research paper on effect of covid 19 on education

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Published: 23 September 2023

Unraveling the controversial effect of Covid-19 on college students’ performance

Luca Bonacini 1 ,
Giovanni Gallo 2 &
Fabrizio Patriarca 2

Scientific Reports volume 13 , Article number: 15912 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Epidemiology
Health care economics
Social evolution

We disentangle the channels through which Covid-19 has affected the performance of university students by setting up an econometric strategy to identify separately changes in both teaching and evaluation modes, and the short and long term effects of mobility restrictions. We exploit full and detailed information from the administrative archives of one among the first universities to be shut down since the virus spread from Wuhan. The results help solving the inconsistencies in the literature by providing evidence of a composite picture where negative effects such as those caused by the sudden shift to remote learning and by the exposure to mobility restrictions, overlap to opposite effects due to a change in evaluation methods and home confinement during the exam’s preparation. Such overlap of conflicting effects, weakening the signaling role of tertiary education, would add to the learning loss by further exacerbating future consequences on the “Covid” generation.

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Introduction.

There is a wide and varied literature stressing how the pandemic crisis has harmed the accumulation of human capital. In this article we focus on tertiary education and in particular on students’ performance. While in the case of primary and secondary education the literature converges on the emergence of a consistent learning deficit 1 , in the case of tertiary education the picture is much more controversial. To untangle the knot it is important to consider the variety of channels through which the pandemic might have affected students’ outcomes. Indeed, together with channels that affected all the population, both directly on health and indirectly through containment and lockdown measures, in the case of college education there are specific channels related to the shutdown of in presence activities as the sudden shift to remote learning, the temporary return of students to their places of origin and the change in student assessment methods that also shifted to online mode. Each channel has had impacts on different aspects of students’ careers, with different intensities and even in opposite directions. In our opinion, this composite picture helps explaining the lack of uniqueness of the evidence provided by the related literature developed so far.

Separating the overall effects between different channels requires very detailed data as to implement satisfactory econometric strategies to go beyond the identification of the overall effect based on simple comparison of pre- and post-pandemic values. For this purpose, we use the administrative data of one among the first Universities directly involved in the spread of the virus outside China: the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. We can track between 2018 and 2021 a total of about 38,000 students, who have taken about 400,000 exams, with high-level details on the characteristics of examinations, study paths, background of students and teachers fixed effects.

By exploiting this rich dataset, we build an econometric strategy based on difference-in-differences estimations 2 to analyze the exams marks by distinguishing between the contrasting effects of the change in teaching and in assessment modes, and then consider separately the effects of exposure to lockdown measures.

On the one hand, while the transition to distance learning may have had a negative impact on learning, as confirmed by the literature on lower levels of education 3 , 4 , the need to change the assessment method may have had an opposite effect on measured performance. Indeed, since the shift to online exams made more difficult to avoid plagiarism or other misconduct 5 , this might have incentivized students to cheat. Furthermore, the exams mode itself (e.g. alone or in the classroom, with interviews or quizzes) may have affected students’ performance during the exams, and finally also teachers evaluation attitudes could have become less stringent. To solve the possible overlap of contrasting effects and correct for the possible divergent dynamics of actual and measured students’ performance, we exploit the pre-existence of courses where classes were already given, though partially, in remote mode even before the pandemic, although exams mode were the same as for the other courses. In this way we can build a difference-in-differences identification strategy exploiting the heterogeneity related to the fact that the extent shift of teaching mode has been different though the change in assessment mode has been the same.

On the other one hand, we use the information on the exam date as to take into account the effect of lockdown measures. This information allows us to build a proxy of exposure to restriction which is both time and space varying, by matching the data on the pattern of restrictions in Italian regions. Indeed, the prolonged closure of a university with a supra-regional students pool, located in an area with a relatively high cost of living, has led the majority of students to return to their homes. This led to (exogenous) different exposures to containment measures, since they had a predominantly regional character.

The results also give us a composite evidence that help us explain the puzzled results found in the literature about the effects of lockdown measures: while the overall exposure to containment measures appears to have a significant negative impact on students, being confined at home during the preparation of the exams turns out instead to have had a positive effect.

In the next sections, after a review of the related literature, we lay out a description of the case study and of the data used. Next, we present the econometric strategy and then discuss the results. Before concluding, in the final session we also perform some robustness checks.

Tertiary education and the pandemic

While the socio-economic consequences of the Covid-19 have been already studied in deep from many points of views, papers focused on the impact of the pandemic on higher education are still few and provide contradictory results. We can split this branch of literature into two groups of studies: those using pupils’ surveys 6 , 7 , 8 and those considering data on students’ actual outcomes 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 . Overall, the first ones find negative effects of the pandemic, while the second ones mostly agree on the contrary.

A pioneering contribution is provided by 6 , which surveyed approximately 1500 students at one of the largest public institutions in the United States. To our knowledge, their analysis is the first trying to get the impact of the pandemic on students’ outcomes. Results show large negative effects. Due to Covid-19, 13% of students have delayed graduation, 40% have lost a job, internship, or job offer, and 29% expect to earn less at age 35. Moreover, these effects have been highly heterogeneous: one quarter of students increased their study time by more than 4 weekly hours due to Covid-19, while another quarter decreased their study time by more than 5 h per week. This heterogeneity often followed existing socioeconomic divides. Lower-income students are 55% more likely than their higher-income peers to have delayed graduation due to Covid-19.

In the same spirit 8 , conducted an online survey on 3163 Queens College students during the summer 2020. She analyses the effect of the Covid-19 outbreak on current and expected outcomes through an estimation of individual-level subjective treatment effects. She finds that due to the pandemic, between 14 and 34% of students considered to drop-out, as they think to lose their financial assistance, or to postpone their graduation. The pandemic also deprived 39% of students of their jobs and reduced their earnings by 35%. Finally, her analysis also reveals that the effect of the pandemic on social insecurity has been different on the basis of the students’ well-being as it has been deeper for students with a federal Pell grant than their peers.

Hu et al. 7 make a contribution to the analysis on students’ self-perception as they differentiate their analysis to the previous ones asking about students’ conditions two years later since the outbreak of the pandemic, in the period between January 17 to February 25, 2022. They surveyed 151 college students in Northern Michigan asking how much their learning quality is influenced by the Covid-19 and they conclude that respondents’ education was severely affected by the pandemic, averaging a score of 7.58 on a scale of 10. These results suggest that the negative impact of Covid-19 on students’ self-perception is not limited to the short run.

Contrasting results are provided instead by the second stream of literature as in 10 , 11 , 12 . Gonzalez et al. 10 analyze the effects of Covid-19 confinement on the autonomous learning performance of students in higher education through a sort of randomized control experiment. Their study relies on a field experiment with 458 students at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. The control group corresponds to academic years 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. The experimental group comprehends students from 2019/2020. The results show a significant positive effect of the Covid-19 confinement on students’ performance as they changed their learning strategies to a more continuous habit. Similar results hold in 11 . They estimate the effects of online education during the Covid-19 lockdown on student performance through a difference-in-differences approach using administrative data from Chinese Middle Schools. They consider three schools in the same county in Baise City before and after the Covid-19 onset. School A is the control group, as it did not provide any online educational support to its students. School B and C (treatment group) used an online platform. They point out a positive effect of online education by 0.22 of a standard deviation on student academic results. They also found that the results are homogeneous between rural and urban students.

Other contributions mainly focus on the heterogeneity of the effect across groups, but even in none of these we can find an evidence of a decrease in overall performance. Rodríguez-Planas 8 uses an event study approach to compare the gap between low-income students and their peers in the same University. She concludes that lower-income students with a lower performance during the pre-pandemic period outperformed their higher-income peers thanks to the different use of the flexible grading policy based on their financial and academic needs. In contrast, in the absence of the flexible grading policy, lower-income top-performing students would have underperformed relative to their higher-income counterparts. Engelhardt et al. 13 compare university students’ performance in the first semester affected by Covid-19 to that of the previous three ones. They do not find significant differences in performance across periods. These results are confirmed also for low-income, first-generation, and minority students. Castellanos-Serrano et al. 14 focus on the academic consequences of the Covid-19 in gender inequalities by several education performances. They consider 7477 students enrolled in just one faculty from the 2016/2017 to 2020/2021 academic years. Using a basic pre-post identification strategy, they find heterogeneous effects of the pandemic by sex since women’s results worsened in comparison to those of the pre-covid-19 period to a greater extent than for men. Besides, all sex slightly improved their results over the pandemic period. Maldonado and De Witte 15 consider the last year of primary schools in the Dutch-speaking Flemish region of Belgium. Using a 6-year panel, they perform a linear regression model with a pre-post Covid variable and find that, on average, students of the 2020 cohort experienced significant learning losses. Moreover, inequality within and across schools increased as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. Altindag et al. 16 leverage data from 15,000 students enrolled in a U.S. public university to investigate the performance of students in in-person compared to online courses during the pandemic. Using a student fixed effects model, the authors find that students in in-person courses fared better than online students with respect to their grades, the propensity to withdraw from the course, and the likelihood of receiving a passing grade. Agostinelli et al. 17 decompose the potential channels operating through the online learning, peers interactions, and the time spent with the parents. They conclude that each of these channels contribute to higher educational inequality during the pandemic.

All these studies target at the overall impact of Covid-19. Differently, Bird et al. 9 focus on the specific impact of the pandemic-triggered shift to online education. To do that they use data on students attending Virginia’s community colleges and set up an econometric strategy partially similar to that of part of our analysis: they use a difference-in-differences strategy in which the treatment groups is composed by the students enrolled in an in-person course and the control group is composed by the students which the course was provided online also before the Covid-19 widespread. Differently to the present contribution, their primary outcome of interest is the course completion, namely a binary variable equal to one whether the student received any grade sufficient (A, B, C, D, P + , or P), zero otherwise. The authors find that the shift to the online modality led to a modest decrease in course completion between 3 and 6%. This reduction in course completion is primarily driven by a large increase in course withdrawals (37% or + 2.7 percentage points in absolute terms) and, more narrowly, by an increase in course failure (10.8% or + 1.3 percentage points).

It is thus worth to notice that by focusing on a specific channel of the impact of the Covid-19 period, results shows a different picture than the one offered by the aggregate evidence. Delving deeper in this direction, in this paper we will try to solve the apparent puzzle. Our basic hypothesis is that the coexistence of negative effects reported subjectively or detected in the analysis of specific channels, together with positive effects resulting from the analysis of the overall outcomes is mainly due to the coexistence of positive effects on reported performance due to a change in evaluation standards, and negative effects on actual performance.

The case study

The case study is the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Unimore is a medium-sized Italian university, with a wide range of fields organized in 12 departments, ranked in the middle among Italian high education institutions, with a predominantly regional and national enrollment pool. As we will see in the econometric strategy session, this last characteristic together with the peculiarities of the relationship with pandemic events will be valuable for the purpose of the identification strategy we will use in this study. A final feature of the case study, that we will exploit in “ Econometric strategy ” section, is that a significant share of Unimore’s departments, before the pandemic, already offered degree programs where each single course provides mixed in-presence and remote classes.

At the same time, the university has recently undertaken a process of integrating all micro-data from administrative sources or interviews into a single database, Unimoredata, which enable us to analyze with a very high level of detail the performance trends of its students along the period of interest.

The pandemic at Unimore

On 21 February 2020 the Coronavirus had just begun to spread outside China and the first outbreaks of the virus were detected in the North-East of Italy. Two days later, on February 23, due to the dynamics of the virus in the neighborhood, the Emilia-Romagna Region imposed a four days closure of the activities to all the universities in its territory, thus including Unimore. This has been the first restrictive measure involving educational institutions, which will anticipate all other restrictive measures, including the first large-scale red zone, the one that the following week was imposed to the territory of the Modena province (i.e. the Italian name for the NUTS-3 region level). Indeed, since the virus spread over, the next week lessons did not turn back to in presence and the closing measures were instead extended to all Italian Universities as early as March 4, according to restrictive measures that will last until the summer.

In the Italian university system, the yearly activity is divided into two semesters, with lessons taking place from late September to December for the first semester and from late February up to the end of May in the second one. Consequently, the closure of the in-presence activities at Unimore, coincides exactly with the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2019/2020. As a result, the shift toward remote learning at Unimore, unlike in the case of the other universities, has completely covered the semester affected by the first stage of the pandemic.

After the first wave of the virus, most Italian universities opted for solutions allowing at least a partial resumption of in-presence activities for the following semester. Unimore, instead, adopted a very restrictive policy announcing already in May 2020 that the activities would have remained in remote for all the first semester of the following academic year (i.e. 2020/2021) and that it would have been possible to attend the lessons remotely in the second semester of the following academic year independently from the evolution of the pandemic. The lessons turned back in presence only at the end of the second semester of the academic year 2020/2021and only for the first-year students. The latter decision, taken in December 2020, was driven by the fact that a second wave of Covid-19 contagions was in place during that period and a third wave was largely expected for the successive months. In Italy, to be noted, the first wave of Covid-19 contagions took roughly place from February to May 2020, the second wave from October to December 2020, and the third wave from February to April 2021.

Following the timing of the main waves of coronavirus contagions, the pandemic period can be split in three different sub-periods in the Unimore context. The first one arrives up to September 2020 and corresponds to the first wave of contagions, the complete shift of the University activities to remote mode, and to the national restrictive measures. The second period, from October 2020 to March 2021, was characterized by the fact that Unimore was still closed and lockdown measures took a regional level dimension using a four colors classification. According to this new mechanism, the tightening of restrictive measures was based on a set of indicators at the regional level—mostly related to pressures of Covid-19 contagions on the healthcare system—which distinguished white, yellow, orange and red zones.. The third period, from April 2021 onwards, was instead characterized by a partial return to in-presence activities at Unimore thanks to a progressive loosening of social distancing measures and the massive vaccination campaign.

As for the scheduling of exams, whose grades are the outcome variable we are going to consider, in line with the other Italian universities, Unimore provides three regular sessions of exams: the winter session, from the beginning of January up to the end of February; the summer session, spanning from the half of May to the end of July; and the fall session, from the end of August to the end of September. According to the specific course, there are also a number of cases where exams are held in extra-ordinary sessions (April to May and October to December). The first exams in the Covid-19 period are thus the ones in April 2020, the last exams of the first sub-period ends with the exams of the fall 2020 regular session, the second sub-period starts with the extra-ordinary sessions of October and December 2020, includes the 2021 winter session end finishes with the exams of the extraordinary session in spring 2021, the last period covers the regular sessions of summer and fall 2022.

The Unimore dataset

This study relies on Unimoredata, a database created with a specific Unimore project integrating all students’ individual information from administrative records and many large scale surveys (e.g. the Almalaurea post-degree surveys on early access to the labour market) since 2001.

Specifically, for the purpose of the presented analysis, we refer to a dataset merging together detailed information from the following administrative archives: (1) the register containing demographic characteristics of each student; (2) the archive reporting yearly information on each Unimore course attended by each student; and (3) the archive collecting all exams passed by each student attending Unimore. The latter dataset is particularly important for our analysis, as it contains full information about students’ passed exams, like the obtained mark, the date of notification, the subject, the teaching period, and teachers’ characteristics. According to the administrative data collection policies in Italian public Universities, failed exams are instead not recorded. Further investigation, however, have shown that during the pandemic the dynamics of passed exams had very a similar path to those of average exams marks which, as we will see below, have slightly increased. At same time, drop out rates increased by 2.1 percentage points, showing thus very similar patterns as those record elsewhere as in 9 .

The analysis focuses on the grades of passed exams held in the period ranging from January 2018 to September 2021, thus our reference period starts from more than two years before the pandemic and then covers all the period characterized by the first three and major waves of Covid-19. We decide to restrict the sample of analysis considering only students aged 18–36 years old. Despite students being 37 years old or more represent a clear minority group (about 2% of the sample), we choose to exclude them from the analysis because their peculiar characteristics makes overall unclear their condition during the pandemic (e.g. they may be employed in remote working or in layoff/furlough period). Due to similar reasons, we also drop from the sample those students who still haven’t held any exam one year after the standard end of the course (about 5% of the sample). We also drop the exams for which we miss information about the teacher since they correspond to courses taught by teachers who are recruited on annual contracts and thus normally change from year to year (about 9.5% of the sample). In conclusion, our analysis relies on a sample of 371.000 exams held and passed by about 38,000 students. A detailed description of all variables used in the analyses and main descriptive statistics on the sample of students are presented in the Supplementary Material (Supplementary Table S1 and Table S2 respectively).

In the second part of the analysis, we build a difference-in-differences (DID henceforth) identification strategy exploiting also the information about the courses held with mix modality of teaching. However, as the provision of such kind of courses is not common to all departments, we exclude from the sample of analysis all observations referring to departments where these course are not supplied. With this last sample restriction the second part of the analysis relies on about 230 thousand exams. Also the main descriptive statistics on this reduced sample of students are presented in the Supplementary Material (Supplementary Table S3 ).

Econometric strategy

The performance of students exams is analyzed by looking at the mark of each single exam as resulting from the administrative archives.

The benchmark model uses the following linear specification:

where ${y}_{j,i,t}$ is the mark obtained at the j exam of the student i at time t (if the student attends and passes the exam); ${X}_{i,t}$ and ${Z}_{j,t}$ are two vectors respectively of student level and exam level controls (some of them are time varying); ${m}_{t}$ is the month of the exam; ${C}_{t}$ is the dummy variable for the Covid-19 period, that is set alternatively as a single dummy or a set of dummies distinct by the 3 sub-periods outlined above, and ${\varepsilon }_{j,i,t}$ is the error term. The equation is estimated with linear OLS and errors are clustered at student level. The set of controls at student level ${X}_{i,t}$ includes: students’ demographic characteristics as gender, age, NUTS-3 region level region of birth and region of residence; the kind of upper secondary school attended before university (11 different categories); a dummy variable for being a sophomore or junior student and the number of exams already passed by the student at each exam date (i.e. proxies of students’ tenure and quality). The set of controls at the exam level ${Z}_{j,t}$ includes: the specific department of the degree program; a dummy for master degree courses (vs bachelor ones); the number of university credits (CFU) related to the exam; the exam month. To be clear, in the Italian system each exam correspond to an amount of credits varying from 3 to 12, and usually equal to 6 and 9; the greater is the number of credits the higher is the complexity and somewhat the difficulty of the exam. Formally, a CFU represents about 25 studying hours (in general assuming 7/8 h of lessons attendance and 17/18 h of ‘study at home’). A bachelor degree is generally reached after the completion of 180 CFU, while master degree courses count 120 CFU. Furthermore, we include in ${Z}_{j,t}$ also teachers individual fixed effects to account for this important source of heterogeneity, corresponding to 1160 dummy variables in the benchmark case.

In this benchmark model we thus focus on the coefficient $\theta$ representing the overall impact of the pandemic, similarly to what most of the literature outlined above does. As we discussed above, this approach would catch the effect on measured performance rather than to actual one. Thus, once set up this base model, we move to assess an identification strategy aimed to disentangle the effect of the changing teaching (and thus learning) methodologies first, and then the effects of the exposure to restrictive measures.

Identifying the impact of (suddenly) changing teaching models

In this section we set up an econometric strategy to identify the impact of the shift from in-presence to remote learning brought about by social distancing measures. Thus, we are not going to evaluate the effectiveness of different teaching methodologies in normal times, we are instead analyzing the impact of a forced sudden shift that has also often caught unprepared teachers and technical staff.

As we have anticipated in previous sessions, possible negative effects on students’ actual performance could be overshadowed by opposing changes in measured performance related to changing examination modes. To avoid student misconduct, and in compliance with the general directives of the Italian Ministry of Education, Unimore adopted a set of arrangements to the remote examination modes that included student room control systems, software to control the activities of the personal computers used for examination tests (Safe Exam Browser), and limits to the ratio of examining students to teachers assigned to video surveillance. Such arrangements have reduced possible misbehavior however surely not eliminated it. At same time, the same shifts of exams modes with this related arrangements might have impacted on students’ performance during the exam. An analysis of the impacts on actual student performance, therefore, cannot disregard all this performance measurement problems. To this end, we will set up a DID identification strategy relying on the fact that while the shift in exams mode, with the related performance measuring biases, has equally concerned all courses, the change in teaching modalities has not been equal for all. Indeed, many Departments at Unimore, before the pandemic, already included in their supply degree programs with an hybrid online and in presence learning. In these programs all courses have only a share of teaching using traditional face to face methodology, and this share corresponds on average to the half of the course teaching activities with very little variation among courses. At same time, this courses have all same in-presence evaluation modes independently from the teaching modality. Thus, the shut off of in-presence activities had different consequences in terms of intensity in changing teaching modes among hybrid and standard courses but same consequences in terms of changes in evaluation modes and then also in performance measuring standards. In particular, we can argue without loss of generality that the impact in terms of changing teaching methodologies was double in the case of standard in-presence programs respect to hybrid ones.

We exploit this option in a DID approach by adding to the base specification in Eq. ( 1 ) the course modality variable and its interaction term with the Covid-19 variable:

where the variable ${D}_{j}$ is a dummy representing the course modality in normal times: in-presence ( ${D}_{j}=1$ ) or hybrid one. A negative sign of the interaction coefficient $\pi$ would evidence a relatively worst performance for exams in traditional programs respect to those in hybrid ones and thus, according to the DID strategy interpretation of causal inference, supporting for a negative impact of the shift to distance teaching. Moreover, since the teaching modality shift is double for courses in standard programs respect to those in hybrid programs, in terms of magnitude we can state that the impact estimated is a lower bound estimation that should correspond to half of the actual impact.

In the sample of analysis, these hybrid courses represent around 19% of the students and the online teaching usually represent half of the classes for each exam. As students and exams could have different features in the two kind of programs, we correct for possible composition biases by using an Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) strategy with the hybrid mode variable D as treatment variable. The IPW estimate relies on the following set of covariates: students’ demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, and NUTS-3 level region of birth and residence); the kind of upper secondary school; the year of enrollment; the specific department; and a dummy for master degree courses (vs bachelor ones). Finally, to properly isolate the effect of changing in teaching modes, we restrict the sample to the exams corresponding to classes taught in the immediately preceding teaching period (i.e. about 161 out of 223 thousand of exams). In fact, exams can be attended either in the months immediately following the end of classes but also in next semesters, several months after. We limit our analysis to the former case of ‘on-schedule’ exams. With this sample restriction we narrow the analysis on exams prepared by students attending courses taught according the modalities corresponding to the same specific period (before and after Covid-19 and also, in case, to the specific sub-periods). Moreover, by doing so, we can focus on exams whose preparation is more strictly related to the classes attendance rather than to the use of supplementary materials, such as handbooks or slides.

Identifying the impact of the exposure to restrictions

To identify the effect of exposure to restrictive and lockdown measures, we exploit the consequences of the very prudential policy implemented by Unimore about the recovery of normal activity described above.

As elsewhere, the closure of universities led to the return to their origin places of a large part of students being not resident in the neighborhood of the University. Suggestive is the case of Milan, where the news of the regional lockdown for the following day, circulated in advance because of a communication mistake, caused an exodus of students from North to South Italy so massive as to strongly impact on the spread of the virus in the southern regions of the Country while it was still concentrated only in the Northern regions.

During summer 2020, while Covid-19 related restrictions had been loosened by the national government, the universities were allowed to decide autonomously whether to re-start in presence activities for the next year. The decision in most campus or university cities contexts to reactivate in-presence activities, with the need to bear the cost of new infrastructure needed to respect legal prescriptions for social distancing, have also been driven by the economic interests of the neighborhood, for which the closure of the university leads to significant losses, like in the case of the owners of rental properties, commercial activities, and so on.

This was not actually the case for Unimore. In this area, the university has indeed a significant impact on its territory, but the economic vocation is another, ranging from automotive (Ferrari, Maserati, etc.) to food processing (e.g. Parmigiano Reggiano, Modena’s Balsamico), via robotics and ceramics. Moreover, the Modena city hospital, which was among those most put under pressure since the first waves of the pandemic, is part of the same university and has significant political weight even in the managerial offices (the same chancellor was a professor of the department of Medicine). As a consequence, the subjective experiences of professors and other civil servants grounded in departments operating within the Modena hospital understandably had a weight on their attitudes on the level of precautions to take.

As a result, Unimore adopted different decision respect to most universities, as the neighboring University of Bologna, which guaranteed a reopening of activities also through ad hoc investments for mixed teaching and the intervention of public institutions providing housing supports for students. Just before the end of the second semester of 2020, Unimore finally announced that the activities of the first semester of the following academic year—starting in September 2020—would have kept the distance mode. This exacerbates the emptying of the cities of Modena and Reggio Emilia, as evidenced by the attention given by the local press. Indeed, since then, also for the contribution of the very high living costs characterizing the cities of Modena and Reggio Emilia, most students returned to their homes and freshmen did not come in Modena and Reggio Emilia to find a new accommodation. This depletion is also confirmed by the fact that at the end of the second semester of the 2021/2022 academic year, when in-person attendance was reopened for a number of courses, despite the announcement made well in advance, only a minority share of students actually returned physically to the classroom while the rest continued to attend remotely. This decision did not turn out to be so wrong if one considers that the arrival of the second and third waves of the virus also induced the other universities to close down again.

At the same time, restrictive measures took a regional articulation from October 2020, following the four-color classification mentioned above. This induced a strong heterogeneity in students exposure to restrictions. The restrictions adopted in the case of red classification are similar to the lockdown implemented nationwide from March to May 2020, thus an overall home confinement. Accordingly, the time-varying restrictions in place at the residence of each student are a reliable proxy of the restrictions to which she has been subjected having a relevant time and space varying dimension. Figure 1 gives evidence of the regional heterogeneity of the cumulated restrictions from the beginning of the pandemic to September 2021, but the time-varying dimension of restrictions is relevant as well. To be noted, for the sake of the analysis, the national level lockdown imposed during the first wave of the virus, which lasted 70 days, is considered as a red zone and included on each regions’ records.

Cumulated number of days in red classified regional conditions.

We exploit this peculiarity to analyze two different aspects of the exposure to the restrictive measures. First, we consider the impact of cumulated exposition to restrictive measures since the start of pandemic. Second, we consider the effect of exposure to restrictive measures during the exam preparation period. To do all this, we add to the benchmark model in Eq. ( 1 ) one variable in two different cases. For each date of exam, in the first case we compute the cumulated number of days that the region of residence has passed under red zone restrictions while in the second one we compute the share of days in red zone over the 14 days before the exam. As we count among the days spent in a red zone also those related to the national level lockdown, when these variables still have a time-varying dimension and then allow for some heterogeneity, we can use all the data period from May 2020 onwards.

In detailing our findings, we start by providing an overall picture of students’ performance after and before the Covid-19 pandemic in Table 1 . In the first column we report estimates of the model specification presented in Eq. ( 1 ) and, in particular, the coefficient of the Covid-19 dummy variable being 1 for the whole period ranging from April 2020 to September 2021. The coefficient is positive and significant at 1% level.

In terms of magnitude, considering that exam marks at the Italian universities are expressed over 30 points with 18 being the minimum of passed exams and the standard deviation in the sample is 3.7 points, the value of 0.186 reported in the first column of Table 1 is not negligible although low. When we look at the three sub-periods of pandemic discussed in “ The pandemic at Unimore ” section separately, the coefficient is still positive and significant for each sub-period (second column of Table 1 ). The positive effect is concentrated in the first two periods of the pandemic, where the coefficient is a bit greater than 0.2. In the third period (i.e. April-September 2021), the coefficient becomes much lower but it remains still significant. The lower magnitude of the coefficient in the last period is consistent with the partial reopening of in-presence activities, which could blur the pandemic influence on the students’ performances. To account for this possible confounding factor, in the third column of Table 1 , we report the estimate of the overall impact limited to the first year of the pandemic only, thus limiting the reference period to April 2021 rather than September 2021. In this case the coefficient of the Covid-19 dummy variable has a value close to those reported in the first two sub-periods of pandemic.

In conclusion, the evidence provided in Table 1 would suggest that in relation to the sample of passed exams, students’ performance has slightly benefited from the pandemic, consistently with other studies of the literature surveyed above which use the same Covid-19 period dummy variable approach or else rely on some descriptive evidence. Our explanatory hypothesis, that we attempt to confirm in what follows, is that this unexpected outcome is mainly driven by a misalignment between the reported performance and the actual one. Indeed, because of the shut off of all in-presence activities, not only classes but also the exam evaluation shift to remote, becoming more slack. (To be clear, we are not able to assess whether these changes in the evaluation standards are due to a change in the kind of exams made—which also shifted from in-presence to remote—or to the adoption of magnanimous criteria by teachers.) This hypothesis could also fit with the partial different behavior of the last period, when time elapsed and experience cumulated could have impact on the effectiveness of assessment modes.

In what follows, we go beyond the analysis of the overall effect on reported performance to explore the two main different channels through which the pandemic may have negatively impacted actual performances: the sudden shift to remote teaching and the home confinement.

The impact of (suddenly) changing teaching models

Table 2 shows the estimation results of the model specification presented in Eq. ( 2 ) and corresponding to the identification strategy outlined in “ Identifying the impact of (suddenly) changing teaching models ” section. This strategy is aimed at disentangling the effect of the sudden shift to remote teaching on students’ performances. To do that, as anticipated in “ Identifying the impact of (suddenly) changing teaching models ” section, we first restrict the sample to the departments having both in-presence and hybrid courses (see “ The Unimore dataset ” section), then consider only the exams corresponding to classes taught in the immediately preceding teaching period, and then estimate the IPW weights using the course modality as treatment variable.

Column 1, 3 and 5 of Table 2 presents the same base model shown in the previous section restricted to departments providing at least one hybrid course and with the addition of a control variable for the course modality (1 if in-person and 0 otherwise) and using the IPW correction (see Supplementary Table S4 for the first stage estimations). To be noted, Supplementary Table S5 , which is the equivalent of Table 1 in the subsample used in this IPW case, highlights that the pandemic-related coefficient does not change much with respect to the one presented in Table 1 . This evidence confirms that the sample restrictions here adopted, as well as the bias on the coefficient of variables not related to the IPW treatment variable due the application of the IPW correction, does not affect significantly our results. In column 2, 4 and 6 of the same table we use the DID specification presented in “ Identifying the impact of (suddenly) changing teaching models ” section.

In the baseline case, exam marks of students attending in-presence courses are lower if compared to those reported by students attending hybrid courses. When we consider the DID model which adds the interaction term, however, the effect of attending in-presence courses is not significant anymore while the coefficient of the interaction term is negative and strongly significant. Columns 3 and 4 of Table 2 present the same analysis shown in Columns 1 and 2 limiting the reference period to the first year of pandemic (i.e. up to May 2021), thus focusing on the period during which all classes were attended remotely. Clearly, in this case, the magnitude of the interaction term is much larger than before (1.0 vs 0.6 points), as well as the one of the Covid-19 dummy (1.2 vs 0.3 points).

Summing up, the hypothesis according to which the sudden shift to remote teaching had negatively affected students’ performance finds evidence in our results. As hybrid courses generally have half of lessons in presence, we can estimate the total impact of the change in teaching modality by doubling the coefficient of the interaction term, and thus obtaining a value of about 2 points out of 30. To better understand the extent of the estimated effect related to the pandemic, it should be considered that this value represents more than half of the standard deviation of exam marks and 6.6% of the overall marks range. Our estimated value of the losses related to the shift to remote teaching is close to the upper threshold of the results provided by 9 although obtained with different econometric set-up, unit level analysis, performance outcome and in a case study of another country (US vs Italy).

At same time we also confirm the hypothesis that changes in assessment modes are prominent drivers of the increase in student reported outcomes evidenced in the literature. This effect has offset the negative impact of the pandemic period misaligning the effective performance of students from the measured one. Indeed, when we shift from the base to the DID specifications the coefficient of the Covid-19 variable increases substantially and to an extent close to the absolute value of the coefficients of the interactions included.

The impact of the exposure to restrictions

We move now to the analysis of the impact of the exposure to mobility restrictions on students’ performances described in “ Identifying the impact of the exposure to restrictions ” section. To do this purpose, we slightly restricts the sample of the benchmark case (see Table 1 ) as we exclude the exams held by students who are not resident in Italy (they represent less than 2% of the full sample of exams). The second column of Table 3 adds to the base model—whose results are reported in column 1—the overall number of days each student spent under red zone restrictions, while the third column adds the variable reporting the share of days spent under red zone restrictions over the 14 days before the exam. As explained above, in the former case we focus on the cumulated impact of restrictions, while in the latter we assess the impact of being confined at home in the days just before the exam’s session, corresponding to the period of exams’ preparation.

Table 3 highlights that the number of days spent under red zone restrictions decreases the exam marks. One day more spent under lockdown restrictions corresponds to a reduction of 0.003 points. Considering that at the end of the reference period the average value of this variable is 105 days, we can estimate the average effect on students’ exam marks at the end of the pandemic to be about one third of point. At same time, as also in the previous section, when we take into account this negatively impacting channel, the estimated coefficient of the Covid-19 dummy increases.

While the results shows a negative long run effect of home confinement, that can be ascribed to mental stress issues, when we look at the effect in the short run, things substantially change. Our results show that a greater number of days spent under red zone restrictions during the two weeks preceding the exam (i.e. probably those on which the preparation to the exam is mainly concentrated) engenders an increase of students’ exam marks. In this case, the Covid-19 dummy coefficient does not report any relevant variation, confirming the change of examination modality to represent the main explanation of the positive impact on measured performance.

In conclusion, the results of our analysis suggest a composite effect of mobility restrictions. On the one hand, consistently with the results provided by 6 , they might have increased the amount of time allocated to study for exams thus improving performances in the short run. On the one other hand, however, in the long run the protracted exposure to the restrictions clearly reduced the students’ outcomes.

Robustness checks

In this session we present two different robustness checks, one for each of the two channels we considered in main analysis: the change in teaching modalities and the exposure to mobility restrictions.

As for the change in teaching methods, we perform a placebo test analysis. Instead of restricting the sample to on-schedule exams only, we consider the other exams: those made during the pandemic but related to courses attended in the pre-Covid-19 semesters. This test should therefore be considered as valid if two conditions hold. The first one is that the coefficients of the baseline model of the Covid variables are still positive and significant. This would confirm the increase in exams grade is due to the change in exams modality and not to change in teaching modes. The second condition requires that in the DID specification the coefficients of the interaction term between the Covid-19 dummy and the in-presence course one are found to be insignificant or to have very small magnitude. Results of the placebo test, presented in Table 4 , confirm the robustness of our results. In fact, while in the baseline model the coefficients of the covid variables confirm the baseline specification results, the coefficients of the interaction terms in the DID specification are always insignificant and their magnitude is strongly reduced if not even with opposite sign if compared to those reported in Table 2 .

As for the effect of restrictions on students’ performances, one possible weakness of our strategy is the fact that some students may not have returned back to their households and thus the restrictions in place in the region of origin may not correspond to the actual restrictions to which these students where subject to. This would affect our estimates but only partially since in the first stage of pandemic, the variables of interest have only a time variation, not spatial, because restrictions had national dimension. As to the following period, the option of not coming back home does not apply to freshmen students since the decision to keep university activities in remote mode for all the first semester, and to allow in any case to attend classes in remote for all the rest of the year, was communicated well before the opening of course registration. Besides, for the same reasons the case of not coming back home even after the first Covid-19 wave is less likely to have occurred for non-freshmen students because of the rent costs that could be saved. To be noted, house rent costs in Modena and Reggio Emilia are indeed particularly high if compared to other university cities as recorded by the yearly official statistics on living costs performed by the Italian Institute of Statistics, which places the two cities among the highest in Italy for living costs. Finally, it is likely that the climate of fear and concern that had spread in the early stages of the pandemic pushed most of people returning to their household of origin just before the end of the first national lockdown in May 2020 independently from the high economic incentives.

Anyway, to account for this possible source of bias we perform a sensitivity analysis by restricting the sample to students resident out of the Modena and Reggio Emilia provinces. We consider only students who faced the same decisions about where to spend the periods of suspension of university in-person activities, thus the bias would affect randomly all kind of students. Table 5 highlights that the coefficients of variables regarding the effect of restrictive measures do not change substantially with respect to those reported in Table 3 , overall confirming the robustness of our main results.

In the Supplementary Material we also report a heterogeneity analysis of our main results (i.e. those in Table 1 and Table 2 ) to assess whether they present any relevant change when distinguishing departments by ERC sector or teachers by age group (aged 59 or younger vs aged 60 or older). Specifically, Supplementary Table S6 and Table S8 show the heterogeneity of the Covid-19 impact on students’ exam marks by ERC sectors, while Supplementary Table S7 and Table S9 do the same by teachers’ age group.

Supplementary Table S6 points out that coefficients in the first column and the last column always have the same statistically significance and direction. As for the magnitude, departments in the Life Sciences sector (e.g. Medicine and Nursing) seem the most affected by Covid-19, while coefficients of Social Sciences and Humanities and STEM sectors are very similar each other. These results are overall confirmed in the analysis by pandemic period with the exception of Social Sciences and Humanities departments, where the coefficient for the Covid III period is positive but insignificant (in line with results in Table 2 though). Moreover, while the in-presence students appear to have different performances by ERC sector, Supplementary Table S8 highlights that the Covid-19 effect related to the change of teaching modality is negative and significant in all departments except for those in Life Sciences. As for the heterogeneous effects by teachers’ age group, Supplementary Table S7 shows that coefficients are very similar, then suggesting that older teachers have not behaved differently from others. Nonetheless, the DID analysis in Supplementary Table S9 points out a heterogeneous causal effect of Covid-19, which is significant only for the subgroup of older teachers when considering the full period (column 2). This evidence seems to suggest that teachers’ reaction to pandemic-related changes was similar during the first year of pandemic, but the effect has lasted longer among older teachers. All in all, they were more vulnerable to the COVID disease and probably have had a harder time to adapt to the online modality.

Finally, Supplementary Table S10 presents a robustness check on the overall effect of the time spent in a regional red zone during the two weeks preceding the exam (see Table 3 ). First, we provide an estimation where Covid-19 period dummies are included. Second, we provide an estimation focusing on the first year of pandemic only, to assess whether the effect estimated for the full period is stable or not over time. Supplementary Table S10 clearly shows that the effect of the variable of interest here is slightly lower than the one presented in Table 3 (differences are not significant at 10 percent level though), but still strongly positive and significant. This evidence confirms the effect of being forced at home during the two weeks before the exam is actually quite stable over the analyzed period.

Conclusions

In this study, we have focused on the effect of the pandemic on the performance of university students. By exploiting the opportunities provided by an administrative dataset containing very detailed information on the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore), one of the forerunners of the restrictions imposed worldwide to universities during Covid-19 early stages, we have tried to solve some inconsistencies in the literature and to unbundle the two main channels through which the pandemic changed university students’ pathways: the shift to remote lessons and the exposure to lockdown measures.

On the one hand, the results of the DID estimations based on the distinction between full in-presence programs and hybrid ones suggests a mismatch between actual performance and measured performance related to the change in assessment methods and/or parameters. In the standard design that uses the Covid-19 period as treatment, the evidence is that of an overall albeit slight improvement in average marks: in the context of a grading system with marks expressed in thirtieths, with 18 as the minimum grade of passed exams and a variance of 3.6, during the pandemic the score of passed the exams increased by one sixth of point, a result substantially in line with that of the literature which also shows slightly positive overall effects in a number of different outcomes of students’ performance. Besides, to a more detailed insight, the pandemic still appears to have had negative effects on student performance. The evidence gathered allows us to estimate the impact of the sudden change in lecture modes in nearly two thirtieths. This result is in line with the literature focusing on specific aspects of the Covid-19 impact and also coherent with the studies on students’ subjective evaluations. Despite this channel seems to have been more relevant, also the psychological effects due to exposure to lockdown measures result as significant: at the end of the period considered, the cumulative impact of exposure to home confinement amounting to about one third of point. At the same time, being confined at home in the two weeks prior to the examination date appears to have had a positive impact: being forced to stay at home during all the two weeks before the exams increase the average grade by nearly one sixth of point. Nonetheless, the driver of the overall positive effect on students’ grades seems to be the change in evaluation standard, that result in having increased student grades by a value in the range of 2–2.5 thirtieths.

As a result, if we look at the effect on student’s actual performance, and thus on their process of human capital accumulation, we can support the evidence of an appreciable negative impact that has been, however, offset on the surface by an average more slack assessment systems. This gives rise to two different kind of problems. The first concerns the most well-known and direct aspect: the loss in terms of human capital accumulation, a significant loss that might have long-term effects. There is however also a further aspect. This generation of students will turn out to be less prepared compared to the others, regardless their similar average marks. This, over time, could produce a stigma effect by fostering a widespread perception that those who studied in the pandemic years are less capable if compared with other ones with same degree or marks. While this may be true for some, in particular for those who have benefited most from the different assessment modes, it is not true for all. Anyway, the signaling role of their degree on job applicants would be weakened. This could result in a process of statistical discrimination: an efficient practice for those who implement it, the employers, but as unfair for an already hard-hit generation of students.

Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study uses the information coming from the administrative archives of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. They are not publicly available due restrictions related to data ownership but they are available together with all do files from the corresponding author on reasonable request by remote connection to a dedicated server. The research did not rely on any kind of experiments on humans and/or the use of human tissue samples. The whole research was performed in accordance with relevant guidelines/regulations, in particular with all requirements imposed by the Italian Data Protection Authority (GDPR) in its November 27, 2008 Requirements (Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 300, December 24, 2008) and subsequent and possible adjustments and amendments. In compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016, Legislative Decrees August 10, 2018 No. 101 and May 18, 2018 No. 51 of the Italian Government, the study did not required ethics approval and/or individual consent of the involved persons (the students of Unimore), who, in any case, at the time of matriculation at Unimore were informed about the processing of personal data also for purposes that respond to and are aimed at implementing the exercise of institutional powers vested in the university, including research.

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Bonacini, L., Gallo, G. & Patriarca, F. Unraveling the controversial effect of Covid-19 on college students’ performance. Sci Rep 13 , 15912 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42814-7

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The Effect of COVID-19 on Education

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1 Wayne State University School of Medicine, 540 East Canfield, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.
2 Department of Pediatrics, Wayne Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Pediatrics Wayne State University, 400 Mack Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
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DOI: 10.1016/j.pcl.2021.05.009

COVID-19 has changed education for learners of all ages. Preliminary data project educational losses at many levels and verify the increased anxiety and depression associated with the changes, but there are not yet data on long-term outcomes. Guidance from oversight organizations regarding the safety and efficacy of new delivery modalities for education have been quickly forged. It is no surprise that the socioeconomic gaps and gaps for special learners have widened. The medical profession and other professions that teach by incrementally graduated internships are also severely affected and have had to make drastic changes.

Keywords: COVID-19; Education; Medical school education; Special education; Virtual learning.

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The Impact of COVID-19 on Education: A Meta-Narrative Review

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Volume 66 , pages 883–896, ( 2022 )

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Aras Bozkurt ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4520-642X 1 , 2 , 3 ,
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The rapid and unexpected onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic has generated a great degree of uncertainty about the future of education and has required teachers and students alike to adapt to a new normal to survive in the new educational ecology. Through this experience of the new educational ecology, educators have learned many lessons, including how to navigate through uncertainty by recognizing their strengths and vulnerabilities. In this context, the aim of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the publications covering COVID-19 and education to analyze the impact of the pandemic by applying the data mining and analytics techniques of social network analysis and text-mining. From the abstract, title, and keyword analysis of a total of 1150 publications, seven themes were identified: (1) the great reset, (2) shifting educational landscape and emerging educational roles (3) digital pedagogy, (4) emergency remote education, (5) pedagogy of care, (6) social equity, equality, and injustice, and (7) future of education. Moreover, from the citation analysis, two thematic clusters emerged: (1) educational response, emergency remote education affordances, and continuity of education, and (2) psychological impact of COVID-19. The overlap between themes and thematic clusters revealed researchers’ emphasis on guaranteeing continuity of education and supporting the socio-emotional needs of learners. From the results of the study, it is clear that there is a heightened need to develop effective strategies to ensure the continuity of education in the future, and that it is critical to proactively respond to such crises through resilience and flexibility.

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Introduction

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has proven to be a massive challenge for the entire world, imposing a radical transformation in many areas of life, including education. It was rapid and unexpected; the world was unprepared and hit hard. The virus is highly contagious, having a pathogenic nature whose effects have not been limited to humans alone, but rather, includes every construct and domain of societies, including education. The education system, which has been affected at all levels, has been required to respond to the crisis, forced to transition into emergency modes, and adapt to the unprecedented impact of the global crisis. Although the beginning of 2021 will mark nearly a year of experience in living through the pandemic, the crisis remains a phenomenon with many unknowns. A deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the changes that have been made in response to the crisis is needed to survive in these hard times. Hence, this study aims to provide a better understanding by examining the scholarly publications on COVID-19 and education. In doing this, we can identify our weaknesses and vulnerabilities, be better prepared for the new normal, and be more fit to survive.

Related Literature

Though the COVID-19 pandemic is not the first major disruption to be experienced in the history of the world, it has been unique due to its scale and the requirements that have been imposed because of it (Guitton, 2020 ). The economies of many countries have greatly suffered from the lockdowns and other restrictive measurements, and people have had to adapt to a new lifestyle, where their primary concern is to survive by keeping themselves safe from contracting the deadly virus. The education system has not been exempt from this series of unfortunate events inflicted by COVID-19. Since brick-and-mortar schools had to be closed due to the pandemic, millions of students, from those in K-12 to those in higher education, were deprived of physical access to their classrooms, peers, and teachers (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020a , b ). This extraordinary pandemic period has posed arguably the most challenging and complex problems ever for educators, students, schools, educational institutions, parents, governments, and all other educational stakeholders. The closing of brick-and-mortar schools and campuses rendered online teaching and learning the only viable solution to the problem of access-to-education during this emergency period (Hodges et al., 2020 ). Due to the urgency of this move, teachers and instructors were rushed to shift all their face-to-face instruction and instructional materials to online spaces, such as learning management systems or electronic platforms, in order to facilitate teaching virtually at a distance. As a result of this sudden migration to learning and instruction online, the key distinctions between online education and education delivered online during such crisis and emergency circumstances have been obfuscated (Hodges et al., 2020 ).

State of the Current Relevant Literature

Although the scale of the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on education overshadows previously experienced nationwide or global crises or disruptions, the phenomenon of schools and higher education institutions having to shift their instruction to online spaces is not totally new to the education community and academia (Johnson et al., 2020 ). Prior literature on this subject indicates that in the past, schools and institutions resorted to online or electronic delivery of instruction in times of serious crises and uncertainties, including but not limited to natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes (e.g., Ayebi-Arthur, 2017 ; Lorenzo, 2008 ; Tull et al., 2017 ), local disruptions such as civil wars and socio-economic events such as political upheavals, social turmoils or economic recessions (e.g., Czerniewicz et al., 2019 ). Nevertheless, the past attempts to move learning and teaching online do not compare to the current efforts that have been implemented during the global COVID-19 pandemic, insofar as the past crisis situations were sporadic events in specific territories, affecting a limited population for relatively short periods of time. In contrast, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to pose a serious threat to the continuity of education around the globe (Johnson et al., 2020 ).

Considering the scale and severity of the global pandemic, the impacts it has had on education in general and higher education in particular need to be explored and studied empirically so that necessary plans and strategies aimed at reducing its devastating effects can be developed and implemented. Due to the rapid onset and spread of the global pandemic, the current literature on the impact of COVID-19 on education is still limited, including mostly non-academic editorials or non-empirical personal reflections, anecdotes, reports, and stories (e.g., Baker, 2020 ; DePietro, 2020 ). Yet, with that said, empirical research on the impact of the global pandemic on higher education is rapidly growing. For example, Johnson et al. ( 2020 ), in their empirical study, found that faculty members who were struggling with various challenges adopted new instructional methods and strategies and adjusted certain course components to foster emergency remote education (ERE). Unger and Meiran ( 2020 ) observed that the pandemic made students in the US feel anxious about completing online learning tasks. In contrast, Suleri ( 2020 ) reported that a large majority of European higher education students were satisfied with their virtual learning experiences during the pandemic, and that most were willing to continue virtual higher education even after the pandemic (Suleri, 2020 ). The limited empirical research also points to the need for systematically planning and designing online learning experiences in advance in preparation for future outbreaks of such global pandemics and other crises (e.g., Korkmaz & Toraman, 2020 ). Despite the growing literature, the studies provide only fragmentary evidence on the impact of the pandemic on online learning and teaching. For a more thorough understanding of the serious implications the pandemic has for higher education in relation to learning and teaching online, more empirical research is needed.

Unlike previously conducted bibliometric analysis studies on this subject, which have largely involved general analysis of research on health sciences and COVID-19, Aristovnik et al. ( 2020 ) performed an in-depth bibliometric analysis of various science and social science research disciplines by examining a comprehensive database of document and source information. By the final phase of their bibliometric analysis, the authors had analyzed 16,866 documents. They utilized a mix of innovative bibliometric approaches to capture the existing research and assess the state of COVID-19 research across different research landscapes (e.g., health sciences, life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities). Their findings showed that most COVID-19 research has been performed in the field of health sciences, followed by life sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences and humanities. Results from the keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed that health sciences research on COVID-19 tended to focus on health consequences, whereas the life sciences research on the subject tended to focus on drug efficiency. Moreover, physical sciences research tended to focus on environmental consequences, and social sciences and humanities research was largely oriented towards socio-economic consequences.

Similarly, Rodrigues et al. ( 2020 ) carried out a bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 related studies from a management perspective in order to elucidate how scientific research and education arrive at solutions to the pandemic crisis and the post-COVID-19 era. In line with Aristovnik et al.’s ( 2020 ) findings, Rodrigues et al. ( 2020 ) reported that most of the published research on this subject has fallen under the field of health sciences, leaving education as an under-researched area of inquiry. The content analysis they performed in their study also found a special emphasis on qualitative research. The descriptive and content analysis yielded two major strands of studies: (1) online education and (2) COVID-19 and education, business, economics, and management. The online education strand focused on the issue of technological anxiety caused by online classes, the feeling of belonging to an academic community, and feedback.

Lastly, Bond ( 2020 ) conducted a rapid review of K-12 research undertaken in the first seven months of the COVID-19 pandemic to identify successes and challenges and to offer recommendations for the future. From a search of K-12 research on the Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCOHost, the Microsoft Academic, and the COVID-19 living systematic map, 90 studies were identified and analyzed. The findings revealed that the reviewed research has focused predominantly on the challenges to shifting to ERE, teacher digital competencies and digital infrastructure, teacher ICT skills, parent engagement in learning, and students’ health and well-being. The review highlighted the need for straightforward communication between schools and families to inform families about learning activities and to promote interactivity between students. Teachers were also encouraged to develop their professional networks to increase motivation and support amongst themselves and to include opportunities for both synchronous and asynchronous interaction for promoting student engagement when using technology. Bond ( 2020 ) reported that the reviewed studies called for providing teachers with opportunities to further develop their digital technical competencies and their distance and online learning pedagogies. In a recent study that examines the impact of COVID-19 at higher education (Bozkurt, 2022 ), three broad themes from the body of research on this subject: (1) educational crisis and higher education in the new normal: resilience, adaptability, and sustainability, (2) psychological pressures, social uncertainty, and mental well-being of learners, and (3) the rise of online distance education and blended-hybrid modes. The findings of this study are similar to Mishra et al. ( 2021 ) who examined the COVID-19 pandemic from the lens of online distance education and noted that technologies for teaching and learning and psychosocial issues were emerging issues.

The aforementioned studies indicate that a great majority of research on COVID-19 has been produced in the field of health sciences, as expected. These studies nonetheless note that there is a noticeable shortage of studies dealing with the effects of the pandemic in the fields of social sciences, humanities, and education. Given the profound impact of the pandemic on learning and teaching, as well as on the related stakeholders in education, now more than ever, a greater amount of research on COVID-19 needs to be conducted in the field of education. The bibliometric studies discussed above have analyzed COVID-19 research across various fields, yielding a comparative snapshot of the research undertaken so far in different research spheres. However, despite being comprehensive, these studies did not appear to have examined a specific discipline or area of research in depth. Therefore, this bibliometric study aims to provide a focused, in-depth analysis of the COVID-19-related research in the field of education. In this regard, the main purpose of this study is to identify research patterns and trends in the field of education by examining COVID-19-related research papers. The study sought to answer the following research questions:

What are the thematic patterns in the title, abstract, and keywords of the publications on COVID-19 and education?

What are the citation trends in the references of the sampled publications on COVID-19 and education?

Methodology

This study used data mining and analytic approaches (Fayyad et al., 2002 ) to examine bibliometric patterns and trends. More specifically, social network analysis (SNA) (Hansen et al., 2020 ) was applied to examine the keywords and references, while text-mining was applied (Aggarwal & Zhai, 2012 ) to examine the titles and abstracts of the research corpus. Keywords represent the essence of an article at a micro level and for the analysis of the keywords, SNA was used. SNA “provides powerful ways to summarize networks and identify key people, [entities], or other objects that occupy strategic locations and positions within a matrix of links” (Hansen et al., 2020 , p. 6). In this regard, the keywords were analyzed based on their co-occurrences and visualized on a network graph by identifying the significant keywords which were demonstrated as nodes and their relationships were demonstrated with ties. For text-mining of the titles and abstracts, the researchers performed a lexical analysis that employs “two stages of co-occurrence information extraction—semantic and relational—using a different algorithm for each stage” (Smith & Humphreys, 2006 , p. 262). Thus, text-mining analysis enabled researchers to identify the hidden patterns and visualize them on a thematic concept map. For the analysis of the references, the researchers further used SNA based on the arguments that “citing articles and cited articles are linked to each other through invisible ties, and they collaboratively and collectively build an intellectual community that can be referred to as a living network, structure, or an ecology” (Bozkurt, 2019 , p. 498). The analysis of the references enabled the researchers to identify pivotal scholarly contributions that guided and shaped the intellectual landscape. The use of multiple approaches enables the study to present a broader view, or a meta-narrative.

Sample and Inclusion Criteria

The publications included in this research met the following inclusion criteria: (1) indexed by the Scopus database, (2) written in English, and (3) had the search queries on their title (Table 1 ). The search query reflects the focus on the impact of COVID-19 on education by including common words in the field like learn , teach , or student . Truncation was also used in the search to capture all relevant literature. Narrowing down the search allowed us to exclude publications that were not education related. Scopus was selected because it is one of the largest scholarly databases, and only publications in English were selected to facilitate identification of meaningful lexical patterns through text-mining and provide a condensed view of the research. The search yielded a total of 1150 papers (articles = 887, editorials = 66, notes = 58, conference papers = 56, letters = 40, review studies = 30, book chapters = 9, short surveys = 3, books = 1).

Data Analysis and Research Procedures

This study has two phases of analysis. In the first phase, text mining was used to analyze titles and abstracts, and SNA was applied to analyze keywords. By using two different analytical approaches, the authors were able to triangulate the research findings (Thurmond, 2001 ). In this phase, using lexical algorithms, text mining analysis enabled visualizing the textual data on a thematic concept map according to semantic relationships and co-occurrences of the words (Fig. 1 ). Text mining generated a machine-based concept map by analyzing the co-occurrences and lexical relationships of textual data. Then, based on the co-occurrences and centrality metrics, SNA enabled visualizing keywords on a network graphic called sociogram (Fig. 2 ). SNA allowed researchers to visually identify the key terms on a connected network graph where keywords are represented as nodes and their relationships are represented as edges. In the first phase of the study, by synthesizing outputs of the data mining and analytic approaches, meaningful patterns of textual data were presented as seven main research themes.

Thematic concept mapping of COVID-19 and education-related papers

Social networks analysis of the keywords in COVID-19 and education-related papers

In the second phase of the study, through the examination of the references and citation patterns (e.g., citing and being cited) of the articles in the research corpus, the citation patterns were visualized on a network graphic by clusters (See Fig. 3 ) showing also chronical relationships which enabled to identify pivotal COVID-19 studies. In the second phase of the study, two new themes were identified which were in line with the themes that emerged in the first phase of the study.

Social networks analysis of the references in COVID-19 and education-related papers 2019–2020 (Only the first authors were labeled – See Appendix Fig. 4 for SNA of references covering pre-COVID-19 period)

Strengths and Limitations

This study is one of the first attempts to use bibliometric approaches benefiting from data mining and analysis techniques to better understand COVID-19 and its consequences on published educational research. By applying such an approach, a large volume of data is able to be visualized and reported. However, besides these strengths, the study also has certain limitations. First, the study uses the Scopus database, which, though being one of the largest databases, does not include all types of publications. Therefore, the publications selected for this study offer only a partial view, as there are many significant publications in gray literature (e.g., reports, briefs, blogs). Second, the study includes only publications written in English, however, with COVID-19 being a global crisis, publications in different languages would provide a complementary view and be helpful in understanding local reflections in the field of education.

Findings and Discussion

Sna and text-mining: thematic patterns in the title, abstract, and keywords of the publications.

This section reports the findings based on a thematic concept map and network graphic that were developed through text mining (Fig. 1 —Textual data composed of 186.234 words visualized according to lexical relationships and co-occurrences) and sociograms created using SNA (Fig. 2 —The top 200 keywords with highest betweenness centrality and 1577 connections among them mapped on a network graph) to visualize the data. Accordingly, seven major themes were identified by analyzing the data through text-mining and SNA: (1) the great reset, (2) digital pedagogy, (3) shifting educational landscape and emerging educational roles, (4) emergency remote education, (5) pedagogy of care, (6) social equity, equality, and injustice, and (7) future of education.

Theme 1: The Great Reset (See path Fig. 1 : lockdown + emergency + community + challenges + during > pandemic and impact > outbreak > coronavirus > pandemic and global > crisis > pandemic > world; See nodes on Fig. 2 : Covid19, pandemic, Coronavirus, lockdown, crisis ). The first theme in the thematic concept map and network graphic is the Great Reset. It has been relatively a short time since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 a pandemic. Although vaccination had already started, the pandemic continued to have an adverse impact on the world. Ever since the start of the pandemic, people were discussing when there would be a return to normal (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020a , b ; Xiao, 2021 ); however, as time goes by, this hope has faded, and returning to normal appears to be far into the future (Schwab & Malleret, 2020 ). The pandemic is seen as a major milestone, in the sense that a macro reset in economic, social, geopolitical, environmental, and technological fields will produce multi-faceted changes affecting almost all aspects of life (Schwab & Malleret, 2020 ). The cover of an issue of the international edition of Time Magazine reflected this idea of a great reset and presented the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to transform the way we live and work (Time, 2020 ). It has been argued that the pandemic will generate the emergence of a new era, and that we will have to adapt to the changes it produces (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020 ). For example, the industrial sector quickly embraced remote work despite its challenges, and it is possible that most industrial companies will not return to the on-site working model even after the pandemic ends (Hern, 2020 ). We can expect a high rate of similar responses in other fields, including education, where COVID-19 has already reshaped our educational systems, the way we deliver education, and pedagogical approaches.

Theme 2: Digital pedagogy (See path on Fig. 1 : distance learning > research > teacher > development > need > training + technology + virtual > digital > communication > support > process > teaching > online > learning > online learning + course > faculty > students > experience ; See nodes on Fig. 2 : online learning, distance learning, computer-based learning, elearning, online education, distance education, online teaching, multimedia-based learning, technology, blended learning, online, digital transformation, ICT, online classes, flexible learning, technology-enhanced learning, digitalization ). Owing to the rapid transition to online education as a result of COVID-19, digital pedagogy and teachers’ competencies in information and communication technology (ICT) integration have gained greater prominence with the unprecedented challenges teachers have faced to adapt to remote teaching and learning. The COVID-19 pandemic has unquestionably manifested the need to prepare teachers to teach online, as most of them have been forced to assume ERE roles with inadequate preparation. Studies involving the use of SNA indicate a correspondence between adapting to a digital pedagogy and the need to equip teachers with greater competency in technology and online teaching (e.g., Blume, 2020 ; König et al., 2020 ). König et al. ( 2020 ) conducted a survey-based study investigating how early career teachers have adapted to online teaching during COVID-19 school closures. Their study found that while all the teachers maintained communication with students and their parents, introduced new learning content, and provided feedback, they lacked the ability to respond to challenges requiring ICT integration, such as those related to providing quality online teaching and to conducting assessments. Likewise, Blume ( 2020 ) noted that most teachers need to acquire digital skills to implement digitally-mediated pedagogy and communication more effectively. Both study findings point to the need for building ICT-related teaching and learning competencies in initial teacher education and teacher professional development. The findings from the SNA conducted in the present study are in line with the aforementioned findings in terms of keyword analysis and overlapping themes and nodes.

Theme 3: Shifting educational landscape and emerging educational roles (See path on Fig. 1 : future > education > role > Covid19; See nodes on Fig. 2 : higher education, education, student, curriculum, university, teachers, learning, professional development, teacher education, knowledge, readiness ). The role of technology in education and human learning has been essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology has become a prerequisite for learning and teaching during the pandemic and will likely continue to be so after it. In the rapid shift to an unprecedented mode of learning and teaching, stakeholders have had to assume different roles in the educational landscape of the new normal. For example, in a comprehensive study involving the participation of over 30 K higher education students from 62 countries conducted by Aristovnik et al. ( 2020 ), it was found that students with certain socio-demographic characteristics (male, lower living standard, from Africa or Asia) were significantly less satisfied with the changes to work/life balance created by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that female students who were facing financial problems were generally more affected by COVID-19 in their emotional life and personal circumstances. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, there is likely to be carry over in the post-pandemic era of some of the educational changes made during the COVID-19 times. For example, traditional lecture-based teacher-centered classes may be replaced by more student-centered online collaborative classes (Zhu & Liu, 2020 ). This may require the development and proliferation of open educational platforms that allow access to high-quality educational materials (Bozkurt et al., 2020 ) and the adoption of new roles to survive in the learning ecologies informed by digital learning pedagogies. In common with the present study, the aforementioned studies (e.g., Aristovnik et al., 2020 ; König et al., 2020 ) call for more deliberate actions to improve teacher education programs by offering training on various teaching approaches, such as blended, hybrid, flexible, and online learning, to better prepare educators for emerging roles in the post-pandemic era.

Theme 4: Emergency remote education (see path Fig. 1 : higher education > university > student > experience > remote; See nodes on Fig. 2 : Covid19, pandemic, Coronavirus, higher education, education, school closure, emergency remote teaching, emergency remote learning ). Educational institutions have undergone a rapid shift to ERE in the wake of COVID-19 (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020a ; Bozkurt et al., 2020 ; Hodges et al., 2020 ). Although ERE is viewed as similar to distance education, they are essentially different. That is, ERE is a prompt response measure to an emergency situation or unusual circumstances, such as a global pandemic or a civil war, for a temporary period of time, whereas distance education is a planned and systematic approach to instructional design and development grounded in educational theory and practice (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020b ). Due to the urgent nature of situations requiring ERE, it may fall short in embracing the solid pedagogical learning and teaching principles represented by distance education (Hodges et al., 2020 ). The early implementations of ERE primarily involved synchronous video-conferencing sessions that sought to imitate in-person classroom instruction. It is worth noting that educators may have heavily relied on synchronous communication to overcome certain challenges, such as the lack of available materials and planned activities for asynchronous communication. Lockdowns and school closures, which turned homes into compulsory learning environments, have posed major challenges for families and students, including scheduling, device sharing, and learner engagement in a socially distanced home learning environment (Bond, 2020 ). For example, Shim and Lee ( 2020 ) conducted a qualitative study exploring university students’ ERE experiences and reported that students complained about network instability, unilateral interactions, and reduced levels of concentration. The SNA findings clearly highlight that there has been a focus on ERE due to the school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is key to adopt the best practices of ERE and to utilize them regularly in distance education (Bozkurt, 2022 ). Moreover, it is important to note that unless clear distinctions are drawn between these two different forms of distance education or virtual instruction, a series of unfortunate events in education during these COVID-19 times is very likely to take place and lead to fatal errors in instructional practices and to poor student learning outcomes.

Theme 5: Pedagogy of care (See path Fig. 1 : r ole > education > Covid19 > care ; See nodes on Fig. 2 : Stress, anxiety, student wellbeing, coping, care, crisis management, depression ). The thematic concept map and network graphic show the psychological and emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various stakeholders, revealing that they have experienced anxiety, expressed the need for care, and sought coping strategies. A study by Baloran ( 2020 ), conducted in the southern part of the Philippines to examine college students’ knowledge, attitudes, anxiety, and personal coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, found that the majority of the students experienced anxiety during the lockdown and worried about food security, financial resources, social contact, and large gatherings. It was reported that the students coped with this anxiety by following protective measures, chatting with family members and friends, and motivating themselves to have a positive attitude. In a similar study, Islam et al. ( 2020 ) conducted an investigation to determine whether Bangladeshi college students experienced anxiety and depression and the factors responsible for these emotional responses. Their cross-sectional survey-based study found that a large percentage of the participants had suffered from anxiety and depression during the pandemic. Academic and professional uncertainty, as well as financial insecurity, have been documented as factors contributing to the anxiety and depression among college students. Both studies point to the need for support mechanisms to be established by higher education institutions in order to ensure student wellbeing, provide them with care, and help them to cope with stress, anxiety, and depression. Talidong and Toquero ( 2020 ) reported that, in addition to students’ well-being and care, teachers’ perceptions and experiences of stress and anxiety during the quarantine period need to be taken into account. The authors found that teachers were worried about the safety of their loved ones and were susceptible to anxiety but tended to follow the preventive policies. A pedagogy of care has been presented as an approach that would effectively allow educators to plan more supportive teaching practices during the pandemic by fostering clear and prompt communication with students and their families and taking into consideration learner needs in lesson planning (e.g., Karakaya, 2021 ; Robinson et al., 2020 ). Here it is important to stress that a pedagogy of care is a multifaceted concept, one that involves the concepts of social equity, equality, and injustice.

Theme 6: Social equity, equality, and injustice (See path on Fig. 1 : Impact > outbreak > coronavirus > pandemic > social ; See nodes on Fig. 2 : Support, equity, social justice, digital divide, inequality, social support ). One of the more significant impacts of COVID-19 has been the deepening of the existing social injustices around the world (Oldekop et al., 2020 ; Williamson et al., 2020 ). Long-term school closures have deteriorated social bonds and adversely affected health issues, poverty, economy, food insecurity, and digital divide (Van Lancker & Parolin, 2020 ). Regarding the digital divide, there has been a major disparity in access to devices and data connectivity between high-income and low-income populations increasing the digital divide, social injustice, and inequality in the world (Bozkurt et al., 2020 ). In line with the SNA findings, the digital divide, manifesting itself most visibly in the inadequacy and insufficiency of digital devices and lack of high-speed Internet, can easily result in widespread inequalities. As such, the disparities between low and high socio-economic status families and school districts in terms of digital pedagogy inequality may deepen as teachers in affluent schools are more likely to offer a wide range of online learning activities and thereby secure better student engagement, participation, and interaction (Greenhow et al., 2020 ). These findings demonstrate that social inequities have been sharpened by the unfortunate disparities imposed by the COVID-19, thus requiring us to reimagine a future that mitigates such concerns.

Theme 7: Future of education (See word path on Fig. 1 : Future > education > Covid19 > pandemic > changes and pandemic > coronavirus, outbreak, impact > world ; See nodes on Fig. 2 : Sustainability, resilience, uncertainty, sdg4). Most significantly, COVID-19 the pandemic has shown the entire world that teachers and schools are invaluable resources and execute critical roles in society. Beyond that, with the compulsory changes resulting from the pandemic, it is evident that teaching and learning environments are not exclusive to brick-and-mortar classrooms. Digital technologies, being at the center of teaching and learning during the pandemic period, have been viewed as a pivotal agent in leveraging how learning takes place beyond the classroom walls (Quilter-Pinner & Ambrose, 2020 ). COVID-19 has made some concerns more visible. For example, the well-being of students, teachers, and society at large has gained more importance in these times of crisis. Furthermore, the need for educational technology and digital devices has compounded and amplified social inequities (Pelletier et al., 2021 ; West & Allen, 2020 ). Despite its global challenges, the need for technology and digital devices has highlighted some advantages that are likely to shape the future of education, particularly those related to the benefits of educational technology. For example, online learning could provide a more flexible, informal, self-paced learning environment for students (Adedoyin & Soykan, 2020 ). However, it also bears the risk of minimizing social interaction, as working in shared office environments has shifted to working alone in home-office settings. In this respect, the transformation of online education must involve a particular emphasis on sustaining interactivity through technology (Dwivedi et al., 2020 ). In view of the findings of the aforementioned studies, our text-mining and SNA findings suggest that the COVID-19 impositions may strongly shape the future of education and how learning takes place.

In summary, these themes extracted from the text-mining and SNA point to a significant milestone in the history of humanity, a multi-faceted reset that will affect many fields of life, from education and economics to sociology and lifestyle. The resulting themes have revealed that our natural response to an emerging worldwide situation shifted the educational landscape. The early response of the educational system was emergency-based and emphasized the continuance of in-person instruction via synchronous learning technologies. The subsequent response foregrounded the significance of digitally mediated learning pedagogy, related teacher competencies, and professional development. As various stakeholders (e.g., students, teachers, parents) have experienced a heightened level of anxiety and stress, an emerging strand of research has highlighted the need for care-based and trauma-informed pedagogies as a response to the side effects of the pandemic. In addition, as the global pandemic has made systemic impairments, such as social injustice and inequity, more visible, an important line of research has emerged on how social justice can be ensured given the challenges caused by the pandemic. Lastly, a sizable amount of research indicates that although the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed unprecedented challenges to our personal, educational, and social lives, it has also taught us how to respond to future crises in a timely, technologically-ready, pedagogically appropriate, and inclusive manner.

SNA: Citation Trends in the References of the Sampled Publications

The trends identified through SNA in citation patterns indicate two lines of thematic clusters (see Fig. 3 -A network graph depicting the citing and being cited patterns in the research corpus. Node sizes were defined by their citation count and betweenness centrality.). These clusters align with the results of the analysis of the titles, abstracts, and keywords of the sampled publications and forge the earlier themes (Theme 4: Emergency remote education and Theme 5: Pedagogy of care).

Thematic Cluster 1: The first cluster centers on the abilities of educational response, emergency remote education affordances, and continuity of education (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020a ; Crawford et al., 2020 ; Hodges et al., 2020 ) to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on education, especially for more vulnerable and disadvantaged groups (UNESCO, 2020 ; Viner et al., 2020 ). The thematic cluster one agrees with the theme four emergency remote education . The first trend line (See red line in Fig. 3 ) shows that the education system is vulnerable to external threats. Considering that interruption of education is not exclusive to pandemics – for example, political crises have also caused disruptions (Rapp et al., 2016 ) – it is clear that coping mechanisms are needed to ensure the continuity of education under all conditions. In this case, we need to reimagine and recalibrate education to make it resilient, flexible, and adaptive, not only to ensure the continuity of education, but also to ensure social justice, equity, and equality. Given that online education has its own limitations (e.g., it is restricted to online tools and infrastructures), we need to identify alternative entry points for those who do not have digital devices or lack access to the internet.

Thematic Cluster 2: The second cluster centers on the psychological impact of COVID-19 on learners, who during these times suffered a sense of uncertainty (Bozkurt, & Sharma, 2021 ; Cao et al., 2020 ; Rose, 2020 ; Sahu, 2020 ) which suggest that learners are experiencing difficult times that can result in psychological and mental problems. The thematic cluster two agrees with theme five which is pedagogy of care . Therefore, it can be argued that learners' psychological and emotional states should be a top priority. Brooks et al. ( 2020 ) reported the potential of post-traumatic issues with long-lasting effects, on top of the trauma that has already been suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, the effects of the COVID-19 crisis may prove to extend beyond their current state and add long-term challenges. Additionally, it has further been reported that the socio-economic effects of the pandemic (Nicola et al., 2020 ) may cause inequality and inequity in educational communities (Beaunoyer et al., 2020 ). The research also shows that learners’ achievement gaps are positively associated with psychological issues, while support and care are negatively associated with their traumatic states (Cao et al., 2020 ). In this context, the second thematic cluster reveals that researchers have seriously considered the psychological and emotional needs of learners in their publications. Care (Noddings, 1984 ) and that trauma-informed pedagogy (Imad, 2020 ) can be a guideline during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. It is quite clear that learners have experienced educational loss (e.g., drop-outs, achievement gaps, academic procrastination, etc.), as well as social and emotional impairments (e.g., fear, frustration, confusion, anxiety, sense of isolation, death of loved ones, etc.). Therefore, we need to critically approach the situation, focusing first on healing our social and emotional losses, and then, on the educational losses. As Bozkurt and Sharma ( 2020a ) put it:

“What we teach in these times can have secondary importance. We have to keep in mind that students will remember not the educational content delivered, but how they felt during these hard times. With an empathetic approach, the story will not center on how to successfully deliver educational content, but it will be on how learners narrate these times” (p. iv).

Conclusion and Suggestions

The results from this study indicate that quick adaptability and flexibility have been key to surviving the substantial challenges generated by COVID-19. However, extreme demands on flexibility have taken a toll on human well-being and have exacerbated systemic issues like inequity and inequality. Using data mining that involved network analysis and text mining as analytical tools, this research provides a panoramic picture of the COVID-19-related themes educational researchers have addressed in their work. A sample of 1150 references yielded seven themes, which served to provide a comprehensive meta-narrative about COVID-19 and its impact on education.

A portion of the sampled publications focused on what we refer to as the great reset , highlighting the challenges that the emergency lockdown brought to the world. A publication pattern centered around digital pedagogy posited distance and online learning as key components and identified the need for teacher training. Given the need for adaptability, a third theme revealed the demand for professional development in higher education and a future shift in educational roles. It can be recommended that future research investigate institutional policy changes and the adaptation to these changes in renewed educational roles. The ERE theme centered on the lack of preparation in instituting the forced changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The publications related to this theme revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered silent threads in educational environments, like depression, inequality, and injustice. A pedagogy of care has been developed with the aim of reducing anxiety and providing support through coping strategies. These research patterns indicate that the future of education demands sustainability and resilience in the face of uncertainty.

Results of the thematic analysis of citation patterns (Fig. 3 ) overlapped with two of the themes found in our thematic concept map (Fig. 1 ) and network graphic (Fig. 2 ). It was shown that researchers have emphasized the continuity of education and the psychological effects of the COVID-19 crisis on learners. Creating coping strategies to deal with global crises (e.g., pandemics, political upheavals, natural disasters) has been shown to be a priority for educational researchers. The pedagogy of resilience (Purdue University Innovative learning, n.d. ) provides governments, institutions, and instructors with an alternative tool to applying to their contexts in the face of hardship. Furthermore, prioritizing the psychological long-term effects of the crisis in learners could alleviate achievement gaps. We recommend that researchers support grieving learners through care (Noddings, 1984 ) and trauma-informed pedagogy (Imad, 2020 ). Our resilience and empathy will reflect our preparedness for impending crises. The thematic analysis of citation patterns (1: educational response, emergency remote education affordances, and continuity of education; 2: psychological impact of COVID-19) further indicates suggestions for future instructional/learning designers. Freire ( 1985 ) argues that to transform the world we need to humanize it. Supporting that argument, the need for human-centered pedagogical approaches (Robinson et al., 2020 ) by considering learning a multifaceted process (Hodges et al., 2021 ) for well-designed learning experiences (Moore et al., 2021 ) is a requirement and instructional/learning designers have an important responsibility not only to design courses but an entire learning ecosystem where diversity, sensitivity, and inclusivity are prioritized.

ERE is not a representative feature in the field of online education or distance education but rather, a forced reaction to extraordinary circumstances in education. The increasing confusion between the practice of ERE and online learning could have catastrophic consequences in learners' outcomes, teachers' instructional practices, and institutional policies. Researchers, educators, and policymakers must work cooperatively and be guided by sound work in the field of distance learning to design nourishing educational environments that serve students’ best interests.

In this study, text mining and social network analysis were demonstrated to be powerful tools for exploring and visualizing patterns in COVID-19-related educational research. However, a more in-depth examination is still needed to synthesize effective strategies that can be used to support us in future crises. Systematic reviews that use classical manual coding techniques may take more time but increase our understanding of a phenomenon and help us to develop specific action plans. Future systematic reviews can use the seven themes identified in this study to analyze primary studies and find strategies that counteract the survival of the fittest mindset to ensure that no student is left behind.

Data Availability

The dataset is available from the authors upon request.

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Online education and its effect on teachers during COVID-19—A case study from India

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Area of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Management Indore, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

Surbhi Dayal

Published: March 2, 2023
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282287
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COVID pandemic resulted in an initially temporary and then long term closure of educational institutions, creating a need for adapting to online and remote learning. The transition to online education platforms presented unprecedented challenges for the teachers. The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of the transition to online education on teachers’ wellbeing in India.

The research was conducted on 1812 teachers working in schools, colleges, and coaching institutions from six different Indian states. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected via online survey and telephone interviews.

The results show that COVID pandemic exacerbated the existing widespread inequality in access to internet connectivity, smart devices, and teacher training required for an effective transition to an online mode of education. Teachers nonetheless adapted quickly to online teaching with the help of institutional training as well as self-learning tools. However, respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of online teaching and assessment methods, and exhibited a strong desire to return to traditional modes of learning. 82% respondents reported physical issues like neck pain, back pain, headache, and eyestrain. Additionally, 92% respondents faced mental issues like stress, anxiety, and loneliness due to online teaching.

As the effectiveness of online learning perforce taps on the existing infrastructure, not only has it widened the learning gap between the rich and the poor, it has also compromised the quality of education being imparted in general. Teachers faced increased physical and mental health issues due to long working hours and uncertainty associated with COVID lockdowns. There is a need to develop a sound strategy to address the gaps in access to digital learning and teachers’ training to improve both the quality of education and the mental health of teachers.

Citation: Dayal S (2023) Online education and its effect on teachers during COVID-19—A case study from India. PLoS ONE 18(3): e0282287. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282287

Editor: Lütfullah Türkmen, Usak University College of Education, TURKEY

Received: November 13, 2021; Accepted: January 27, 2023; Published: March 2, 2023

Copyright: © 2023 Surbhi Dayal. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Data apart from manuscript has been submitted as supporting information .

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

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

Introduction

As of November 4, 2021, the spread of novel coronavirus had reached 219 countries and territories of the world, infecting a total of 248 million people and resulting in five million deaths [ 1 ]. In March 2020, several countries including India declared a mandatory lockdown, resulting in the temporary closure of many institutions, not least educational ones. Since then, various restrictions and strategies have been implemented to counter the spread of the virus. These include wearing masks, washing hands frequently, maintaining social and physical distance, and avoiding public gatherings. The pandemic has greatly disrupted all aspects of human life and forced new ways of functioning, notably in work and education, much of which has been restricted to the household environment. The closure for over a year of many schools and colleges across the world has shaken the foundations of the traditional structures of education. Due to widespread restrictions, employees have been forced to carve out working spaces in the family home; likewise, students and teachers have been compelled to bring classes into homes [ 2 ]. Nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries have been physically out of school due to the pandemic. In total, 94 percent of the world’s student population has been affected by school closures, and up to 99 percent of this student population come from low-to middle-income countries [ 3 ].

According to the World Economic Forum, the pandemic has changed how people receive and impart education [ 4 ]. Physical interaction between students and teachers in traditional classrooms has been replaced by exchanges on digital learning platforms, such as online teaching and virtual education systems, characterized by an absence of face-to-face connection [ 5 ]. Online education has thus emerged as a viable option for education from preschool to university level, and governments have used tools such as radio, television, and social media to support online teaching and training [ 6 ]. Various stakeholders, including government and private institutions, have collaborated to provide teachers with resources and training to teach effectively on digital platforms. New digital learning platforms like Zoom, Google Classroom, Canvas, and Blackboard have been used extensively to create learning material and deliver online classes; they have also allowed teachers to devise training and skill development programs [ 7 ]. Many teachers and students were initially hesitant to adopt online education. However indefinite closure of institutions required educational facilities to find new methods to impart education and forced teachers to learn new digital skills. Individuals have experienced different levels of difficulty in doing this; for some, “it has resulted in tears, and for some, it is a cup of tea” [ 8 ].

Teachers have reported finding it difficult to use online teaching as a daily mode of communication, and enabling students’ cognitive activation has presented a significant challenge in the use of distance modes of teaching and learning. Teachers have also expressed concerns about administering tests with minimal student interaction [ 9 ]. Lack of availability of smart devices, combined with unreliable internet access, has led to dissatisfaction with teacher-student interaction. Under pressure to select the appropriate tools and media to reach their students, some teachers have relied on pre-recorded videos, which further discouraged interaction. In locations where most teaching is done online, teachers in tier 2 and tier 3 cities (i.e., semi-urban areas) have had to pay extra to secure access to high-speed internet, digital devices, and reliable power sources [ 10 ]. Teachers in India, in particular, have a huge gap in digital literacy caused by a lack of training and access to reliable electricity supply, and internet services. In rural or remote areas, access to smart devices, the internet, and technology is limited and inconsistent [ 6 ]. In cities, including the Indian capital Delhi, even teachers who are familiar with the required technology do not necessarily have the pedagogical skills to meet the demands of online education. The absence of training, along with local factors (for example, stakeholders’ infrastructure and socio-economic standing), contributes to difficulties in imparting digital education successfully [ 10 ]. The gap in digital education across Indian schools is striking. For example, only 32.5% of school children are in a position to pursue online classes. Only 11% of children can take online classes in private and public schools, and more than half can only view videos or other recorded content. Only 8.1% of children in government schools have access to online classes in the event of a pandemic-related restrictions [ 11 ].

The adverse effects of COVID-19 on education must therefore be investigated and understood, particularly the struggles of students and teachers to adapt to new technologies. Significant societal effects of the pandemic include not only serious disruption of education but also isolation caused by social distancing. Various studies [ 7 , 12 , 13 ] have suggested that online education has caused significant stress and health problems for students and teachers alike; health issues have also been exacerbated by the extensive use of digital devices. Several studies [ 6 , 11 , 14 ] have been conducted to understand the effects of the COVID lockdown on digital access to education, students’ physical and emotional well-being, and the effectiveness of online education. However, only a few studies [ 13 , 15 – 17 ] have touched the issues that teachers faced due to COVID lockdown.

In this context, this study is trying to fill existing gaps and focuses on the upheavals that teachers went through to accommodate COVID restrictions and still impart education. It also provides an in-depth analysis of consequences for the quality of education imparted from the teachers’ perspective. It discusses geographical inequalities in access to the infrastructure required for successful implementation of online education. In particular, it addresses the following important questions: (1) how effectively have teachers adapted to the new virtual system? (2) How has online education affected the quality of teaching? (3) How has online education affected teachers’ overall health?

Because of lockdown restrictions, data collection for this study involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods in the form of online surveys and telephonic interviews. A questionnaire for teachers was developed consisting of 41 items covering a variety of subjects: teaching styles, life-work balance, and how working online influences the mental and physical well-being of teachers. In the interviews, participants were asked about their experiences of online teaching during the pandemic, particularly in relation to physical and mental health issues. A pilot study was conducted with thirty respondents, and necessary changes to the items were made before the data collection. The survey tool was created using google forms and disseminated via email, Facebook, and WhatsApp. A total of 145 telephonic interviews were also conducted to obtain in-depth information from the respondents.

The data were collected between December 2020 and June 2021. The Research Advisory Committee on Codes of Ethics for Research of Aggrawal College, Ballabhgarh, Haryana, reviewed and approved this study. A statement included in the google survey form as a means of acquiring written consent from the participants. Information was gathered from 1,812 Indian teachers in six Indian states (Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, New Delhi, and Rajasthan) working in universities, schools, and coaching institutions. Nearly three-quarters of the total sample population was women. All participants were between the ages of 18 and 60, with an average age of 34 and a clear majority being 35 or younger. Nearly three-quarters of participants work in private institutions (25% in semi-government entities and the remainder in government entities). In terms of education, 52% of participants have a graduate degree, 34% a postgraduate degree, and 14% a doctorate. Table 1 summarizes the demographic characteristics of the participants.

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Results & discussion

Upon analyzing the survey responses, three crucial areas were identified for a better understanding of the effect of COVID-19 on the Indian education system and its teachers: how effectively teachers have adapted, how effective teaching has been, and how teachers’ health has been affected.

1. How effectively have teachers adapted to the new virtual system?

The first research question concerns how willing teachers were to embrace the changes brought about by the online teaching system and how quickly they were able to adapt to online modes of instruction. This information was gathered from December 2020 to June 2021, at which point teachers had been dealing with school lockdowns for months and therefore had some time to become conversant with online teaching.

While 93.82% of respondents were involved in online teaching during the pandemic, only 16% had previously taught online. These results were typically different from the results of a similar study conducted in Jordon where most of the faculty (60%) had previous experience with online teaching and 68% of faculty had also received formal training [ 16 ]. Since the spread of COVID-19 was rapid and the implementation of the lockdown was sudden, government and educational institutions were not prepared for alternative modes of learning, and teachers needed some time for adjustment. Several other factors also affected the effectiveness of the transition to online education, namely access to different types of resources and training [ 18 ].

a. Access to smart devices.

Online teaching requires access to smart devices. A surprising number of teachers stated that they had internet access at home via laptops, smartphones, or tablets. A more pertinent question, however, was whether they had sole access to the smart device, or it was shared with family members. Only 37.25% of those surveyed had a device for their exclusive use while others shared a device with family members, due to lack of access to additional devices and affordability of new devices. During the lockdown, an increase in demand led to a scarcity of smart devices, so that even people who could afford to buy a device could not necessarily find one available for purchase. With children attending online classes, and family members working from home, households found it difficult to manage with only a few devices, and access to a personal digital device became an urgent matter for many. Respondents admitted to relying on their smartphones to teach courses since they lacked access to other devices. Teachers on independent-school rosters were significantly better equipped to access smart devices than those employed at other types of schools. The data also indicates that teachers in higher education and at coaching centers had relatively better access to laptops and desktop computers through their institutions, whereas teachers in elementary and secondary schools had to scramble for securing devices for their own use.

b. Internet access.

Internet access is crucial for effective delivery of online education. However, our survey shows that teachers often struggled to stay connected because of substantial differences between states in the availability of internet. Of the respondents, 52% reported that their internet was stable and reliable, 32% reported it to be satisfactory and the rest reported it to be poor. Internet connectivity was better in the states of Karnataka, New Delhi, and Rajasthan than in Assam, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh. Internet connectivity in Assam was particularly poor. Consequently, many teachers with access to advanced devices were unable to use them due to inadequate internet connection.

The following comments from a teacher in Assam capture relevant situational challenges: “I do not have an internet modem at home, and teaching over the phone is difficult. My internet connection is exhausted, and I am unable to see or hear the students.” Another teacher from Haryana reported similar difficulties: “During the lockdown, I moved to my hometown, and I do not have internet access here, so I go to a nearby village and send videos to students every three days.” Another teacher from Madhya Pradesh working at a premier institution reported experiencing somewhat different concerns: “I am teaching in one of the institute’s semi-smart classrooms, and while I have access to the internet, my students do not, making it difficult to hear what they are saying.”

These responses indicates clearly that it is not only teachers living in states where connectivity was poor who experienced difficulties in imparting education to students; even those who had good internet connectivity experiences problems caused by the poor internet connections of their students.

c. Tools for remote learning.

Teachers made use of a variety of remote learning tools, but access to these tools varied depending on the educator’s affiliation. Teachers at premier institutions and coaching centers routinely used the Zoom and Google Meet apps to conduct synchronous lessons. Teachers at state colleges used pre-recorded videos that were freely available on YouTube. Teachers in government schools used various platforms, including WhatsApp for prepared material and YouTube for pre-recorded videos. To deliver the content, private school teachers used pre-recorded lectures and Google Meet. In addition to curriculum classes, school teachers offered life skill classes (for example, cooking, gardening, and organizing) to help students become more independent and responsible in these difficult circumstances. In addition to online instruction, 16% of teachers visited their students’ homes to distribute books and other materials. Furthermore, of this 36% visited students’ homes once a week, 29% visited twice a week, 18% once every two weeks, and the rest once a month. Additionally, a survey done on 6435 respondents across six states in India reported that 21% teachers in schools conducted home visits for teaching children [ 19 ].

d. Knowledge and training for the use of information and communication technologies.

With the onset of the pandemic, information and communication technology (ICT) became a pivotal point for the viability of online education. The use of ICT can facilitate curriculum coverage, application of pedagogical practices and assessment, teacher’s professional development, and streamlining school organization [ 20 ]. However, the effective adoption and implementation of ICT necessitated delivery of appropriate training and prolonged practice. Also the manner in which teachers use ICT is crucial to successful implementation of online education [ 21 ]. While countries such as Germany, Japan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States recognized the importance of ICT by integrating it into their respective teacher training programmes [ 22 ], this has not been case in India. However, there are some training programmes available to teachers once they commence working. In accordance with our survey results, the vast majority of respondents (94%) lacked any ICT training or experience. In the absence of appropriate tools and support, these teachers self-experimented with online platforms, with equal chances of success and failure.

The transition from offline to online or remote learning was abrupt, and teachers had to adapt quickly to the new systems. Our data indicate that teachers in professional colleges and coaching centers received some training to help them adapt to the new online system, whereas teachers in urban areas primarily learned on their own from YouTube videos, and school teachers in rural areas received no support at all. Overall, teachers had insufficient training and support to adjust to this completely new situation. Policy research conducted on online and remote learning systems following COVID-19 has found similar results, namely that teachers implemented distance learning modalities from the start of the pandemic, often without adequate guidance, training, or resources [ 23 ]. Similar trends have been found in the Caribbean, where the unavailability of smart learning devices, lack of or poor internet access, and lack of prior training for teachers and students hampered online learning greatly. Furthermore, in many cases the curriculum was not designed for online teaching, which was a key concern for teachers [ 24 ]. Preparing online lectures as well as monitoring, supervising and providing remote support to students also led to stress and anxiety. Self-imposed perfectionism further exacerbated these issues while delivering online education [ 15 ]. A study conducted on 288 teachers from private and government schools in Delhi and National Capital Region area, also found that transition to online education has further widened the gap between pupils from government and private schools. It was more difficult to reach students from economically weaker sections of the society due to the digital divide in terms of access, usage, and skills gap. The study also found that even when teachers were digitally savvy, it did not mean that they know how to prepare for and take online classes [ 10 ].

2. How has online education affected the quality of teaching?

Once teachers had acquired some familiarity with the online system, new questions arose concerning how online education affected the quality of teaching in terms of learning and assessment, and how satisfied teachers were with this new mode of imparting education. To address these questions, specific questionnaire items about assessment and effectiveness of teaching has been included.

a. Effectiveness of online education.

Respondents agreed unanimously that online education impeded student-teacher bonding. They reported several concerns, including the inattentiveness of the majority of the students in the class, the physical absence of students (who at times logged in but then went elsewhere), the inability to engage students online, and the difficulty of carrying out any productive discussion given that only a few students were participating. Another significant concern was the difficulty in administrating online tests in light of widespread cheating. In the words of one teacher: “I was teaching a new class of students with whom I had never interacted in person. It was not easy because I could not remember the names of the students or relate to them. Students were irritated when I called out their names. It had a significant impact on my feedback. I would like us to return to class so I do not have to manage four screens and can focus on my students and on solving their problems.”

For these reasons, 85.65% of respondents stated that the quality of education had been significantly compromised in the online mode. As a result, only 33% reported being interested in continuing with online teaching after COVID-19. The results show slightly higher dissatisfaction in comparison to another study conducted in India that reported 67% of teachers feeling dissatisfied with online teaching [ 25 ]. Findings of this study were similar to the findings of a survey of lecturers in Ukraine assessing the effectiveness of online education. Lower quality student work was cited as the third most mentioned problem among the problems cited by instructors in their experience with online teaching, right behind unreliable internet connectivity and the issues related with software and hardware. Primary reasons for lower quality student work were drop in the number of assignments and work quality as well as cheating. Almost half (48.7%) of the participants expressed their disapproval of online work and would not like to teach online [ 26 ].

Due to the nature of the online mode, teachers were also unable to use creative methods to teach students. Some were accustomed to using physical objects and role-playing to engage students in the classroom, but they found it extremely difficult to make learning exciting and to engage their students in virtual space. Similar trends have been reported in Australia, where schoolteachers in outback areas did not find online education helpful or practical for children, a majority of whom came from low-income families. The teachers were used to employing innovative methods to keep the students engaged in the classroom. However, in online teaching, they could not connect with their students using those methods, which significantly hampered their students’ progress. Some teachers mentioned difficulties with online teaching caused by not being able to use physical and concrete objects to improve their instructions [ 27 ].

b. Online evaluation.

Of our respondents, 81% said that they had conducted online assessments of their students. Teachers used various online assessment methods, including proctored closed/open book exams and quizzes, assignment submissions, class exercises, and presentations. Teachers who chose not to administer online assessments graded their students’ performance based on participation in class and previous results.

Almost two-thirds of teachers who had administered online assessments were dissatisfied with the effectiveness and transparency of those assessments, given the high rates of cheating and internet connectivity issues. They also reported that family members had been helping students to cheat in exams because they wanted their children to get higher grades by any means necessary. In response, the teachers had tried to devise methods to discourage students and their families from cheating, but they still felt powerless to prevent widespread cheating.

As one respondent stated: “We are taking many precautions to stop cheating, such as asking to install a mirror behind the student and doing online proctoring, but students have their ways out for every matter. They disconnect the internet cable or turn it off and reconnect it later. When we question them, they have a connectivity reason ready”.

Teachers are also concerned about the effects of the digital skills gap on their creation of worksheets, assessments, and other teaching materials. As a result, some private companies have been putting together teacher training programs. The main challenge pertains to be implementation of a type of specialized education that many teachers are unfamiliar with and unwilling to adopt [ 28 ]. Because of the lack of effective and transparent online assessments, school teachers have reported that students were promoted to the next level regardless of their performance. Thus, only time will tell how successful online education has been in terms of its effects on the lives of learners.

3. How has online education affected teacher’s overall health?

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a situation that few people had experienced or even imagined living through. Governments and individuals tried their best to adjust to the new circumstances, but sudden lockdown, confinement to the household periphery, and working from home had adverse effects on the mental and physical health of many people, including educators and students. To clarify the effects of online education on teachers’ overall health, a number of questionnaire items were focused on respondents’ feelings during the lockdown, the physical and mental health issues they experienced, and their concerns about the future given the uncertainty of the present situation.

a. Physical health issues.

COVID-19 brought a multitude of changes to the lives of educators. Confinement to the household, working from home, and an increased burden of household and caregiving tasks due to the absence of paid domestic assistants increased physical workload and had corresponding adverse effects on the physical health of educators.

Of the study participants, 82% reported an increase in physical health issues since the lockdown ( Fig 1 ). Notably, 47% of those who were involved in digital mode of learning for less than 3 hours per day reported experiencing some physical discomfort daily, rising to 51% of teachers who worked online for 4–6 hours per day and 55% of teachers who worked more than 6 hours per day. Respondents reported a variety of physical health issues, including headaches, eye strain, back pain, and neck pain.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282287.g001

The number of hours worked showed a positive correlation with the physical discomfort or health issues experienced. A chi-square test was applied to determine the relationship between the number of online working hours and the frequency of physical issues experienced by the participants and found it to be significant at the 0.05 level ( Table 2 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282287.t002

As Fig 2 shows, 28% respondents’ complaint about experiencing giddiness, headaches; 59% complain of having neck and back pain. The majority of the participants had eye-strain problems most of the time; 32% faced eye problems sometimes, and 18% reported never having any eye issue. In addition, 49% had experienced two issues at the same time and 20% reported experiencing more than 2 physical issues at the same time.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282287.g002

The data in this study indicates a link between bodily distresses and hours worked. As working hours increased, so did reports of back and neck pain. 47% respondents reported back and neck pain after working for 3 hours or less, 60% after working for 3–6 hours, and nearly 70% after working for 6 hours or more.

The analysis also indicates link between physical issues experienced and the educator’s gender. Women experienced more physical discomfort than men, with 51% reporting frequent discomfort, compared to only 46% of men. Only 14% of female educators reported never experiencing physical discomfort, against 30% of male educators.

In terms of types of discomfort, 76% of female teachers and 51% of male teachers reported eye strain; 62% of female teacher and 43% of male teachers reported back and neck pain; 30% of female teachers and 18% of male teachers said they had experienced dizziness and headaches. The gender differences may be caused by the increase in household and childcare responsibilities falling disproportionately on female educators compared to their male counterparts. Several studies [ 17 , 29 – 31 ] have reported similar results, indicating that the gender gap widened during the pandemic period. The social expectations of women to take care of children increased the gender gap during the pandemic by putting greater responsibilities on women in comparison to men [ 29 ]. Women in academics were affected more in comparison to the men. Working from home burdened female educators with additional household duties and childcare responsibilities. A study done [ 32 ] in France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom discovered that women were immensely affected by lockdown in comparison to men. On top of this, women with children are affected more than women without children.

No effect of age on physical discomfort was observed in this study but increasing use of online tools (such as class websites) for content creation and delivery and extended working periods were major contributors to health problems.

b. Mental health issues.

The psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemics have also proved difficult to manage. Being at home all day with limited social interaction, not to mention other pandemic-related sources of stress, affected the mental health of many people. The majority of the participants in this study admitted experiencing mental health issues including anxious feelings, low mood, restlessness, hopelessness, and loneliness. According to UNESCO [ 33 ], due to the sudden closure of schools and adaptability to new systems, teachers across the world are suffering from stress. Studies conducted in various parts of the world confirmed similar trends [ 34 , 35 ]. In Israel, teachers reported psychological stress due to online teaching. 30.4% teachers reported being stressed in comparison to 6.1% teachers in traditional classroom settings [ 34 ]. In Spain, teachers experienced various kinds of mental health issues like anxiety, stress, and depression [ 36 ]. An Arabian study found an increased number of cases related to anxiety, depression, and violence during the pandemic [ 37 ]. In New Zealand teachers in Higher education reported being overwhelmed due to the online teaching [ 15 ].

Online teaching appears to have negatively affected the mental health of all the study participants. Women (94%) reported more mental health issues than men (91%), as shown in Fig 3 . Nearly two-thirds of participants said they had been dealing with mental health issues regularly and a third occasionally; only 7% said they never dealt with them. Findings of this study are in line with other studies which found that female teachers had higher levels of stress and anxiety in comparison to men [ 36 ]. Studies conducted in China reported that teachers developed mental health issues due to online classes [ 37 , 38 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282287.g003

Our analysis indicated a positive relationship between the number of working hours and the frequency of mental health issues. Of the respondents who worked online for less than 3 hours, 55% experienced some kind of mental health issue; this rose to 60% of participants who worked online for 3–6 hours, and 66% of those who worked more than 6 hours every day. A chi-square test was applied to determine the relationship between the number of online working hours and the frequency of mental issues experienced by the participants and found it to be significant at the 0.05 level ( Table 3 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282287.t003

In terms of types of mental health issues, respondents reported restlessness, anxious feelings, and a sense of powerlessness, along with feelings of hopelessness, low mood, and loneliness as shown in Fig 4 . The stress of adapting to a new online working environment, the extended hours of work required to prepare content in new formats, the trial-and-error nature of learning and adopting new practices, uncertainty caused by lockdown, and an overall feeling of having no control were some of the contributing factors.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282287.g004

Mental health issues were more common among those under the age of 35, with 64% reporting a problem most of the time compared to 53% of those over 35. It has been found that job uncertainty is one of the primary causes of a higher prevalence of mental health concerns among younger respondents than among older respondents. These findings are in line with other studies which found higher levels of stress among the young people in comparison to older one [ 36 , 39 ]. Feelings of loneliness and a sense of no control were reported by 30% of respondents under the age of 35, with these feelings occurring constantly or most of the time; only 12% of respondent over the age of 35 reported experiencing these feelings always or most of the time. Of respondents under 35 years of age 61% felt lonely at some point during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to only 40% of those age 35 or older.

This study also found gender-based differences in the frequency of mental health issues experienced, with 62% of male respondents and 52% of female respondents reporting that they had always experienced mental health issues. The types of issues also differed by gender, with men more likely to report restlessness and loneliness and women more likely to report feeling anxious or helpless. More female respondents reported feelings of hopelessness than male respondents (76% compared to 69%), and they were also more anxious (66%).

The uncertainty of the pandemic seems to have caused helplessness and anxious feelings for female teachers in particular, perhaps because a lack of paid domestic help increased the burden of household and caregiving tasks disproportionately for women at a time when the pressure to adapt to new online platforms was particularly acute. In some cases, respondents left their jobs to accommodate new family dynamics, since private employers offered no assistance or flexibility. Deterioration of mental health also led to the increased number of suicides in Japan during COVID-19 [ 39 ].

However, female teachers fared better than their male counterparts on some measures of mental health. Although half of the respondents (men and women equally) reported low mood during the pandemic, the men reported more restlessness (53%) and loneliness (59%) than the women (50% and 49%, respectively). Restrictions on eating and drinking outside the household may have had a disproportionate effect on male respondents, making them more likely to feel restless or lonely than their female counterparts, who may have handled COVID-related isolation better by being more involved in household work and caregiving.

Number of hours worked online was also a factor contributing to mental health issues. Just as respondents had more physical complaints (including eye strain, back and neck pain, and headaches) the more hours they worked online, respondents who worked longer hours online reported more mental health issues.

One of the major drawbacks of online education is the widespread occurrence of physical and mental health issues, and the results of this study corroborate concerns on this point. This study found that online teaching causes more mental and physical problems for teachers than another study, which only found that 52.7% of respondents had these problems [ 12 ].

A report by the University of Melbourne has also indicated that online teaching and learning have a negative effect on the physical and mental well-being of individuals. Teachers working from home, in particular, have reported isolation, excessive screen time, inability to cope with additional stress, and exhaustion due to increased workload; despite being wary of the risks of exposure to COVID-19, they were eager to return to the campus [ 27 ].

c. Support mechanisms.

In general, teachers experienced good support from family and colleagues during the pandemic, with 45.64% of teachers reported receiving strong support, 29.64 percent moderate support (although the remainder claimed to have received no or only occasional support from family and colleagues). 9.39% of male respondents reported that they have never received any support in comparison to 4.36% females. Female respondents reported receiving more support than male respondents perhaps because they have access to a more extensive network of family members and coworkers. Children, parents, and siblings were cited as the provider of a robust support system by most female respondents. For example, maternal relatives called or texted children to keep them engaged and helped them with homework, and female participants said their peers helped them to prepare lectures and materials. A link was also found between age and support; the older the respondent, the stronger the support system. A possible explanation for this difference is that older people have had time to develop stronger and longer-lasting professional and personal ties than younger people.

This study explored the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Indian education system and teachers working across six Indian states. The effectiveness of online education methods varied significantly by geographical location and demographics based on internet connectivity, access to smart devices, and teachers’ training. While premier higher education institutions and some private institutions had provided teachers with the necessary infrastructure and training to implement effective successful online learning with relatively few challenges, teachers at schools and community colleges have more often been left to adopt a trial-and-error approach to the transition to an online system. Further, it indicates that online education has had a significant effect on the quality of education imparted and the lives and wellbeing of teachers. While online learning has enabled teachers to reach out to students and maintain some normalcy during a time of uncertainty, it has also had negative consequences. Owing to the lack of in-person interaction with and among students in digital classes, the absence of creative learning tools in the online environment, glitches and interruptions in internet services, widespread cheating in exams, and lack of access to digital devices, online learning adversely affected the quality of education. Teachers experienced mounting physical and mental health issues due to stress of adjusting to online platforms without any or minimal ICT training and longer working hours to meet the demands of shifting responsibilities. A positive correlation was found between working hours and mental and physical health problems.

The long-term impact of COVID-19 pandemic on both the education system and the teachers would become clear only with time. Meanwhile, this study sheds light on some of the issues that teachers are facing and needs to be addressed without further ado. These findings will provide direction to the policy makers to develop sound strategies to address existing gaps for the successful implementation of digital learning. However, researchers should continue to investigate the longer-term effects of COVID pandemic on online education.

Supporting information

S1 file. supplementary material..

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Sectoral Scarring Effects of COVID-19 on Employees with Tertiary Education Degrees

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Employee with tertiary education graduate in Indonesia have also been affected by the socio-economic impacts of Covid-19, but there has been little specific discussion from scarring effect perspective. This research aims to analyze the decline in income among employees with tertiary education graduates during the Covid-19 pandemic, by using Sakernas (National Labor Force Survey) data of August 2021 and descriptive and inferential Multinomial Logistic Regression methods. This research concludes that the scarring effect, in the form of income reduction, is more pronounced among tertiary-education graduates worker in the service sector and industrial sectors. In terms of job type, the income decline is more pronounced among blue-collar and gray-collar workers. In contrast, white-collar workers, who constitute the majority of higher-education graduates worker, experienced relatively less scarry in terms of income decline. After controlling the dependent and independent variable with individual characteristics, the research found that industrial sector variable significantly influences the income decline among educated workers, followed by those in the service sector, and the lowest in agricultural sector. As the regression results, university-educated workers in the industrial sector are likely to experience a 2.468 times greater of income decline compared to those working in the agricultural sector and compared to those with stable incomes. Meanwhile, educated workers in service sector are likely to experience a 1.454 times greater of income decline compared to those working in agricultural sector and compared to those with stable incomes.

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The Effects of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Education and Care: Research and Resources for Children, Families, Teachers, and Teacher Educators

Mary renck jalongo.

Emerita, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 654 College Lodge Road, Indiana, PA 15701 USA

The COVID-19 world health crisis has profound implications for the care and education of young children in homes and schools, the lives of preservice and inservice teachers, and the work of college/university faculty. This article begins by discussing the implications of a world health pandemic for education and the challenges of conducting a literature review on such a rapidly evolving topic. The next four sections categorize the COVID-19 literature into themes: (1) threats to quality of life (QoL) and wellness, (2) pressure on families and intensification of inequities, (3) changes in teaching methods and reliance on technology, and (4) restructuring of higher education and scholarship interrupted. Each of the four themes is introduced with a narrative that highlights the current context, followed by the literature review. Next is a compilation of high-quality, online resources developed by leading professional organizations to support children, families, and educators dealing with the COVID crisis. The article concludes with changes that hold the greatest potential to advance the field of early childhood education and care.

Implications of a World Health Pandemic for Education

As of April 6, 2020, officials in all 50 states of the United States issued orders for school closures through the month in response to COVID-19. As I passed by our university campus on an errand to pick up essential items, I noticed a parking lot that ordinarily would have been jammed with faculty, staff, and students frantically searching for an empty space. With the exodus of the college students and the governor’s stay-at-home order in effect, our college town’s population had dropped by almost half. The situation was very different from what we were seeing in the media coverage of China, Italy, or New York City. Here in our small town, a group of volunteers with masks and gloves unloaded bag after bag of nonperishable groceries and other essential items from the back of three large trucks. The bags would be distributed to people in need, no questions asked. The town was quiet, yet underneath that illusion of calm, educational programs were in turmoil. All in-person class gatherings at all levels of education had ceased. Early childhood programs were in suspended animation and the Head Start building stood dark and empty. Parents with children in public schools were suddenly expected to home school. University faculty quickly converted courses to online formats, puzzled over how to provide practicum experiences, and worried about how future caregivers and teachers would meet professional standards and licensure criteria.

Education plays a particularly significant role in children and adolescents’ health and well-being and has a lasting impact on their lives as adults (Hamad et al., 2018 ). There is little question that the global health pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to all spheres of human life and to education worldwide (d’ Orville, 2020 ; Zhu & Liu, 2020 ). UNESCO, ( 2020a ) estimates that 1.2 billion school children had their education put on hold due to COVID-related school closures and, between late March through April of 2020, more than 90% of the total enrolled learners worldwide experienced nationwide school closures and were confined at home. In many ways, adapting to COVID-19 has become a huge, international social experiment that not only has caused loss of learning throughout lockdown but also can be expected to diminish educational opportunities in the long term (Jandric`, 2020 ).

Between March 12 and 27, 2020 a survey of educators from 89 countries identified the following priorities: ensuring academic learning for students, supporting students who lack skills for independent study, providing support for teachers (medical, mental health, professional development), revising graduation policies, ensuring integrity of the assessment process, defining new curricular priorities, and providing social services and food to students (Reimers & Schleicher, 2020 ). Among the concerns identified by this same international group of educators were:

reduced opportunities for social interaction with extended family, peers, and community members
threats to the health and safety of students, families, and educators
financial decisions about education and program viability
disruptions to the continuity of learning
limited access to social services and other forms of support for families
negative effects on students’ perception of the value of study
drastic reductions in face-to-face teaching and instructional time
implementation of measures to continue students’ learning during school closure
teachers’ preparedness to support digital learning
when and how to reopen schools
reductions in class size
mobility of students and legal status of international students
ways to provide practica, field experiences, and apprenticeships for professionals in training (Reimers & Schleicher, 2020 )

Challenges with Conducting a Literature Review on COVID-19

Reviewing the literature on COVID-19 is, in many ways, atypical. Unlike most other topics, practically every source has been published in 2020 or 2021. Many publications about coronavirus are posted online first; that is why some quotations in this article are designated as “unpaged”—they have been edited, but not yet assigned to a print version of a publication. A second distinguishing feature of the literature about the current pandemic is that it is exceptionally multidisciplinary.

Preparation for this article required searching the COVID-19 literature more expansively to include quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research; policy documents from respected global and national organizations; literature reviews conducted by professionals representing diverse fields, and resources prepared by prominent professional associations. New and valuable information has increased exponentially. To illustrate, in early 2020, a search using “COVID-19” plus “early childhood education” yielded very little, but, by mid-February of 2021, nearly 20,000 hits were produced by those search terms on Google Scholar alone. The World Organization for Early Childhood, for example, introduced their position paper with the following caveat: “COVID-19 is an emerging, rapidly evolving situation” (OMEP Executive Committee, 2020 ).

What follows are four themes synthesized from the literature review. Each begins with a personal narrative that puts a face on the statistics and highlights important issues in the published scholarly literature. These themes are: (1) threats to quality of life and wellness; (2) intensification of pressure on families and inequities, (3) modifications to teaching and reliance on technology, and (4) restructuring of higher education and scholarship interrupted.

Theme One: Threats to Quality of Life and Human Wellness

In late spring of 2020, the mother and father of two young children tested positive for the virus. Both parents work in the health care field; the mother is a nurse’s aide at a hospital, the father works in a nursing home. Although the couple became very ill, they managed to remain at home and used telehealth video calls to their family physician to get treatment. One of their young children got cold-like symptoms, but they decided not to get her tested because she recovered quickly. Throughout this time, troubling questions surfaced for the parents. How and when did they contract the virus? Would COVID-19 compromise the health of any family members over the long term? Is it inevitable that their son will succumb to the virus, given that they are living in the same house? Did the staff members at the parents’ places of employment quarantine quickly enough to avert an uptick of cases in the community? What will the parents do about home schooling expectations when they are so still so fatigued? How long can the family manage without income from either parent?

This family’s situation highlights two key concepts from positive psychology that are foundational to this discussion of the short- and long-term effects of a world health pandemic: quality of life (QoL) and wellness. Quality of life (QoL) has been the focus of study in psychology since the 1980s. It attempts to answer the question, “What makes it possible, not just to survive and exist, but to thrive and flourish in life?” QoL includes physical and mental health, cognitive functioning, social support, competence in work, and positive emotions such as optimism, wisdom, resilience, and so forth (Efklides & Moraitou, 2013 )—all things that are important to coping with COVID-19 (Burke & Arslan, 2020 ).

Likewise, contemporary concepts of wellness have broadened beyond physical health (i.e., absence of disease or injury). Wellness may be defined as “a way of life oriented toward optimal health and well-being in which mind, body, and spirit are integrated by the individual to live more fully within the human and natural community” (Myers et al., 2000 , p. 252). Anderson’s ( 2016 ) model, for example, categorizes wellness into five broad areas: (1) emotional, (2) social, (3) intellectual, (4) physical, and (5) spiritual. Without a doubt, QoL and wellness worldwide have been impacted by the sweeping changes that children, families, and educators were forced to make within the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

Xafis, 2020 identifies six major influences on the physical and mental health and wellbeing of individuals and groups across time and generations: (1) income and wealth, (2) employment and access to health services, (3) housing, (4) food environment, (5) education, and (6) safety. Clearly, all these things have been affected dramatically by a world pandemic and coping with it on a daily basis over an extended period of time can compromise physical and mental health. As the World Health Organization ( 2020 ) notes, “Fear, worry, and stress are normal responses to perceived or real threats, and at times when we are faced with uncertainty or the unknown. So, it is normal and understandable that people are experiencing fear in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic” (unpaged). Four types of fear that characterize experiences with COVID-19 are: (1) ravages to the body, (2) worries about significant others, (3) intolerance of uncertainty, and (4) agonizing over action/inaction (Schimmenti et al., 2020 ). It is important to understand that anxiety and fear are associated with grief, which is normal and expected following any significant loss or change (Fegert et al., 2020 ). Worldwide, human beings are not only mourning the loss of life as they knew it but also are experiencing anticipatory loss, defined as the expectation that additional, future losses will occur.

Although the COVID-19 global health crisis is unique in some ways, research on the effects of previous quarantines and pandemics—such as the 1918 influenza epidemic–suggest a lasting, negative effect on QoL and wellness (Almond & Mazumder, 2005 ). Another way to glimpse the effects of COVID-19 on early childhood education is to examine scholarly literature, particularly studies that have been completed in countries with more prior experience in managing the disease. A compilation from several reviews of the research literature in different fields (e.g., psychiatry, nursing, forensics) and the documents published by global organizations identified the following problems associated with pandemics, both historical and current:

Stigmatization of infected children/families and bias against residents in areas of high infection
Illness, hospitalization, separation, loss of loved ones and caregivers, and bereavement
Massive re-organization of family life
Disconnection of children from their peers at school, informal play activities, organized sports, and visits to one another’s homes
Grief and mourning that may go unrecognized and remain unresolved
Widespread loss of employment and economic hardship leading to lost housing, further migration, increased displacement, and more family separations
Escalation of the number of children living in extreme poverty and in food insecure households
Inability of families to provide consistent care, safe environments, and support education at home
Increases in the incidence of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation, and online predatory behavior
Disruptions to child protective services and delayed recognition of/intervention in rising cases of abuse and neglect
Higher rates of fear, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide
Higher pregnancy rates, poorer prenatal care, and increases in maternal and child mortality and morbidity
Postponement of health care visits, disruptions to medical treatment, suspension of vaccination programs, and medical supply shortages
Overconsumption of food and/or unhealthy eating, infrequent vigorous physical activity, excessive screen time, and escalating obesity
Higher rate of school dropouts resulting in lower educational attainment and possible negative effects on lifelong earnings
Prolonged periods of isolation that can lead to feelings of loneliness or depression
Continued avoidance of crowds, enclosed spaces, and physical contact long after quarantine is lifted (Araújo et al., 2020 ; Campbell, 2020 ; Fegert et al. 2020 ; Fisher & Wilder-Smith, 2020 ; Out et al., 2020 ; Peters et al., 2020 ; Rundle et al., 2020 ; United Nations, 2020 ; Usher et al., 2020 ; Van Lancker & Parolin, 2020 ; Witt et al., 2020 ; Yoshikawa et al., 2020 ).

Theme Two: Pressure on Families and Intensification of Inequities

A young family emigrated to the United States from Myanmar several years ago. Both parents work at a Thai restaurant that was closed for months and, even after it reopened, indoor dining was discontinued. As a result, the mother lost her job as a waitress and the father’s work as a cook was limited to weekends only. The couple was proud of the business they had started–a sushi bar on campus—but it failed when the university converted most courses to online delivery. The parents were immediately thrust into home schooling and did not always understand the elementary school teachers’ instructions. Given their tenuous financial situation, the couple started working outdoors—cleaning, pulling weeds, cutting grass, and raking leaves—throughout the summer and fall. Although their children needed supervision to complete school assignments, the parents had to work to meet the family’s most basic needs. They had to rely on neighbors and friends for help and lived in constant fear that they would contract the disease and transmit it to their children.

Contrast them with a young mother whose job consists of providing supplies for events and social gatherings such as weddings, banquets, and so forth. She was unemployed, but her husband’s income was sufficient to sustain the household, his job remained secure, and he was working from home. Everyone in this family had access to their own technological devices, indoor spaces where they could complete their work relatively undisturbed, and a large outdoor area where the family could convene for rest and relaxation. Neither parent had to be exposed to the virus because they could order whatever they needed and pick it up or have it delivered. Although there were some supply chain disruptions, the second family did not experience any food insecurity. They also had family members who were teachers to help. For the first family, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a disaster, made manageable only by the major efforts of their friends and church; for the financially secure family, it was an inconvenience.

The COVID-19 crisis challenges the popular notion of, “We’re all in the same boat.” First of all, the “boats” available to weather that adversity differ dramatically. Some families are cruising in luxury yachts, others are safely harbored in well-equipped houseboats, and still others are in danger of sinking at any moment on makeshift rafts. Secondly, the nature of the “storm” itself is quite different, depending upon the family’s circumstances. Where workers are concerned, first responders and health care workers are living in a tsunami, other essential workers are being buffeted about by stormy seas, and many who can continue fulfil their work duties at a distance from their places of employment have comparatively smooth sailing.

Responsibilities for keeping households disinfected, doing laundry, preparing food, and doing other household chores escalated during lockdown, particularly for women (Action Aid, 2020 ). A study conducted in Italy found that mothers with children in the 0–5 age group found it especially difficult to balance the demands of home and work (Del Boca et al., 2020 ). Parents and families have been thrust into the role of teacher under some of the worst conditions. If the family is home to more than one child, home schooling responsibilities multiply quickly because every day, Monday through Friday, new assignments related to each subject area from various teachers representing different programs keep coming in. Family members often have little or no training in supporting young children’s learning and few resources, but even these limitations are not the hardest part. The most daunting task, according to a study conducted in Italy with parents whose children were on the autism spectrum, is motivating children to learn and to complete assigned tasks (Degli Espinosa et al., 2020 ). Even the things that could be used as rewards for children were suddenly off limits, such as playing with friends or going on an outing. Thus, parents during lockdown described having difficulties with balancing responsibilities, motivating their children, accessing online materials, and producing satisfactory learning outcomes (Garbe et al., 2020 ; Waddoups et al., 2019 ). To further compound learning losses, many young children have been deprived of a year or more of regular interactions with groups of peers that promote social and emotional development.

All the COVID-related challenges are exacerbated among the vulnerable (Ambrose, 2020 ), defined as “those individuals and groups routinely disadvantaged by the social injustice created by the misdistribution of power, money, and resources” (Xafis, 2020 , p. 224). They include, but are not limited to indigenous peoples, those living in poverty, residents of rural/remote communities; those experiencing job and housing insecurity; people experiencing chronic mental illness, disabilities, or dependence on substances; prisoners; newly arrived migrants; refugees as well as displaced populations, stateless people, and migrant workers (Xafis et al., 2020 ). The suspension of childcare services due to isolation measures exacted the highest toll on families who were already struggling, and these families are most likely to experience severe, long-term deleterious effects.

Even the steps taken to protect the family–such as frequent hand washing, maintaining physical distance, and wearing personal protective equipment–were out of reach for some. Such issues were not limited to countries that lack an infrastructure for water, energy, finances, and health and education services. Wealthy countries, such as the United States, are home to young children living in extreme vulnerability, including those who are hungry, neglected, and abused. Many of the services that these children depended upon, such as healthful meals, social services, and educational interventions came to a halt with quarantine, lockdown, and physical distancing measures. Sadly, for children living in extreme adversity, early childhood programs frequently were their only respite and children lost their safe havens. Even among children whose basic needs are routinely met, educational vulnerability persists: “Preschool and children in early primary grades are most vulnerable as they often do not respond to online learning and are at a critical time of social, cognitive, and intellectual development” (Silverman et al., 2020 , p. 463). Not all parents accepted the switch to online learning; a study in China found that parents resisted or even rejected it because they felt it was ineffective, that their young children were not sufficiently independent as learners to benefit from it, and that the parents themselves had neither the time nor expertise to accept a teaching role (Dong et al., 2020 ). Social-emotional vulnerability is another concern for young children. Early childhood is a critical period for learning how to deal with powerful emotions and to build skills that support positive interactions with others.

Vulnerable too are the childcare workers, who are underpaid, without health insurance, have no paid leave, became unemployed during the shutdown, and may see the programs that they worked for close, particularly if those programs depended on tuition support from families for their existence (Ali et al., 2020 ).

Theme 3: Modifications to Teaching and Reliance on Technology

A graduate level course was converted to online Zoom meetings during the lockdown. After several class meetings, one student asked another gently, “Could I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. Why are you in the garage with your phone when we meet online for class?” The student smiled and replied, “No problem—that is easy to answer. Our internet service in this rural area is not that great. The garage gets the best reception. Besides, I have younger siblings who are doing home schooling and they are using the desktop computer. They are a big distraction!

Online learning experiences generally are defined as those that rely on the internet and different digital devices (e.g., laptops, smartphones) conducted in either a synchronous or asynchronous fashion. When people blithely suggest that “everything is online now”, this does not acknowledge those without such resources. The fundamental requirement of online teaching—reliable internet access and hardware—may not be within reach for many families, even in a wealthy country such as the United States (Devine et al., 2020 ; Fishbane & Tomer, 2020 ). A Pew Research Center report estimated that five million children and nearly one-third (31.4%) of families with children ages 6–17 with family incomes below $50,000 do not have a high-speed internet; this group represents about 40% of all families with school-age children in the United States (Horrigan, 2015 ). Further challenges to online learning include poor internet access, home environments unconducive to online learning, student difficulties with self-discipline and self-directed learning, lack of professional development for faculty, absence of holistic quality assurance systems, and means of supporting not only students’ academic learning outcomes, but also their social and emotional development (Zhu & Liu, 2020 ). Thrust into emergency remote teaching, a survey of K-12 educators indicated that they struggled to find high-quality tools, locate curated content aligned with standards and curriculum, use digital tools effectively, communicate with students at a distance, support student engagement/persistence, and adapt teaching material to the conditions and needs of particular students (Rasmitadila et al., 2020 ; Trust & Whalen, 2020 ). Unprecedented long-term closure of schools and suspension of face-to-face teaching during the COVID-19 crisis surely has reduced opportunities to learn for students, particularly those of young children. In terms of social-emotional development, most children have lost the equivalent of a year or more of interaction with peers in group settings.

The young child’s particular need to be actively involved and the fact that many of them are not yet reading, writing, or adept at computer keyboards makes them the least well-suited for online approaches. Interestingly, when articles were submitted for this Special Issue, some authors denied that they were in a philosophy/reality conflict. Instead, they argued that they had managed to keep developmentally appropriate practices, principles of social learning theory, and the Reggio Emilia approach intact. Such assertions ring hollow when one considers that everything on that list is rooted in child-initiated/child-directed activity, play-based/hands-on learning, and dynamic interpersonal interactions with peers and teachers. In a case study of young children in the South Pacific region during COVID-19, one young child poignantly captured the difference between online and in-person teaching by asking, “When are we going to have the real school?” (Dayal & Tiko, 2020 ). COVID-19 has changed early childhood education at every level, from infant care to post-doctoral study.

Theme 4: Restructuring of Higher Education and Scholarship Interrupted

A new assistant professor of early childhood education is waiting to find out if she has lost her job at the university. She is a single mother whose daughter has special needs and they relocated to the area the previous year. If she is unemployed, she also has no health insurance—in the middle of a global health crisis. Prior to COVID-19, her employer’s financial situation was precarious due to declining undergraduate enrollment. Now that the institution was forced to make prorated refunds of tuition, room, and board to residential students, things have spun out of control. All of the faculty members in the Department feel threatened because programs are being discontinued and departments are being merged or even eliminated. The administration suggests that one way to “save” a new colleague from unemployment is for the most senior professors to submit their retirement letters. Within the Department, there have been many stressful online meetings about how to schedule and staff the courses that students need to graduate, provide practicum experiences, and meet certification/licensure requirements. Throughout this upheaval, the instructor is contacted frequently by her students. They are understandably worried that they will not be adequately prepared to teach and that jobs will not be waiting for them upon graduation.

There is little doubt that COVID-19 has resulted in drastic changes to Academia. Lockdowns forced higher education to implement distance education almost overnight (Carillo & Flores, 2020 ), a situation commonly referred to as “flying the airplane while we are building it”. The switch to digital communication also made faculty available to students across time zones, blurring the lines between work and family. It was assumed that all faculty members could broadcast from their residence and maintain a professional presence, including parents who now had responsibility for home schooling. In a study of 1148 academics in the United Kingdom, the researchers noted that college/university faculty have been “thrust headlong into providing for their students exclusively via a digital interface” and, for many, “this has been an unusual, disorienting, and even unwelcome experience” (Watermeyer et al., 2020 , unpaged). A new instructor and doctoral student, Benjamin Green, observed: “So I am now confronted with the task of undoing all of my prejudices and biases against the digital pedagogical revolution, hoping, praying that I can evolve quickly enough to provide my students with an educational experience that overcomes the obstacles present within an education system grappling against a semi-apocalyptic viral pandemic” (Peters et al., 2020 , unpaged). College-level instructors also had to form partnerships with instructional technology colleagues during a time when everyone was scrambling to salvage the semester and figure out ways to engage their students from a distance (Bloom et al., 2020 ). Instructors without training in online course design resorted to whatever was available and familiar, such as TED Talks, YouTube videos, and massive online open courses (MOOCs). Some wrote and published about their efforts, such as Grissom ( 2020 ) who described using the professionally produced Colorin` Colorado videos of teachers of English to simulate a classroom observation and model reflective practice.

Yet digital solutions were not without their drawbacks, and some of them related to security issues (Szente, 2020 ). Some hackers crashed online class meetings, awkward images were broadcast, and confidential materials became public. To avoid panic, faculty downplayed the disruptions and pressed on. Methods of assessment were shaken to their core as professors struggled to maintain the integrity of the evaluation process on tests, projects, and papers. Institutions with better infrastructures for online learning had an obvious advantage, as did the tech-savvy faculty members, who navigated the transition more easily; however, neither covering content nor evaluating written work was the hardest part.

The most formidable problem was providing practical work experience and internships (Kidd & Murray, 2020 ; Marinoni, et al., 2020 ). Simulations had various limitations, field placements were unavailable, and opportunities to observe early childhood educators teaching, limited. Some instructors encouraged their students to make their own local arrangements to observe or interview young children. In instances where a student was struggling, the situation was even more acute. The numerous, direct observations gathered during student teaching that were necessary to justify the hard decision not to recommend certification were not available.

Internationally, mental health problems account for about one-third of the world’s disability among adults and these issues escalate during deadly disease outbreaks (Otu et al., 2020 ). Even before the pandemic, there was a mental health crisis in college students (American College Health Association, 2018 ; Shackle, 2019 ). Forced isolation compounded students’ problems because, “The university experience would fundamentally alter for many students, especially undergraduates who would no longer experience a unique life-stage of social learning and development and lead to the abandonment of higher education as a socially immersive and participatory learning experience” (Watermeyer et al., 2020 ). For many students, worries about health and safety made it difficult to concentrate on studies, academic enthusiasm waned, and faint hopes of future employment undermined persistence at program completion.

During COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantines throughout the world, the mental health issues of adolescents and college students surfaced or were exacerbated (Aristovnik et al., 2020 ; Gritsenk et al., 2020 ). Among international students, the circumstances frequently were even worse (Stewart et al., 2021 ). Travel bans were instituted, campus housing faced shutdowns, finances depleted, and visa restrictions became problematic. International students had traveled great distances expecting to be immersed in a new culture and hoping to develop greater proficiency in another language, only to find themselves isolated and working from a computer. In a qualitative study of faculty and students involved in international university programs, they used the words “painful”, “heartbroken”, and “crestfallen” to describe their experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown (Peters et al., 2020 ).

As student support services were curtailed or even discontinued, faculty members were available 24/7 through digital means and were contacted frequently by needy, stressed, anxious, fearful, and panic-stricken students. Professors had concerns about “assuming levels of responsibility for students’ welfare that often exceeded their expertise and training, what might be reasonably asked of them, and moreover their contractual and thus legal obligations” (Watermeyer et al., 2020 ). Nevertheless, respondents in a study of 30,383 students from 62 countries during the first wave of COVID-19 crisis in early 2020 rated faculty members as the most satisfactory source of support (Aristovnik et al., 2020 ).

The need to provide more support to family members, restructure course delivery, revise policies/programs/planning, attend to students' needs, and support distressed colleagues. “Zoom fatigue” was such a pervasive phenomenon that National Geographic published an article explaining why the online meetings were so dissatisfying (Sklar, 2020 ). They failed to provide what only face-to-face events can offer: “the electricity of real-time idea exchange, the expansion of possibilities that come with open debate, the connectivity of human warmth and emotion” (Bloom et al., 2020 ).

Scholarly work has suffered too—so much so that some institutions gave faculty another year to work toward tenure. Researchers saw their plans for data collection and analysis postponed or even abandoned, and some of their support personnel, such as graduate assistants, were unavailable. Finding the time and place to complete scholarly work was another hurdle (Cutri et al., 2020 ) as home offices were repurposed into online college classrooms or became places to home school children. Professional organizations with annual conferences as a major source of revenue were forced to cancel these important events in the lives of scholars. The networking and collaborative projects that often are initiated at these gatherings were greatly diminished and some scholarly publishers, already operating on slim profit margins, faltered and failed.

Human beings have been battered and beaten in so many ways by this highly transmittable and health-jeopardizing virus. Think about the terminology that is in use throughout the world to describe our current situation: disaster, pandemic, global health crisis, national emergency, lockdown, quarantine, stay-at-home order, and Draconian measures. There is little question that the steps taken internationally to halt the spread of COVID-19 have exacted a heavy toll on our lives. Despite the overwhelming negativity, hope remains because “times of crisis and disruption offer opportunities for resilience, growth and extraordinary development” (Witt et al., 2020 , p. 3).

On the Other Side of the Pandemic

Indian novelist/activist Arundhati Roy ( 2020 ) suggests a more positive metaphor for the COVID-19 crisis; that of a portal. It is a pathway that leads to a reconfigured future and we stand on a threshold leading to that journey. What possible good might come from managing to prevail in the time of coronavirus?

Promotion of Ethical Practices/Policies, Global Perspectives, and Collaborative Scholarship

The COVID-19 situation is the consummate unstructured problem that confounds efforts to solve it in a linear, stepwise fashion. Effective responses thus far have highlighted the survival skill set of the future, namely: global perspectives, multidisciplinary collaboration, innovative thinking, and principled practice. If only the global community will heed it, there are important lessons to take away from the COVID-19 experience. “The pandemic has exposed how reliant we all are on each other, how the health of the disadvantaged impacts on the advantaged, how events in one country impact on lives in others, how economies are impacted by the health of the people whose labor they rely on and on the health of those excluded from the labor market, and how we can only fight some battles united” (Xafis, 2020 , p. 225). In many ways, the situation of COVID-19 has created a “perfect moral storm” (Xafis et al., 2020 ) that will rely on an “ethos of community” to move forward (Green, 2020 ). Worldwide, people and organizations collaborated to create helpful resources. Table Table1 1 includes many prime examples of international, interagency collaborations and data-informed recommendations that educators can put to use in helping families, students, co-workers, and themselves.

Recommended Online Resources about COVID-19 for Children, Families, and Educators

Offers a downloadable coronavirus resource library with sections for parents and children. For example, is written by a child psychiatrist, to help adults discuss the pandemic and respond to children’s questions

An information hub, including hotlines accessed via telephone or text, APA publications, and publications by other mental health organizations. The APA Center for Workplace Mental Health has several helpful resources, including:

This site has helpful resources in the following categories: young people, parents and carers, schools and colleges, early years, and mental health workers

Offers straightforward advice on coping with loneliness, stress, anxiety and depression when living through quarantine and pandemics

A hub of resources for families and leaders in English, Spanish, and French. Some of their Fact Sheets on COVID include: Supporting Homebound Children During COVID-19, They also have infographics. Educators are invited to submit their concerns to: [email protected]

The is a clear, developmentally appropriate explanation of what children can do to stay safe and help during the pandemic, complete with the Muppets

A free, downloadable picture book designed for children ages 5 to 9. It was developed with input from a professor of infectious disease modeling, a child psychologist, teachers, and the illustrator of the popular children’s book, Axel Scheffler. The book answers the questions: What is the coronavirus? How do you catch the coronavirus? What happens if you catch the coronavirus? Why are people worried about catching the coronavirus? Is there a cure for the coronavirus? Why are some places we normally go to closed? What can I do to help? and

What’s going to happen next?

A wide array of fact sheets, produced by physicians and in collaboration with Harvard Health Publishers. Many of resources are available already translated into 40 different languages. Of particular interest to early childhood educators is the that is a full color, illustrated poster. It concludes with a message for parents and caregivers posted at:

English_Children_3-6_FINAL.pdf—Google Drive

Teachers will find that this extensive, annotated guide to curriculum, professional development resources, and online teaching tools is helpful and well organized. It also is likely to include some resources that are new to them. Many of the resources are published in different languages. The downloadable, free pdf is a collaborative project with representation from several different leading professional organizations published by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

Many leading organizations–including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and Save the Children–collaborated to produce a picture book that explains COVID-19 to children (suggested age range is 6–11). It raises and answers many concerns and questions that children have. The book is available in over 100 different languages, including Braille

This site contains numerous resources available in many different languages. In a Harvard professor and psychiatrist at Boston Children’s Hospital highlights seven strategies to support those responsible for children during the pandemic. Concise and in color, the page is suitable for sharing

Another publication is . It is a

color poster of strategies, suitable for sharing with families

Their statement, (Dalton, Rapa and Stein 2020) provides guidelines based on empirical research

Protecting the psychological health of children through effective communication about COVID-19—The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health

The Royal College of Psychiatrists and Health Education England have partnered to produce key resources about COVID-19, including the categories of: Helping Each Other, Stress & Fear, Tips for Leaders and Managers, Trauma & Loss, and End of Life and Bereavement

This site is repository of fact sheets. One that university faculty will want to read is . Many times, educators worry about saying the wrong thing, so also available in Spanish, is helpful. The site also includes resources on trauma-informed schools

Simple Activities that children and families can do during stay-at-home orders are posted at:

Provides guidelines on discussing COVID-19 with children, a poster on handwashing protocols suitable for children, and links to their other resources. You can sign up to receive notifications as new resources are published

Offers a COVID information center with latest updates, tips and guidance for families, and vaccination information. Publications are in English, Spanish, and French. For developmentally appropriate ways to discuss COVID with children, see their publication,

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) information centre | UNICEF

provides guidelines for school administrators and teachers as they resume face-to-face teaching. The site has frequent updates of on important aspects of coping with COVID-19

Some helpful publications are , , and a series of publications called #Healthy at Home that advises adults on such topics as parenting, mental health, and physical activity when families are staying at home much more. Full color posters of infographics that highlight important concepts include: stress.jpg (528 × 748) (who.int) and children-stress.jpg (524 × 742) (who.int)

Find advice for parents prepared in many different languages posted at:

WHO-2019-nCoV-MentalHealth-2020.1-eng.pdf

Re-examination of the Concept of Childhood

Sara Lawrence Lightfoot ( 1978 ) coined the word childism to refer to the mistaken assumption that children’s emotions do not run as deep as those of adults and that children can be expected to recover more readily from adversity than mature individuals. This adult-centric view tends to minimize the effects of change and crisis on young children, assumes that they are oblivious to bad situations, and expects them to be exceptionally resilient. For some families, COVID-19 quarantine resulted in parents spending significantly more time in the company of their children and witnessing, first-hand, worrisome changes in behavior (Evans et al. 2020 ; Waddoups et al., 2019 ). Families could see for themselves that young children are at the epicenter of the disaster as support networks fell away. Perhaps the COVID crisis will help the general population to abandon childism, recognize that children’s social and emotional development are just as important as their schoolwork, and acknowledge that inherent vulnerability of the youngest human beings.

Renewed Resolve to Address the Global Child Care Crisis

In a working paper written for The United Nations, the authors argued that the world was already in a global childcare crisis prior to the pandemic because high-quality childcare was out-of-reach for many families around the globe (Gromada et al., 2020 ). Early childhood education and care is essential work. Dealing with home schooling made it evident that teachers and caregivers of young children have to do more than meet basic needs, provide structure and routine, and offer learning activities. Families soon realized that those things are easy compared to motivating children to learn and to complete assigned tasks. A mother from a wealthy community said, airily, “Oh, we are doing learning pods here—are you doing pods where you live?” She was referring to the practice of designating a small group of children who have tested COVID-19 negative to gather together for homeschooling while continuing to practice the measures to control the spread of the disease (Herzog & Eastman, 2020 ). Parents, usually mothers, take turns leading the group. The presumed advantages are shared responsibility for childcare and provision of opportunities for children to interact with peers. A key point here is that a trustworthy adult has to be available to supervise, so pods are far from a solution for many families. Responsibility for advancing the learning of young children is not for amateurs; it requires professional knowledge, skill, and patience. Learning pods pale in comparison to the huge investments that are necessary, such as the following long-term structural reforms to early childhood education recommended in a report published in Australia:

Develop a resilient, secure, and sustainable early childhood education and care system
Build schools’ and teachers’ capacity to continue teaching and learning online and via other flexible modes of delivery to better manage future disruptions
Focus more on student-centered learning and development of general capabilities, including resilience, creativity and problem-solving. These capabilities should be treated with the same importance as foundational skills such as literacy and numeracy.
Address persistent inequality in schools and address disparities in relation to funding, instructional resources and physical infrastructures (Noble et al., 2020 )

Ideally, adapting to the world health crisis would encourage more educators at all levels to shift from “traditional, teacher-centered, and lecture-based activities toward more student-centered activities including group activities, discussions, hands-on learning activities, and limited use of traditional lectures”, leading to “a more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable education after the pandemic is gone” (Zhu & Liu, 2020 ).

One reason that COVID-19 has riveted global attention is that, this time, those with more social capital have had their lives disrupted. For example, the Ebola virus had horrific symptoms, very young children were the most vulnerable group, and the disease was more likely to be fatal than COVID, but it was concentrated in West Africa and a vaccine was developed comparatively quickly (National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, 2019 ). Appalling as Ebola was, it did not affect huge numbers of people worldwide as COVID has. The current pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of our systems and responses. “The pandemic’s disproportionate, tragic consequences for health and livelihoods—for individuals, their communities, and even whole societies—underscore institutionalized forms of discrimination rooted in race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, and abilities” (Arnove, 2020 , unpaged). Even as vaccinations are being rolled out, it is obvious that there are “haves” and “have nots” and practices/policies that that serve to perpetuate bias and exclusion. Grappling with COVID-19 has made it clear that mental and physical health are indivisible. Ideally, in the aftermath of the pandemic, societies worldwide will begin working toward linking mental and physical health support services, particularly for marginalized and vulnerable groups.

It is encouraging to witness leading experts from various disciplines—such as The WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commissioners, 2020 –joining forces to argue more cogently for high-quality educational experiences that commence at the very beginning of children’s lives. Three powerful ideas that bind the field of early childhood education and care together need to become part of the international educational landscape. They are: (1) early childhood represents an irreplaceable opportunity for growth, development and learning; (2) the experiences of young children are formative and exert an influence across the lifespan; and (3) taking positive action during the early years can prevent more serious issues later on. The fervent hope is that COVID-19 provides a rare opportunity to create a stronger, more equitable and humanitarian society (Davidai et al., 2020 ). The world needs to move beyond vague assertions that about young children’s rights and political rhetoric about children representing our future. Instead, the global community needs to demonstrate–through major financial commitments and enlightened policies and practices—that the care and education of the very young is an international priority.

Publisher's Note

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The Effect of COVID-19 on Education

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Online education and its effect on teachers during COVID-19—A case study from India

Introduction

Results & discussion

1. How effectively have teachers adapted to the new virtual system?

a. Access to smart devices.

b. Internet access.

c. Tools for remote learning.

d. Knowledge and training for the use of information and communication technologies.

2. How has online education affected the quality of teaching?

a. Effectiveness of online education.

b. Online evaluation.

3. How has online education affected teacher’s overall health?

a. Physical health issues.

b. Mental health issues.

c. Support mechanisms.

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Sectoral Scarring Effects of COVID-19 on Employees with Tertiary Education Degrees

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