MN7400 Academic Skills and Practice Assignment sample
STUDENT EXPERIENCE’ IN UK HE DURING COVID 19 PANDEMIC
Introduction
Student experience term comprises various aspects that are effective in intellectual development including social and emotional life. Not only the academic growth but also refinement of culture, sports and artistic interests all factors are included. Covid 19 pandemic has brought effective challenges for all sectors and the Higher education sector has no exception. In the UK HE sectors are forced to think how service can be delivered in another way so that everyone can stay connected. They had to find out the right infrastructure that is suitable for teaching and research. The universities are responding quickly to adopt new technology that is useful in difficult times. Covid 19 has changed the whole process of interaction between students and teachers. The learning materials and other services all are changed due to the pandemic. In the UK most of the universities provide required documents through digital channels whereas some of them are faced with difficulty in the digital set up process. This process needs a better infrastructure with advanced technology to reach out to hundreds of students. Some HE sector are faced with challenges due to the transformation of this learning process. It is very difficult to shift the process from face to face interaction to online interaction.
Discussion
Literature review
The UK HE sectors are adopting a new process of teaching and learning with providing service through online digital channels. The sector realizes that it is important for those who are suffering from any mental health issue during this tough situation. The UK HE adapts the new process of education quickly to enable the core business and maintain the confidence of staff and students in this period. However it is very important to consider cyber security protection in the learning process. Numerous cyber attacks have been seen in the Covid19 period. Most universities and institutions had to increase their service for providing remote access for their employees and students and it can be stated that as a public sector cyber attackers are targeting them even in this critical situation. According to Walters et al. 2020, the dramatic increment of using online channels for learning affects the concentration and engagement for the students and staff both. Who has specific learning difficulties can score lower due to the learning process and that may affect their mental well being. In a case study it has been seen that in the UK in a HE sector pupils are significantly poor in concentration, learning ability, self worth compared to their experience from classroom learning (Pate, 2021). Online teaching and traditional teaching both are compared for learning outcome and performance both teacher and students are preferred in the face to face interaction process. Most importantly students get distracted and during the online class and rather than engaging they engage themselves in watching online videos. As a whole this process has fewer outcomes on performance basis in education. Still in covid 19 period any physical classes were stopped and online channels helped the sector to continue their learning process as well as universities business.
Figure 1: Student Experience in the Covid 19 time survey
(Source: https://www.tribalgroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-1.png?width=555&name=image-png-1.png)
In education it is very essential to focus on the “student experience” in higher education. The learning experience enhancement and engaging students to the course is very important. In the traditional learning process it is not so difficult for the staff but in online channels the communication and collaboration with students changes entirely. The Covid 19 disrupted people’s working life and brought changes in their daily activities (Petronzi and Petronzi, 2020). To enhance the students experience UK HE has taken several steps to maintain the community among staff and students.
- Using right tools
Use of right rolls can help staff and students to stay connected and collaborate with each other. The virtual collaborative workplace process helps both feel connected in their daily lives. During this period many people have suffered from mental health issues, this collaborative process helps them to feel relaxed.
- New way of teaching
This is different from traditional classroom based learning and it focus more on students problem solving activities and social platforms of collaboration are considered a useful tool that connect students with teachers and focus on those students who have difficulty in understanding through online channels. Teachers have been spending time on analyzing the data across the website to proactively respond to their students and promote their content so that everyone can understand the process easily.
Figure 2: Quality of online learning
(Source: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com)
According to the author, Edghiem et al. 2020, in the UK digital technology learning was introduced before the pandemic started but in covid 19 periods the whole context of teaching transformed into internet based online learning method using appropriate collaborative tools. The UK higher education sector is closed and it is a new experience for the students as well as the teachers who were used to the traditional approach of learning. Teachers have been using new practices with technology that can be useful in the remote learning process. A framework of this learning experience can be described through this study. Three characteristics that influence students’ learning experience are authenticity, collaboration and personalization (Woods and Botcherby, 2021). Authenticity can be described as the opportunities that are used for contextualization of learning through the digital device. Collaboration is a connected aspect that is done with conversation in the “high level of networking” learning process. Personalization can be stated as accessing customized activities which can control ownership in terms of time, place and pace.
According to Raape and Brown, 2020, the covid 19 does not only affect the learning activities and procedure in the UK, most of the higher education institutes income depends on the student’s tuition fees (Lawson et al. 2021). Due to the pandemic the student number is significantly dropped and consequently it affects the sector’s core business process. In the UK, a huge number of losses occur because of international student tuition fees. Under this crisis UK HE has started to explore new form of learning and teaching using different communication tools. Institutes are focused more on staff and other services and student experience is paid less attention in this situation. Students from different backgrounds or with socio economic disadvantage needs more support this time and research evidence shows that online digital channels are providing learning activities to a good number of students but it also has disadvantages of having no essential academic and well bing support for students who need this support (Gray and Shanmugam, 2020). The author states covid 19 crises as both destructive and productive in the UK HE. Crisis always offers a new opportunity for a different starting and the new form of engaging students in educational practice with network. However the academic support services for students related to mental and social health are temporarily closed in this period that affect students’ learning experience and also drop their score. Above all of this potential risk related to student and staff mental health issues, technology controlling processes and the cyber attacking issues is also an issue for the educational sectors. The threat of cyber security can be reduced by reviewing the remote test process to ensure a secure service (Tice et al. 2021). Patch and harden infrastructure need to be implemented to reduce vulnerabilities and any antivirus, firewalls and VPNs need to be controlled. In the education sector the phishing attack is very common so staff and students both have to be concerned before opening any email.
Research Question
From the above literature it is very significant that covid 19 has an impact in the higher education sector. UK HE has brought several changes in their education practice to provide continued service to their students. Both positive and negative aspects of covid 19 in the pandemic have been discussed above. After studying all the literature related to “student experience” due to the new form practice some questions have been raised that are ignored during the research. The literature are mostly research on what are the impact on covid 19 in UK higher education system that include business, learning procedure and potential risk related to it. The development process is not discussed in those reports. After analyzing the factors the questions are established here.
- What are the development processes that enhance a student’s experience?
- How can the support service be provided through online channels to the students who need it?
Methodology
The research can be done by using some possible method that helps to find the answer for the aforementioned question. The higher education sector has faced several challenges internally and externally (Terry et al. 2021). Their overall business has faced loss due to the covid period and the whole learning process shifted from face to face interaction to online channel communication. Teachers are paying more attention to communicating with everyone and also providing personalized education to reduce the experience issue. Still it is noticeable that students are not performing in that way they performed in the classroom based process (Bryson and Andres, 2020). Eventually they got distracted and lost their concentration from the lectures and as a result their self worth and self evaluation power decreased.
Figure 4: Online Learning Framework
(Source: https://www.frontiersin.org)
As technology and procedure focused on staff and others the students who has difficulty in understanding the process are paid less attention. Some results show that in some institutions students are suffering from mental health issues during this period. They required support from the academic sector for their well being but in most cases these are ignored (Lumsden et al. 2020). It is very important to find the right path for developing student experience in HE and provide support to those who need it. The secondary data collection method with qualitative data sources can be gathered to analyze the result. The secondary method is using data from existing sources such as from online journals, books and articles. The data can be gathered in such a way that can be evaluated with proper tools and techniques. UK’s student experience can be gathered from the feedback process for the online educational practices.
Analysis
The research can be done with a qualitative approach using inductive research design. After gathering the data with proper analysis tools the data will be analyzed. The UK’s HE sectors are finding various paths for producing a new form of teaching learning process to engage more students in their institution as the reduction in student number directly affects their business. Especially in the UK, international students play a vital role in business procedure. Various methods and collaborative tools are used for engaging students and developing their learning experience with personalized learning. The data are collected from various sources and evaluated to get the better development in the online learning process that helps staff, students and teachers all. Further research can be done by getting feedback from the students and teachers. They can also give suggestions to develop the learning process that will be useful for all students in the institution. For finding the exact way to provide better learning experience both the quantitative and qualitative research approach can be applied.
Conclusion
Covid 19 caused a global crisis in the educational system and particularly in the higher education process of the UK is affected as their income mostly depends on international student’s tuition fees. Social networking and online channels help to engage students on the educational practice but still there is a gap between the traditional classrooms based approach and online approach. It is evident that students’ scores and experience are deteriorating after learning from the online learning procedure as a result universities overall income is reduced to some extent. It is also not possible for every institution to have a better advanced infrastructure within their workplace to provide a student remote access system. For teachers who are used to with face to face interaction learning process or not expert in using technology also faced challenges in this period. UK higher education system support staffs and students with using collaborative tool that make them feel comfortable in their daily activities but it is also evident that students who have difficulty in understanding cannot communicate with their teachers. Students who need mental well being support and also academic support paid less attention. Everyone in the covid 19 situation feels distressed and anxious and some students cannot get proper support that leads to a mental health issue for them. It should be mentioned that UK HE increases their technology of teaching for enhancing students’ experience in the Covid 19 pandemic.
Reference List
Journals
Bryson, J.R. and Andres, L., 2020. Covid-19 and rapid adoption and improvisation of online teaching: curating resources for extensive versus intensive online learning experiences. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 44(4), pp.608-623.
Gray, H. and Shanmugam, S., Paper title: Student mental wellbeing during a global pandemic: Leading a QAA Scotland Enhancement Themes Collaborative Cluster.
Lawson Jones, G., York, H., Lawal, O., Cherrill, R., Mercer, S. and McCarthy, Z., 2021. The experience of diagnostic radiography students during the early stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic–a cross‐sectional study. Journal of medical radiation sciences, 68(4), pp.418-425.
Lumsden, E., Meechan, D., Richardson, T., Smith, S., Bugby, M., Dugan-Clements, C., Goy, P. and Rossetti, D., 2020. Student Experience of Learning, Assessment and Support during the Covid-19 Pandemic.: Creating a New Reality Phase One Report.
Pate, A.G., 2021. Supporting the transition to remote learning following the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 9(2), pp.181-188.
Petronzi, R. and Petronzi, D., 2020. The Online and Campus (OaC) Model as a Sustainable Blended Approach to Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: A Response to COVID-19. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 4(4), pp.498-507.
Raaper, R. and Brown, C., 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic and the dissolution of the university campus: Implications for student support practice. Journal of Professional Capital and Community.
Raaper, R., Brown, C. and Llewellyn, A., 2021. Student support as social network: exploring non-traditional student experiences of academic and wellbeing support during the Covid-19 pandemic. Educational Review, pp.1-20.
Terry, A., Miller, J., Rodriguez, S., Haley, M., Ben-Maimon, S., Knowles, J., Wahrenbrock, T., Photovath, J. and Duggal, N., 2021. The Medical Student Experience in the Era of COVID-19: Reflections on the Transformation of Medical Education.
Tice, D., Baumeister, R., Crawford, J., Allen, K.A. and Percy, A., 2021. Student Belongingness in Higher Education: Lessons for Professors from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 18(4), p.2.
Walters, T., Simkiss, N.J., Snowden, R.J. and Gray, N.S., 2021. Secondary school students’ perception of the online teaching experience during COVID‐19: The impact on mental wellbeing and specific learning difficulties. British Journal of Educational Psychology, p.e12475.
Woods, K. and Botcherby, P., 2021. Then & Now: Arts at Warwick Introduction. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(4), pp.1-8.
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