While the pandemic has impacted all people greatly, first-year college students are certainly no exception.
According to a new report released by ACT, the nonprofit organization that administers the ACT college readiness exam, two-thirds of 2019-2020 college freshmen had academic issues with online learning. 98% of surveyed students reported a rapid shift to online learning following the COVID-19 pandemic.
This sudden change, although problematic for many students used to an in-person experience, is particularly troublesome for students with built-in disadvantages such as being a first-generation student or coming from a low-income household.
“The first year of college is often a stressful time for college students, as the transition from high school to college brings new circumstances and expectations,” said ACT CEO Janet Godwin. “The past academic year was perhaps the most challenging year in the lives of American college students, particularly students from low-income families and first-generation college students, who were more likely to have limited access to technology and the internet compared to their counterparts. Ending the digital divide must be a national priority if we are serious about giving every college-bound student a fair shot at earning a degree.”
One-third of students said they owned an unreliable computer, while 21% reported they had unpredictable or no access to the internet. A whopping 75% of students said they had an OK to completely unpredictable internet connection. Most of these students came from low-income households or were first-generation students.
“We found that access to technological and learning resources were related to perceived academic challenges and concerns,” said Dr. Joyce Z. Schnieders, a research scientist who co-led the survey for ACT. “First-year college students who had access to technological and learning resources were more likely to rate their coursework as easy, and less likely to report short-term and long-term academic concerns compared to students who did not have access to these technological resources, which in turn were associated with a higher level of certainty about enrolling in the same institution next year.”
With COVID-19 variants continuing to impact daily life, increasing access to technological and learning resources would go a long way in supporting all students, says Ms. Schniders.
ACT researchers interviewed 1,164 first-year college students about their experiences with online learning during the pandemic.
