Online study

The coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on global education.

Data from UNESCO has shown that at the height of the pandemic over 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries were out of school. This impacted over 100 million teachers and school personnel and the disruption is on-going; in the first quarter of 2021, two thirds of the world’s student population was still affected by full or partial school closures.

Disruption on this scale is likely to impact educational outcomes for many students. According to evidence collated by the Educational Endowment Foundation, research is showing a consistent pattern of pupils making less academic progress compared to previous year groups and a large attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils, which has widened as a result of the pandemic.

There have also been differences in the way counties around the world have approached the continuity and provision of education. For example, Sweden did not close pre-schools, or schools for children age 7-15, whereas 98 million children in Latin America and the Caribbean have had their schools remain largely closed for the past year. In the UK, most children will have missed over half a year of normal in-person schooling, which could represent more than 5% of their entire time in school.

A shift to online learning

Many schools and institutions moved their learning online, however students’ experiences of – and engagement with – online learning in the pandemic have been varied. According to research from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), 51% of primary and 57% of secondary pupils in private education accessed online lessons every day, which was more than twice as likely as their counterparts in state schools.

Accessibility of online learning is also an issue; data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) showed 14% of children aged 3-18 don't have Internet access at home and 17% of children live in households without a laptop or desktop computer.

Whereas at primary and secondary level a move to online learning was new territory, within higher education, many universities already offer distance or blended learning. However, the challenge at this level was making online learning work for the entire cohort.

Exam cancellations

Those in exam years have suffered significant disruption – in the UK nearly one in four pupils in years 10 and 11 said they could not get the help with questions about their school work and 40% said they lacked the routine they needed to study at home. In 2021, GCSE and A-Level grades will be decided by teachers rather than the usual exams, through a combination of mock exams, course work and essays.

This disruption to exams effects higher education on a global scale; according to University World News reporter Yojana Sharma “[disruption of school leaving exams] has an effect well beyond the individual country’s exams as universities around the world try to assess the varied impact for international student admissions and attempts to be fair to students”.

Catching up – and moving forward

“The road to recovery will not be straightforward and will require a sustained and multifaceted approach, focused on those who have lost out the most” says James Turner, chief executive of the Sutton Trust, which champions social mobility through programmes, research and policy influence.

The UK Government is providing £1 billion of funding to help students catch up on missed education in the form of one-off grants and a £350 million National Tutoring Programme, with funding and resources being allocated at the discretion of Head Teachers.

Educators must also be mindful of the impact of the pandemic on student's mental health. In a Californian student wellbeing study conducted during the pandemic, some of the most frequent words used by students to describe their feelings were lonely, overwhelmed and anxious.

“As well as dealing with the attainment gap, schools and the wider education sector are also likely to need to provide more pastoral and mental health support for pupils who have suffered neglect, abuse, anxiety or bereavement during the pandemic. Supporting pupils with these issues must be the first priority for the sector” advises the Educational Policy Institute (EPI).

The EPI also recommends that the government provides an “Education for Recovery” package to the further education sector which would include funding for lost learning time, targeted funding for disadvantaged students, maintenance grants and the extension of vocational courses and adult reskilling.

Will the pandemic change how we teach?

As well as bridging the educational gaps, the recovery process can also be an opportunity for innovation and change within education.

Some academics believe that the impact of the crisis - and the developments that were required to make it work – could permanently change how education is delivered.

As educators are having to quickly adapt to teaching in the online environment, this has presented a new set of trends. Ed Tech is a rapidly evolving sector of education that is garnering significant investment. As the online environment becomes more sophisticated – for example, through the use of educational apps, artificial intelligence (AI) and gamification – there becomes a greater need for educators who can design and implement effective learning programmes in the online space.

According to Dr Jennifer Farrar, Programme Director for the Online MSc Education at the University of Glasgow, the growth of online learning also presents an excellent opportunity for educational research and development.

“Digital learning is expanding and is a mind-bogglingly interesting area - especially at the moment. The time is ripe for research into the role of digital learning. It is interesting to look into the impact of global lockdown and how learners respond to learning through video rather than face to face interaction. There is just so much you can dive into here and many of our students are starting to look into research in this area.”

The impact of the pandemic is a subject that is currently being discussed within the MSc Education Psychology of Adult Learners course.

“We have students who are interrogating their own experiences as adult learners on an online programme and then using that to frame their own thinking about best practice. Others are considering whether the pandemic has transformative potential for online learning and how this can benefit non-traditional online learners such as people with caring responsibilities" says Dr Farrar.

Students are also beginning to explore the effects of the pandemic in the Research Application course of the MSc, including looking into children's experiences of lockdown learning.

Help shape the future of education

If you are passionate about providing the best learning opportunities for all, an Online MSc Education from the University of Glasgow will give you to the tools you need to tackle current challenges, taking a critical eye to both policy and research to enable you to enact positive change within a range of educational contexts.

Focused on developing best research practices and an inquisitive mindset, the course enables students to gain insights into the learning process, policies and practices involved in modern education and use these skills to benefit learners and learning communities all over the world.

Online MSc Education

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First published: 13 May 2021