Understanding Undergraduate Student Experiences And Priorities For Returning To Campus During The Covid-19 Pandemic At The University Of Delaware
Date
2022-05
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University of Delaware
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic had numerous implications for institutions of higher
education regarding the development of campus regulations, the transition to virtual
and hybrid working and learning modalities, and the experience of undergraduate
college students. In order to understand the impact on students at the University of
Delaware, the present study was undertaken: 1) to conduct a review of past literature
that examined impacts of the pandemic at universities comparable in size to the
University of Delaware, 2) to perform a data analysis of the qualitative responses
garnered through the Student Return to Campus Survey administered by the Center for
Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP) in Spring 2020, and 3) to identify
common themes of student experiences and priorities during the pandemic years to
inform future recommendations for health crisis management at the University of
Delaware. The study utilized secondary data analysis from an online survey of 2,941
Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior students from the 2020-2021 academic year
completing the Student Return to Campus Survey. The data analysis revealed a set of
common outstanding themes, which were categorized into the following: Overall
Feelings About the Pandemic at UD; Quality and Accessibility of Education in a
Virtual Learning Environment; Quality of Student Life; Mental Health; Thoughts and
Attitudes About Vaccination Policies, Masking, Testing, and COVID Guidelines at the
University; Return to Campus; Notes and Recommendations to Administration. These
major topics branched into further, more specific topics that touch on particular
aspects of the main categories that were expressed through the qualitative data.
Findings demonstrate that students’ perspectives and experiences were influenced by a
number of factors that all should be considered in future instances of crisis
management.
Description
Keywords
COVID-19, Student experience, Crisis management