–350 students)	67	32.5
Medium (358–610 students)	72	35.0
Large (616–1,538 students)	67	32.5
Fee-paying	19	9.2
In DEIS program	61	29.6
Gaelscoil (Irish-language-medium school)	14	6.8
Individual ICT devices provided to students	138	67.0
Technology-driven:
Yes	88	42.7
No	91	44.2
Missing	27	13.1
Total	206	100

Note. N denotes number of valid responses (schools). The original responses of the categorical outcome variables are provided in Table B-1 in Appendix B.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics: Continuous variable

Continuous variable	N	Mean	SD	Min.	Max.
Catchment area characteristics
Average household income (€)	206	46669.8	8606.7	26888.58	69071.8

Note. N denotes number of valid responses (schools). SD denotes standard deviation.

Figure 1. Conceptual framework of factors of impact of COVID-19 school closures on student engagement

Figure 2. National broadband plan map for Republic of Ireland, Quarter 3, 2019, based on data from Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2019)

Table 3. Odds ratios for negative impact of shutdown on student engagement, delivery of content, and student attendance

	Shutdown has had negative impact on:
	Overall student engagement (A)	Junior Certificate (3rd year) student engagement (B)	Leaving Certificate (6th year) student engagement (C)	Delivery of lesson content (D)	Overall student attendance (E)
Catchment area characteristics
High-speed broadband availability:
More than 90% of residences	[ref.]	[ref.]	[ref.]	[ref.]	[ref.]
Fewer than 90% of residences	2.95***	1.13	1.58	1.36	2.21*
	(1.17)	(0.43)	(0.60)	(0.50)	(1.00)
Log of catchment area average income	13.22**	1.21	6.83*	24.60***	11.55*
	(15.44)	(1.34)	(6.96)	(25.63)	(14.44)
School structural characteristics
Gender:
Mixed	[ref.]	[ref.]	[ref.]	[ref.]	[ref.]
Girls only	0.42**	0.35**	0.70	0.47*	0.23***
	(0.19)	(0.15)	(0.30)	(0.21)	(0.10)
Boys only	0.54	0.50	1.40	0.72	0.61
	(0.26)	(0.22)	(0.62)	(0.31)	(0.32)
Size:
Small (24–350 students)	[ref.]	[ref.]	[ref.]	[ref.]	[ref.]
Medium (358–610 students)	1.02	1.49	1.13	1.41	1.05
	(0.43)	(0.59)	(0.43)	(0.52)	(0.47)
Large (616–1,538 students)	0.95	1.27	1.57	0.97	1.32
	(0.45)	(0.51)	(0.63)	(0.38)	(0.71)
In DEIS program	2.21*	1.93*	3.82***	1.23	2.21
	(1.02)	(0.75)	(1.53)	(0.43)	(1.17)
Fee-paying or Gaelscoil	0.36**	0.45*	0.91	0.27***	0.30***
	(0.15)	(0.20)	(0.30)	(0.13)	(0.13)
Individual ICT devices provided to students	1.38	0.69	1.13	1.17	1.09
	(0.51)	(0.23)	(0.37)	(0.37)	(0.44)
Technology-driven	0.47**	0.88	0.62	0.40***	0.66
	(0.17)	(0.30)	(0.20)	(0.13)	(0.27)
N	206	206	206	206	206

Note: *** denotes significance at 1% level, ** at 5% level, * at 10% level. Robust standard errors in parentheses.

N denotes number of valid responses (schools).

Figure 3. Distance teaching methods used in most or all classes by availability of high-speed broadband

Note. High broadband availability indicates schools where high-speed broadband is available for more than 90% of catchment area residences.

Table 4. Summary of odds ratios for negative impact of shutdown on student engagement

	Shutdown has had negative impact on:
	Overall student engagement
(F) Live video	0.41**
	(0.16)
(G) Prerecorded video	1.02
	(0.35)
(H) Kahoot or similar online platform	1.47
	(0.58)
(I) Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams	0.65
	(0.37)
(J) Shared presentation	0.96
	(0.32)
(K) Paper-based	1.12
	(0.40)
N	206

Note: *** denotes significance at 1% level, ** at 5% level, * at 10% level. Robust standard errors in parentheses. These results each correspond to fully adjusted models.

N denotes number of valid responses (schools).

Figure B-1: Regional representativeness of survey sample

Figure B-2: Representativeness of survey sample, key school characteristics

Table B-1. Outcome variables: original response categories

Variable	N	%
Student engagement:
Much better	0	0
Better	8	3.9
Similar	54	26.2
Worse	107	51.9
Much worse	37	18.0
Do not know	0	0
Impact on student engagement (3rd year):
Very positive	3	1.5
Positive	23	11.2
Neither negative nor positive	46	22.3
Negative	100	48.5
Very negative	33	16.0
Do not know/not applicable	1	0.5
Impact on student engagement (6th year):
Very positive	1	0.5
Positive	30	14.6
Neither negative nor positive	50	24.3
Negative	80	38.8
Very negative	34	16.5
Do not know/not applicable	11	5.3
Delivery of lesson content
Much better	1	0.5
Better	13	6.3
Similar	96	46.6
Worse	85	41.3
Much worse	10	4.9
Do not know	1	0.5
Student attendance in lessons
Much better	1	0.5
Better	3	1.5
Similar	44	21.4
Worse	111	53.9
Much worse	47	22.8
Do not know	0	0
N	206	100

Note: N denotes number of valid responses (schools).

Table B-2. Ordered logistic regression odds ratios for negative impact of shutdown on student engagement

	Shutdown has had negative impact on:
	Overall student engagement
Catchment area characteristics
High-speed broadband availability:
More than 90% of residences	[ref.]
Fewer than 90% of residences	2.20**
	(0.76)
Log of catchment area average income	5.65*
	(5.52)
School characteristics
Gender:
Mixed	[ref.]
Girls only	0.44*
	(0.19)
Boys only	0.48*
	(0.19)
Size:
Small (24–350 students)	[ref.]
Medium (358–610 students)	0.81
	(0.28)
Large (616–1,538 students)	1.00
	(0.39)
In DEIS program	2.30**
	(0.80)
Fee-paying or Gaelscoil	0.49
	(0.22)
Individual ICT devices provided to students	1.26
	(0.40)
Technology-driven	0.42***
	(0.13)
N	206

Note: *** denotes significance at 1% level, ** at 5% level, * at 10% level. Robust standard errors in parentheses. N denotes number of valid responses (schools).

Table

	All classes	Most classes	Some classes	No classes
Paper-based learning e.g., use of textbooks, worksheets, exercise booklets
Virtual learning via live video (e.g., Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc.)
Pre-recorded video
Shared presentations (PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.)
Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams
Other online learning platform (e.g., Kahoots, StudyClix)

Table

	Most or all	More than half	About half	Less than half	None or almost none
Laptops, netbooks, mini notebooks
Tablets
Mobile phones or smartphones

Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. (2019). Delivering the National Broadband Plan. Government of Ireland.

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.