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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Student's experiences with online teaching post-obit COVID-nineteen lockdown: A mixed methods explorative study

• Kari Almendingen,
• Marianne Sandsmark Morseth,
• Eli Gjølstad,
• Asgeir Brevik,
• Christine Tørris

ten

• Published: Baronial 31, 2021
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250378

Figures

Abstruse

Groundwork

The COVID-nineteen pandemic lead to a sudden shift to online instruction and restricted campus access.

Aim

To assess how university students experienced the sudden shift to online instruction later on closure of campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Material and methods

Students in Public Wellness Nutrition answered questionnaires two and 12 weeks (N = 79: response rate 20.three% and 26.6%, respectively) after the lockdown in Norway on 12 March 2020 and participated in digital focus grouping interviews in May 2020 (mixed methods study).

Findings and discussion

Two weeks into the lockdown, 75% of students reported that their life had become more hard and fifty% felt that learning outcomes would be harder to reach due to the sudden shift to online education. Twelve weeks into the lockdown, the corresponding numbers were 57% and 71%, respectively. The most pressing concerns amidst students were a lack of social interaction, housing situations that were unfit for home office purposes, including insufficient data bandwidth, and an overall sense of reduced motivation and effort. The students collaborated well in digital groups but wanted smaller groups with students they knew rather than being randomly assigned to groups. Most students agreed that pre-recorded and streamed lectures, frequent virtual meetings and student response systems could better learning outcomes in future digital courses. The preference for written home exams over online versions of previous on-campus exams was likely influenced by pupil's familiarity with the old. The dropout rate remained unchanged compared to previous years.

Decision

The sudden shift to digital pedagogy was challenging for students, only information technology appears that they adjusted quickly to the new situation. Although the concerns described by students in this study may only be representative for the period right after campus lockdown, the written report provide the student perspective on a unique catamenia of fourth dimension in higher pedagogy.

Commendation: Almendingen K, Morseth MS, Gjølstad E, Brevik A, Tørris C (2021) Student'southward experiences with online teaching following COVID-xix lockdown: A mixed methods explorative written report. PLoS ONE 16(viii): e0250378. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250378

Editor: Mohammed Saqr, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SWEDEN

Received: September xxx, 2020; Accepted: April 6, 2021; Published: August 31, 2021

Copyright: © 2021 Almendingen et al. This is an open up access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Eatables Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Information Availability: All relevant data are inside the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: The author(southward) received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors take declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused extraordinary challenges in the global educational activity sector [1,2]. Most countries temporarily airtight educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus and reduce infections [3]. In Norway, the motion to online pedagogy and learning methods accelerated as a consequence of the physical closure of universities and academy colleges on 12 March 2020 [four]. Education is amend implemented through active, pupil-centered learning strategies, as opposed to traditional educator-centered pedagogies [v,6]. At the time of the COVID-xix outbreak, the decision to boost the use of active pupil-centered learning methods and digitalisation had already been made at both the governmental and institutional levels [7,8] because student-active learning (such as use of student response systems and flipping the classroom) increase motivation and improve learning outcomes [five,7,9]. However, the implementation of this insight was lagging behind. Traditional educator-centered pedagogies dominated higher education in Norway prior to the lockdown, and only thirty% of bookish teachers from college institutions reported having whatsoever previous feel with online teaching [4]. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, about educators had to change their approaches to most aspects of their work overnight: teaching, assessment, supervision, research, service and engagement [four,10].

Available's and master's in Public Health Nutrition (PHN) represents two small-sized programmes at Oslo Metropolitan Academy (OsloMet). PHN is defined as 'the application of nutrition and public wellness principles to design programs, systems, policies, and environments that aims to better or maintain the optimal health of populations and targeted groups' [eleven,12]. Traditional pedagogy methods dominated on both programs during winter 2020. Post-obit the lockdown, online learning for the continuation of bookish activities and the prevention of dropouts from study programmes in higher teaching were given the highest priority. Due to an extraordinary endeavor by both the authoritative and academic staff, digital alternatives to the scheduled on-campus bookish activities were offered to PHN students already in the first week following lockdown. The scheduled on-campus lectures were mainly offered as live-streamed plenary lectures lasting 30–45 minutes, mainly using the video conferencing tool Zoom. Throughout the spring semester educators received grooming in digital instruction from the institution and increasingly made use of online student response systems (such as Padlet and Mentimeter) as well equally tools to facilitate digital grouping-work (Zoom/Microsoft Teams). Non-theoretical lectures (e.1000. cooking classes), were cancelled, and face-to-face exams were re-organized into digital alternatives in order to ensure normal educational activity operations. Several small tweaks were employed to minimize dropout. There was no fourth dimension for analogous the dissimilar courses with regards to the types of online pedagogy activities, exams and assessments. Social media, i.e Facebook, and SMS were the chief communication channels the starting time week after lockdown. The use of learning management systems (LMS) Canvas and digital assessment arrangement, Inspera, remained mainly unchanged. Due to the new state of affairs, the deadline for the submission of available theses was postponed past 48 hours. In addition, available students submitting their thesis where given permission to use the submission deadline for the deferred exam in August as their ordinary exam deadline. The deadline for the submission of primary theses was extended by one calendar week, just all planned master exams were completed by the end of June, including oral examinations using Zoom instead of the traditional face up-to-face examinations on campus. Fifty-fifty though most of the new online activities where put in place with limited regard for subtle nuances of pedagogical theory, and did non let for much educatee interest, the dropout rate from PHN programs remained unchanged compared to previous years. PHN is a small-sized education with close follow upwardly of students. Notwithstanding, although the students experienced a digital revolution overnight, we know petty about how they experienced the situation after the university airtight for on-campus activities.

Appropriately, the purpose of this study was to assess how Norwegian PHN students experienced the shift to digital education post-obit campus lockdown. Students were too asked to provide feedback on what might amend the learning outcomes in hereafter online lectures and courses.

Methods

Pattern and sampling

This study utilised a mixed methods cross-exclusive design, where quantitative and qualitative methods complemented each other. An invitation to participate was sent out to 79 eligible students via multiple channels (Facebook, Teams, Zoom, LMS Sheet, SMS), with several reminders. The only eligibility criteria was being a student in PHN during spring 2020. All students received the quantitative survey. Due to few students eligible for each focus group interview, all who wanted to participate were interviewed/included. The invited students were in their 2nd-twelvemonth (n = 17) and third-yr (n = 28) bachelor's and first-year (n = thirteen) and second-year (n = 21) principal's programme at PHN in the Faculty of Health Sciences at OsloMet. The response rate was 16/79 (twenty.3%) and 21/79 (26.6%). 2 focus group interviews were scheduled in each class (a full of 8) but merely 4 interviews were conducted. The enquiry team was heterogeneously composed of members with both pedagogical and health professional backgrounds.

Online questionnaire

To the best of our knowledge, this study was the first "corona" study at our Kinesthesia. No suitable national or international questionnaire had been adult and /or validated by March 2020. Hence, online questionnaires for the present study were designed near 'over-dark'. The questions were however based on experiences from a large-scale interprofessional learning course using the blended learning approach at OsloMet [13,fourteen] and specific experiences that academic staff in Norway reported during the offset calendar week of education during the lockdown [4]. The questionnaires were based on an anonymous self-administrated web survey 'Nettskjema' [15]. 'Nettskjema' is a Norwegian tool for designing and conducting online surveys with features that are customised for inquiry purposes. It is easy to employ, and the respondents tin submit answers from a browser on a calculator, mobile phone or tablet. During the get-go week after lockdown, the questionnaire was sent out to university colleagues and head of studies and revised accordingly. The questionnaires were deliberately kept brusque because the response rate is mostly low in student surveys [16]. Ideally, we should have pretested and validated the questionnaires, but this was not possible within the short-fourth dimension frame after lockdown. Items were measured on a five-level ordinal calibration (Likert calibration 0–five). The two forms contained both numerical and open questions, permitting both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The start questionnaire was sent out to the students on 25 March 2020 (two weeks after the closure of university campus; students were asked to submit their answers during the period from 12 March until the link was closed at Easter Holiday), and the second questionnaire was sent on 3 June 2020 (12 weeks afterwards closure; students were asked to submit their answers during the period subsequently Easter and until the finish of the spring semester). The questionnaires were distributed as web links embedded in the LMS Canvas application. Because live-streamed lectures were offered primarily through Zoom during the kickoff weeks, students were not asked about interactive digital teaching and tools in the get-go questionnaire. At the end of both questionnaires, the students were asked what they believed could improve the learning experience in future online education. The qualitative function consisted of text answers to open questions from the 2 electronic questionnaires.

Digital focus group interview

To capture meaningful insights into the participants experiences, nosotros conducted digital focus group interviews [17], aiming to acquit ane digital focus grouping interview in each course. PHN is a modest sized education, and the teachers know all the students. The focus group interviews were therefore performed by two external independent researchers (EG and CT) who are not straight involved in the PHN education and had no prior knowledge to the students. The two interviewers (moderators) were middle-aged female teachers working in the university, and both take pregnant experience in digitalizing education. They were presented to the participants as researchers from the university. The report of this written report was guided by the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative inquiry (COREQ). The interviews were conducted via the video conferencing system Zoom during May 2020, following internal guidelines [18]. In the focus grouping interviews, the participants reflected on their ain experiences, and the moderator guided the discussion using a semi-structured interview guide. This guide was prepared based on the research questions. One pilot interview was conducted, which resulted in some minor changes to the interview guide. The results from the pilot interview are non included in the results. The focus group interviews lasted for approximately ane hour, and five students were invited to each focus group interview. The interviews were not recorded, but the moderator took notes, ensuring that the participants remained anonymised.

Data assay

Quantitative data are described descriptively with numbers and percentages. Apart from re-categorization of response categories, no statistical analysis was performed. Quantitative data were extracted directly from the survey system. Answers in categories 0 or 1 were categorised as 'Disagree/slightly agree', answers in categories 2 or 3 were categorised every bit 'Somewhat agree' and answers in categories 4 or 5 were categorised as 'Agree'. Qualitative data were analysed using systematic text condensation (STC), inspired past Giorgi's phenomenological arroyo and modified past Malterud [17]. First, the entire texts (from the interviews) were read to get an overall impression, and preliminary themes were derived from the interviews. And then, meaning units, such as sentences and words, were identified and connected with the preliminary theme to elucidate the study question. The meaning units were then coded and systemized into groups, so that significant could exist abstracted from the different lawmaking groups. Finally, the meanings of the various units were summarised. The qualitative data from the questionnaire were then extracted by the moderators, and the words and sentences were identified and abstracted. In order to ensure quality, the notes from the focus grouping interviews and the text answers from the questionnaires were reviewed past both moderators.

Ethical considerations

All participants gave their informed consent. The questionnaires did not include questions about personal health information or sensitive information. The quantitative data were collected through an bearding web survey using 'Nettskjema' [15]. Internal routines at OsloMet for using Zoom in research interviews were applied [18]. In the interviews, the participants provided their written consent in the conversation without their names and remained anonymous. The data protection was canonical by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD, reference no. 846363), as PHN is a small-sized study program and because Zoom was used for the digital focus group interviews.

Results

Quantitative information

At that place were sixteen (20.iii%) and 21 (26.6%) students who answered the questionnaires ii and 12 weeks later on lockdown, respectively (Table ane). Both samples had an even distribution of bachelor and master students.

Among the respondents two and 12 weeks afterwards lockdown, 7/xvi students (44%) and ix/21 students (43%) reported having previous experience with online learning, respectively (Table i). After two weeks of forced online pedagogy, 8/16 students (50%) expected that their learning outcomes would be inferior with online teaching compared to their pre-COVID-nineteen education at campus. After 12 weeks, fifteen/ 21 students (71%) expected that their learning outcome would be lower, and, notably, none of the students expected that it would be higher. On both occasions, most students reported that studying had become more hard compared to the time before the pandemic.

Several of the identified challenges with online education were reported by more than l% of the students, and there was an uneven spread across categories of answers (Tables 2 and 3). Simply i of 16 students (6%) agreed that they needed to increase their digital competence, but approximately half reported having technical challenges at domicile. All of the students agreed that the lack of contact with other students was a challenge. Even so, later on 12 weeks, the lack of contact with bookish staff seemed to pose less of a challenge.

After 12 weeks, 20/21 students (95%) agreed that their motivation and effort had been reduced. At the same time, all students wanted to return to campus. Only v/21 (24%) reported that their learning outcomes had not deteriorated.

Suggestions for how to increase learning outcome in future digital courses

2 weeks after lockdown, about students answered that the apply of dissimilar components of online teaching would improve the learning outcomes in a time to come online form (Table 4). Regarding participation in digital grouping piece of work, at that place was a nearly even spread across the different categories of answers. Finally, participants preferred written dwelling house exams and feedback over the digital options suggested (Table v).

After 12 weeks of (forced) online teaching, more than ambivalence toward the use of digital learning tools could be detected (Tabular array 6). However, the proportion of students who agreed that digital group work would increase the learning outcomes seemed unchanged (around one/iii of both samples). In line with the findings obtained only two weeks afterwards lockdown, written submissions and feedback seemed to be preferable to digital exam options (Tabular array 7).

After 12 weeks, 16/21 students (76%) agreed that social interaction plays a role in learning outcomes and well-beingness (Table viii), and an equal proportion agreed that information technology was of import that everyone had their camera on during instruction.

There were xv/21 students (71%) who agreed that their digital competence and interest in digital didactics methods had increased while half-dozen/21 students (29%) disagreed with this statement.

Qualitative data

In total, at that place were four main students who participated in digital focus group interviews (on two different occasions, with three students and one pupil in the groups, respectively).

Digital lectures.

The students were satisfied with the teaching and reported that the lecturers were competent in arranging online teaching. The lecturers were likewise skillful at adapting to the students' wishes regarding educational activity. Lectures that were streamed live (synchronous classes) were preferred over recordings (asynchronous). One student said it was a privilege to still be able to study fifty-fifty though the academy campus was closed due to corona and all the lectures were digital. The students expressed that information technology is an advantage if the lecturer has digital competence to ensure that the lecture runs smoothly without digital/technical problems, or if there is a co-host who can assist. Technical competence is too of import when invitation links are sent out. It signals that the student grouping is well taken care of. The informants described a course co-ordinator as a person with a good overview and sense of responsibility—someone who is good at structure and club. These qualities were highlighted as of import in a fully digitalised teaching program.

The students did not support compulsory omnipresence, as it would reduce the feeling of freedom that most students value. If learning activities were compulsory, students felt it might also present challenges in dealing with their children and part-time work. The students expressed that almost of their fellow students were nowadays in lectures that went live on Zoom. One pupil stated that live digital lectures were all-time considering it was easier to ask questions. When using a flipped classroom or recordings, the questions must be written downwards and asked later on, but both options (flipped classroom and live streaming) were perceived as fine.

Interestingly, the qualitative results from the questionnaire indicated that some students constitute it piece of cake to ask questions, while others thought it had become more difficult. According to 1 student, 'Every bit long as we have the opportunity to ask questions online, I think it will get merely fine. I commute three hours per school day to get to and from schoolhouse, so I feel I accept more time to work with school now that the lecture is online'.

One of the informants thought that interaction was challenging, and it did not experience every bit natural to ask questions in online classes. 'Raising your hand' was not perceived to be as piece of cake as in the face-to-face setting on campus, which could hateful that the students did not always get answers to their questions.

The students' indicated that recorded lectures should not be longer than ane hour, as it is easy to lose focus, and one must rewind the recordings. For live online lectures, 2 hours was accounted fine, and they were perceived every bit fun to watch. However, each session of the live online lectures should not be longer than 45 minutes.

The online teaching (mainly in the form of synchronous plenum lectures originally intended as on-campus lectures) was challenging in the beginning because some students cruel out of the digital rooms due to technical reasons, only it got improve over time. Some students experienced poor bandwidth, which led to them not being able to turn on their camera and reduced sound quality. One student stated that poor internet quality was something he could not exercise anything about, but it resulted in a not-optimal learning situation. It was suggested that using a flipped classroom/recorded lectures in the first weeks subsequently lockdown could have solved this problem.

The respondents pointed out that the use of several conference systems/channels in add-on to LMS Sheet provided a poor overview and ineffective advice, and they would prefer a single learning platform. The students were unsure how to contact their teachers in the first weeks after lockdown due to the use of several platforms. Even with a single contact channel (LMS), the students plant that the threshold barrier for sending questions to the instructor through e-mail was loftier.

When asked what they thought near 'black screens' (students turning off the camera), several answered that this reduced the quality of communication between the lecturer and student. The lecturer missed affirmative nods from students, and the students besides likely missed parts of the communication when the camera was turned off. In some of the lectures, all of the students were encouraged to keep the photographic camera on, and some of the lecturers asked the students questions to initiate two-manner communication. The students expressed that it was nice to run into the other attention students on video. Furthermore, the participants felt that the lecturers mainly engaged the students who had their camera on. Yet, several students said that they turned off their cameras during the lectures because the session was being recorded. Another stated that having the photographic camera on was particularly useful when having discussions in digital groups. The students who participated in the survey wished for more than recorded lectures, indicating that their lecturers did non practise this often.

1 of the informants assumed that she would have turned off the photographic camera when recording the lecture, and she thought she had not contributed much. She would have to consider whether a question was 'stupid' before request it, and probably she had non asked whatsoever questions at all. She thought this was due to addiction, and she indicated that one might go used to beingness recorded. That is, if recording had been the norm and she had become accustomed to it, it would have been easier to chronicle to.

All of the informants agreed that presentations with sound were useful, as the material could be repeated by rewinding to the desired location. They also reported that information technology sometimes took a while for the teachers to postal service such files, fifty-fifty though the students plant these learning resources very useful.

They noticed an increased omnipresence rate among their peers in the online lectures, which they perceived as positive. The reason for the increased omnipresence, they believed, was that many students take to brand a long trip to attend class, and the threshold for participating had get lower at present that all pedagogy was online. This was supported by the qualitative results from the questionnaire, where a student said, 'I commute several hours per school day to get to and from schoolhouse, so I experience I have more time to work with school now that the lecture is online'.

However, one of the informants pointed out that information technology is important for students to be able to talk to each other when the lecturer is not present, that group activities should be bundled and that they should exist provided with opportunities for voluntary meetings on campus in their spare time. Ane of the informants believed it to be of import that the students themselves accept a responsibility to address the learning surround and initiate meetings in both bookish and social arenas. 1 felt that information technology was not desirable that the academy was responsible for social contact betwixt peers. It was suggested that time could be set up aside, for case, afterward instruction, so that simply students could talk together. Information technology was expressed that in order to preserve social aspects in digital teaching and learning, the first meeting should be on campus. A mentor scheme was suggested, where one-time students could give tips and advice on how to function equally a 'digital pupil'.

Digital group work.

The students expressed that they mainly collaborated well in digital groups (breakout rooms). Communication usually worked well with both the teacher and peers in these digital rooms. Withal, some students reported that group work was not effective when it was carried out in 'breakout rooms'. The students felt that the allocated time for group piece of work was too short for collaboration, and some of the time was spent on technical challenges. There were also some students who withdrew from the grouping work, which the respondents believed was because some were shy. Ane student said that discussions during grouping work paid off and that communication worked well, only it was a pity that so few students participated. Getting to know the others in the group well was also deemed to be important for the level of collaboration and professional discussions. The students did not like to be randomly assigned into groups. Nevertheless, they expressed that it would be advantageous to plan for more grouping work in smaller groups.

Another positive upshot of online instruction the students highlighted was the increased amount of written feedback from lecturers on work submitted voluntarily. The students perceived that this was offered as a compensation for shorter teaching sessions.

One of the respondents thought that it was of import to socially collaborate with peers and missed having lunch with fellow students. Others felt that there had not been many social gatherings in the grouping previously, then they did not feel the absence of fellow students as a great loss. They also pointed out that students who had met each other physically at an earlier time had a unlike starting signal in online meetings and for online educational activity. I student stated, 'Getting to know new peers digitally feels weird'. Furthermore, ane of the informants pointed out that virtually people have a general need for physical contact, and that touching and centre-to-eye contact is of import.

Motivation.

Some of the students were more motivated to participate in online learning activities, yet information technology was perceived to require greater try to stay motivated and 'in the course'. Some students work alongside their studies and thus practise non attend classes, and others have children who must be tended to. Some indicated that student response systems such as Mentimeter, Quizlet, Padlet, Kahoot! and the use of polls was motivating factors, but it depended on the context in which they were used. Some of the students reported that they particularly liked Kahoot, merely it was of import that the apply of such response systems was done in a structured way. They expressed that they liked the teaching programme, which consisted of an introductory video and teaching in which the nuts were presented, followed past group work and finally educational activity, where the teacher went more than in depth. This approach made it easier to follow the education and to ask questions.

The students said it was skillful for motivation when an overview of the form content was published, as it contributed to predictability and more than people participate when they know what is planned.

Nevertheless, the qualitative results from the questionnaire indicated that information technology was difficult to go an overview of everything that needed to be washed. It could be challenging to concentrate and accept self-discipline due to many distractions, which reduced the students' motivation. Several students expressed that they felt alone in their studies, and it was difficult to feel alone with the responsibleness for learning the curriculum. One student wrote that there was considerable dubiousness, which negatively affected concentration, and that the COVID-19 crises was a hard time for everyone.

Discussion

Overall, these students were satisfied with the ad hoc online teaching afterward the lockdown, although they experienced self-perceived reduced learning outcomes compared to the pre-pandemic state of affairs. Information technology appears that they adapted quickly to the new situation, but they as well reported difficulties with the transition to new teaching methods. Based on both the surveys and interviews, the almost pressing concerns among students were a lack of social interaction, housing situations that were unsuitable for home office purposes, including insufficient data bandwidth, and a sense of reduced motivation and effort. PHN is a pocket-sized sized pedagogy which enables close contact between educators and students. The low pupil volume might explicate why the dropout rate from the available and main programs remained unchanged compared to that in previous years.

Receiving teaching, supervision, exams and assessments solely through online solutions was a new experience for these students. Apart from a xv-credit mandatory available course offered as hybrid learning (7), traditional education methods still dominated the bachelor and master study programmes of PHN in winter 2020. Importantly, the students evaluated the advert hoc solutions offered during the cluttered jump of 2020 rather than a well-planned, high-quality online education using educatee-active methods [five]. Teachers switched to online didactics without any time to acquire the applied science, or standard quality online teaching practices [4]. They had many years of experience teaching in -person, and they had arranged their lessons and interactive elements around this mode of learning. Alternatively, they had very petty experience teaching online. The students' experiences in these online learning environments, which were thrown together at the terminal minute, are not necessarily indicative of students' experiences in a quality online form based on principles from Quality Matters online education [nineteen].

Although the students reported reduced learning outcomes after 12 weeks dominated by synchronous alive-streamed lectures lasting for 30–45 minutes on Zoom, they had positive attitudes toward use of digital learning materials and tools in future online courses. For asynchronous lectures, the rule of pollex in online didactics is less than x–xv minutes [xix]. Although lectures of 45 infinitesimal elapsing is far across what is recommended for digital teaching [19], the students responded based on their recent experiences where many teachers, for reasons of feasibility, conducted their planned on-campus lectures digitally before long after lockdown. Some of the students also reported that they especially liked Kahoot, notwithstanding, since nosotros wanted to keep the inquiry questionnaire short, we did not enquire more in detail for concrete digital tools. A pre-corona study from OsloMet reported that physiotherapy students' attitudes toward a flipped classroom intervention were mainly positive, although the academic outcomes from the terminal exam were similar to those in previous years [20]. Farther, in a recent large-scale pre-COVID-xix blended learning interprofessional form conducted a few weeks ahead of the lockdown, first-year bachelor'southward students at OsloMet reported positive perceptions of the blended learning approach, using but brusk video clips (less than 10 minutes) [21]. Approximately iii/4 of the students in that report disagreed that virtual group discussions resulted in ameliorate learning outcomes than face-to-face grouping discussions. The present data exercise non conflict with the findings from that larger-calibration study.

The students expressed in various means that online teaching with a lack of social interaction leads to worse learning outcomes and lower levels of motivation and well-being. Concerns nearly lack of face-to-face contact may accept been aggravated by the stressful situation, and contentment with teaching methods would likely meliorate if teachers had been able to integrate the appropriate elements in a fully digitalized course. Confront-to-face interactions provide the foundation for social advice, the lack of which can be viewed as a critical disadvantage of online learning [5]. Contiguous training may be particular crucial for candidates expected to have communication skills, such as nutritionists [xi,12,22–24]. The advertising hoc solutions for educational activity offered during the 2020 spring term were thus not in understanding with the suggested conceptual dimensions, which allow students to aggrandize their knowledge beyond the intended learning outcome established past the teacher: motivation and attention [5].

The students expressed concerns that are mutual in traditional in‐class teaching equally well, and such problems should not be overlooked in online teaching [25,26]: insufficient pre‐class study preparation, limited participation and inadequate depth in course discussions. Quality of education lies in the knowledge, skills and expertise that are conveyed as well as in the fashion in which they are communicated and learned [7,26]. In different ways, the students' responses revolved around key quality aspects, such every bit learning objectives, content, programme pattern, adaptation, teaching, work methods, supervision and forms of cess [7]. These findings are in agreement with other studies on COVID‐nineteen and educational activity [4,25,27].

The students stated that they received insufficient information most the exams. This is understandable because staff initially did not know how the different exams would exist digitally transformed in spring term 2020. Asked well-nigh examination preferences students said that they preferred longer written exams at home, over old campus-style exams, with short timelines, adapted to an online format. They also preferred multi-24-hour interval written home exams over potential alternatives such every bit video or podcasts, which none of them had tried earlier. It should be noted that they had limited experience with digital options. Student-produced podcast and video take been used as formative assessment forms at our university [14], simply to lesser extent equally formative assessment forms. The preference for written home exams over digital options was thus likely influenced by educatee'due south familiarity with the old since no exams during this time-period were in the form of podcast or video. Feedback and guidance from academic staff have been institute to exist primal aspects of study quality, and adept feedback contributes to increased motivation and improved learning outcomes (6). Examination doubt causes undue stress, and thus a key recommendation during the transition to online learning is to ensure that all information about exams is communicated to the students conspicuously and in a timely manner [27].

'Blackness screens' practise non necessarily reflect individuals lack of motivation and attending or embarrassment, but they may reflect a lack of digital training among freshmen or technical issues, such as poor bandwidth. Broadband bandwidth overload issues and a lack of suitable equipment will probably non exist meaning problems in Norway in the future. The students suggested that both flipped classrooms and alive streaming should exist used in future online courses. Flipping the classroom [9] ahead of live streaming, with the possibility for the students to write down questions during the live streaming or afterward in a seminar, increases flexibility. Asynchronous tools may be utilised to support students to piece of work at different times. We cannot overlook the possibility that new students might have needs that differ from those of senior students in terms of getting accustomed to online instruction. Nevertheless, our engagement indicates that clarification of expectations constitutes an important success criteria for online educational activity, specially when it comes to group work and formative and summative assessment [four,27].

The closure of campus may take unknown implications for society in both the short and long term [28–30], including impacts on educational quality and the mental wellness of students and academic staff [31]. If students are unable to study effectively for some unknown reason, it volition make online learning ineffective, regardless of educational quality. The situation after the lockdown in Norway was confusing, and many students lost their jobs and moved back in with their parents [4]. We did not collect person-sensitive information, and thus we know little about these students' circumstances. The dropout rate remained most unchanged among these students as compared to previous years. Beingness a pocket-sized-sized pedagogy, the staff were able to follow-up each educatee individually using digital videoconference tools, such as Zoom and Teams. In the future, more sustainable approaches should exist developed, for example, by increasing peer-to-peer interactions and through mentoring programs [one]. Reducing dropout and increasing completion rates was a strategic goal for higher education earlier the lockdown [29], and we do not know the bear on of the lockdown on hereafter dropout and completion rates. The high dropout rate from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has been a major concern of researchers and educators over the years [32]. Although some universities worldwide had already started offering MOOC-based undergraduate degrees before the COVID-19 pandemic [32], most MOOCs practise not atomic number 82 to degrees. The online courses offered in leap 2020 after the lockdown were mandatory courses leading to degrees, and thus they were not directly comparable to the voluntary MOOCs. However, such bug are premature for consideration in the nowadays study. OsloMet is currently participating both in the hereafter 'The COVID-19 Multi-Country Student Well-being Report'[33] and the 'Corona and Campus' study [34]. The 'Corona and Campus' study has secondary outcomes related to education satisfaction and learning outcomes, and such information will take the power to inform future controlling [30]. However, the present data were nerveless shortly after the national lockdown due to the COVID-xix pandemic on aspects of digitalisation relevant to the (post)-pandemic situation.

Strengths and weaknesses of the report

This report has several strengths. The about important force is data collection shortly after a national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The combined utilize of both quantitative and qualitative approaches enabled different perspectives to be captured and adds strength to the study. The triangulation allowed us to identify aspects more accurately and helped to offset the weaknesses of each arroyo alone. Grouping dynamics in focus group interviews can help bring out nuances in the information material beyond the answers to the predefined quantitative questions in the electronic questionnaires [17]. Another force was the research team consisting of both external moderators providing objectivity, lack of vested interest and a fresh perspective, and internal evaluators who were familiar with the education and the students. One limitation is using a questionnaire which was not pre-tested or validated. However, due to time constraints before long after campus lockdown post-obit the COVID-19 outbreak, information technology was non possible to perform pre-testing or validation of the instruments used in the present report. Many of the necessary advertising hoc changes to the course plans and exams (spring semester 2020) had yet to exist made and decided upon when the present study was initiated, even when the kickoff questionnaire was sent out before Easter 2020. The candidates bodily achieved learning outcomes and working skills are unknown due to limited opportunities to monitor the quality of their work [4]. We do not consider it to exist relevant to repeat the study, or reuse its instruments, since the astute phase subsequently lockdown is over. PHN is a minor-sized didactics, and the total number of students were but 79 individuals. The stress associated with the unprecedented situation may have contributed to a low response rate. Private circumstances such as poor internet connectedness, children at home, and lack of an adequate abode office may as well have contributed to a depression response rate. A low response rate is also a limitation in studies performed in a normal situation [sixteen]. Nosotros cannot rule out selection bias in the sample. The students who volunteered for the digital focus group interviews were positive and thorough. In particular, they seemed to reverberate on a more general level, not restricted to their own personal situations. All the same, the range in age among the study participants was representative for the age range of all PHN students, and both available and primary students participated in the written report. Information are collected from i single academy, and the results might not exist representative for big sized educations. Since the study is exploratory, nosotros had not planned the data collection in order to test hypotheses. The study seeks to provide a snapshot in fourth dimension of an evolving situation. Even with some limiting factors we believe the explorative study offers value since it provides a pupil perspective on an unprecedented black-swan effect in college teaching.

Conclusions

Although they had little previous feel with online education, these students seemed to adjust speedily to the sudden shift to advert hoc online education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nearly pressing concerns amid students were a lack of social interaction, a feeling of being alone in their studies, unfit housing situations for home office purposes, including insufficient data bandwidth, and a sense of reduced motivation and effort. Although our data signal that contiguous contact was greatly missed during this time-period, a thoroughly planned online course with numerous contact points between teachers and students would likely have been received more than favorably. Finally, the students expressed that they wanted more structure in futurity digital courses. Due to the very unusual circumstances experienced both by students and teachers in the early stages of national lockdown in Norway, we are hesitant to conclude with regards to students preferences for future online courses.

Supporting information

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the participating students and the academic and administrative staff at Oslo Metropolitan University for their contributions.

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Source: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0250378

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