Research takes a look at a semester like no other, including how college students feel they fared academically in the middle of the pandemic
As the fall 2020 semester wraps up, we wanted to know more about the student experience of learning during COVID-19. We asked more than 14,000 college students from across the country about how pandemic-related changes to education affected their academic performance.
The overwhelming majority of students reported that it was a rough semester, and the coronavirus pandemic negatively affected academic performance.
Our survey found that college students struggled with classes during the Fall 2020 semester. The majority of students, 85.4 percent, saw a negative impact on their academic performance. Only 5.5 percent of students say that the learning changes this year benefitted their academic performance.
How did the pandemic affect your academic performance for the Fall 2020 semester?
Conditions negatively affected my performance: 85.4%
Conditions did not affect my performance: 9.1%
Conditions benefitted my performance: 5.5%
There were many changes to the learning environment and education methods this year. Only a small segment of college students reported they were unaffected by the changes or saw performance improvements.