Student learning during COVID-19: It was not as bad as we feared.

ABSTRACT

While much is discussed of the challenges that educators and their institutions have been facing during COVID-19, there is little reported about how students have been coping with the challenges. In this short piece, we present preliminary data on university students’ perceptions of online learning and teaching during the pandemic. Our findings from a student course satisfaction survey, conducted in two universities during the 2020 summer term (June through August), reveal that students have been more resilient than is often assumed. In light of these findings as well as the reflections of authors in a previous issue of Distance Education, we will discuss some important implications for distance education scholarship.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• distance learning
• student satisfaction
• student resilience
• East Asia

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their invaluable feedback on the previous version of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyungmee Lee

Kyungmee Lee is a lecturer in the Department of Educational Research and codirector of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning, Lancaster University. Her research interests include understanding and supporting academic and social experiences of nontraditional student groups in online higher education, including international students, adult students, doctoral students, educational professionals.

Mik Fanguy

Mik Fanguy is a visiting professor in the English as a Foreign Language Program at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. His research interests include online collaborative writing and notetaking and online and blended education.

Xuefei Sophie Lu

Xuefei Sophie Lu is the Head of External Engagement at Lancaster University. She is also a doctoral researcher in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University. Her research interests include transnational education, overseas campus planning, and strategic partnerships and engagement of global universities.

Brett Bligh

Brett Bligh is a lecturer in the Department of Educational Research and codirector of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning, Lancaster University. His research interrogates the nexus of technology mediation, physical environment, and institutional change in higher education. Brett’s work prioritizes activity theory conceptions of human practice, and interventionist methodologies.