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TRANSITION CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
DID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC CAUSE CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND
PROFESSORS FROM IN CLASS INSTRUCTION TO ONLINE
Department of Education, Liberty University
EDUC 518: Educational Research and Assessment
Dr. Jeremiah Koester
December 6th, 2024
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TRANSITION CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
Abstract
Throughout history, and recently due to the Covid-19 pandemic, almost all higher educational
institutions had to switch from a fully face-to-face to a hybrid, or fully online educational format.
Not only did students have difficulties in the transition, so did higher educational instructors.
Instructors from institutions from around the world had to change their teaching philosophy to
accommodate for the lack of in-person teaching. Many students and instructors experienced a
challenging transition but had to adapt to be successful in their educational journeys. Students
found that they had issues staying attentive and creating discussions; low-income families had a
reduced amount of access to home educational resources, students had lower GPAs and their
enthusiasm to finish coursework was adversely impacted, students displayed emotional
detachment and increased stress, many students said they had inadequate technology and had
reduced access to the internet, communication with students was problematic and was not fully
supported by students, and there was a lack of student socialization and communication which
created logistical obstacles. Educators has difficulties adapting to the online format as well. They
experienced content delivery and limitations, teaching styles challenges, online assessment
methods, students’ interests and differences, felt lost and anxious, felt essential competencies
could not be gained online, and educators needed to develop a new set of talents that were
different than that of face-to-face classroom teaching. While online education is becoming more
prevalent, there is still much transition that needs to take place for students and educators to to
feel like they are experiencing and earning the same benefits of online education compared to
traditional in person face-to face instruction.
Keywords: Covid-19 Pandemic, online classes, traditional face-to-face classes, difficult
transition, benefits
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TRANSITION CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
Many colleges and universities originate from an extensive practice of values and
traditions going all the way back to several of the United States founding institutions of higher
learning such as Yale and Harvard Universities. One of the major traditions, from these
institutions, is attending classes in person at a college or university. As time moves forward, and
students’ needs change, so must these educational institutions. Because of the Covid-19
pandemic in 2021, about 60% (11.2 million) of college students pursued at least one class online
(Welding, 2023). Online college classes are becoming increasingly widespread, and it is
becoming easier for non-traditional students to earn a degree online. As students decide to earn
their degree, they must consider if online higher education learning is as effective and beneficial
as traditional in person learning at the college level. Specifically, if students, because of the
Covid-19 pandemic, have experienced extreme challenges and hardships and are able to be
successful in their educational journeys.
In 2021, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, all countries from around the world
had different experiences and felt a variety of hardships from this life altering phenomenon.
Some experiences were neutral or positive, while many students, and professors, experienced
many difficulties in the transition from face-to-face instruction to online learning. Many
professors found certain themes from transitioning from face-to-face teaching to all online. There
are six important challenges faced by many teachers. The nature of remote teaching, content
delivery and limit, teaching styles, online assessment methods, and students’ interests and
differences were just some of them. The teachers felt lost, anxious, and entered a survival stage
during the transition (Al Abiky, 2021). Not only did the transition affect how students and
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TRANSITION CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
professors felt with several challenges along the way, but the transition also affected student
retention rates and posed several other challenges. A report issued by the American College
Testing (ACT), surveyed 1,164 students who started their first year of college in the 2019-2020
academic year. Its purpose was to identify how the change to online education changed students'
identified achievements and challenges, as well as their retention and determination. Over 2/3 of
the students said they suffered heightened educational challenges due to the pandemic. Those
who faced the biggest difficulties were first-generation and low-income students. Nearly ½ of the
students questioned said they had inadequate technology and 1/3 had reduced access to the
internet. Many students stated that if colleges and universities do not focus on the added stressors
and difficulties of online learning, then many students may drop out of college (Herder, 2021).
The transition forced many students to learn and adapt to different coping strategies to
acclimatize to the change. Many professors and students had to learn to manage relentless
amounts of stress due to the COVID-19. Many students and faculty members communicated
their coping mechanisms during the pandemic. Student grade statistics from midterms and final
course grades were gathered to calculate academic success. Students were more likely than
faculty to participate in maladaptive coping strategies and experience explicitly emotional
detachment. These conclusions had theoretical and practical consequences for teaching in higher
education including a reflection of how students handle serious stress compared to faculty and
how it influences educational accomplishment (Goldman & Bell, 2022). Another issue both
students and professors experienced during the transition was communication. Communication
with students during an online class is more problematic to create or is not fully supported by
students. There were many potential challenges in designing collaborative learning activities as
well as approaches to enhancing classroom communication. One of the most important attributes
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TRANSITION CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
in establishing student performance and knowledge during online learning is motivation
(Martadinata, 2024). If students are not motivated to learn while attending classes in an online
format, it can be challenging to both the student and professor.
Interaction became a main factor during the change from face-to-face classes to online
classes as well. There are many negative issues of communication and cooperation in online
classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. A lack of student socialization and communication-
related concerns were at the forefront of many professor’s and student’s minds. There became
flaws in teacher instruction due to the abrupt transition and students faced challenges in their
class activities which lead to a decline in trust, a deficiency of inspiration to learn, and
professors’ teaching (Salarvand et al., 2023). Due to this lack of interaction, many professors and
students felt that essential competencies could not be gained from a fully online learning
platform. Also, students had problems staying attentive and creating discussions, while
instructors had complications supervising students during exams due to the lack of proper tools
needed. Because of this, many professors’ grading policies had to be changed due to the online
nature of the classes (Alías et al., 2023). Proper communiqué is a key factor for both professors
and students, especially when such a drastic transition from traditional face-to-face learning to
online learning took place due to the sudden Covid-19 pandemic.
Students from different backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses had different
experiences during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic as well. Many minority students
experienced significant decline in their educational understandings and outcomes, observations
about institutional resources, coursework results and practices, and home educational settings.
Many students from low-income families had a reduced amount of access to home educational
resources, had lower GPAs, and their enthusiasm to finish coursework was adversely impacted
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TRANSITION CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
contrasted to higher-income students (Errisuriz et al., 2022). Due to these challenges, many
students had to adapt and overcome these complexities. In order for professors to teach online,
and students to be successful, educators needed to develop a new set of talents that were different
than that of face-to-face classroom teaching. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, educators found
themselves underprepared, mentally and academically, for this abrupt change to teach entirely
online. They had many challenges and found ways to cope with technical breakdowns and
anxiety, felt a sense of alienation and lack of spontaneous interaction, and sensed an unsuitable
offline instructional activity for online use (Qi et al., 2021). Technology issues were a continuing
issue for many students and professors around the world. This rapid shift on education created
struggles for teachers who were inexperienced with e-learning methods, and imposed a paradigm
shift in teaching methods (Sekar et al., 2024). These were just some of the issues professors and
students had to adapt to in order to be successful and to resemble some sense of normalcy.
While online classrooms created logistical obstacles, they also provoked advances like
state-run education TV channels and doorstep instructional schemes in some countries (Sekar et
al., 2024). Transitions were needed to be made, and one of those modifications that proved to be
somewhat success was hybrid-style learning. This was especially true for health science classes
that required a lab component. Due to the amplified demand for anatomy and physiology courses
for health science programs, hybrid-style labs were crucial to meet the heightened enrollment
without expanding the need for lab space and compromising instructive superiority. There is a
lack of research that conducts the attendance, practical grades, and total scores comparing face-
to-face, hybrid, and online A&P labs, but students who attended hybrid labs stated they had
better experiences and larger satisfaction, attended more labs, and surpassed those who attended
online labs. But it is interesting to fins that face-to-face lab students achieved better grades than
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TRANSITION CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
hybrid lab students (Pollock, 2022). Professors had the difficult experience of changing teaching
styles to accommodate for the disastrous Covid-19 Pandemic. Pedagogical changes were adapted
for many professors to improve issues or personal responses to student toils on a case-by-case
basis. Instructors' decisions to adjust to student issues were greatly hindered by their perception
of duty to continue professional standards, the legitimacy of grades, and their prevailing
technological expertise and course model (Manierre et al., 2022). This posed as another
challenge for professors across the country and the world. Not only did they have to learn to
transition to online classes, and the trials associated with that, they had to ensure students were
completing their assignments and tests in an ethical manner without sacrificing integrity for all.
The Covid-19 pandemic not only caused havoc in many healthcare institutions and
governments around the world, but it also affected educational systems as well. Colleges and
universities were forced to rapidly transition from traditional face-to-face in person college
education to a hybrid, or more commonly, fully online platforms. Throughout the transition,
professors and students alike experienced many difficult hardships. Many students and
professors experienced a challenging transition but had to adapt to be successful in their
educational journeys. Students found that they had problems staying attentive and creating
discussions, low-income students had reduced access to home educational resources, students
earned lower GPAs and their eagerness to complete coursework was negatively impacted,
students exhibited emotional detachment and increased stress, students said they had inadequate
technology and reduced access to the internet, communication with students was challenging and
was not fully supported by students, and there was a lack of student socialization and
communication which shaped logistical obstacles. Professors experienced challenges as well.
Educators felt adversities with content delivery and limitations, teaching styles challenges, online
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TRANSITION CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
assessment methods, students’ interests and differences, felt lost and anxious, felt essential
competencies could not be gained online, and they needed to develop a new set of talents that
were different than that of face-to-face classroom teaching. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic
subsiding in recent years, students must decide if a fully online classroom is adequate for them to
be successful and earn their college degrees. Time management, discipline, organization skills
and open communication is needed for students to be completely productive in an online
educational platform.
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TRANSITION CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
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