The Impact of Online Learning on Students during COVID-19: A Longitudinal Analysis of Shanghai's J District

• In Event: Access, Emergencies and Social Justice

Proposal

Relevance, Theory and Inquiry:
The impact of the pandemic and online education is complex, but it also provides an opportunity to improve the education system. In Shanghai's J District, we've instituted a primary school evaluation system rooted in the Self-Determination Theory. Proposed by Ryan and Deci in 1985, this theory regards humans as proactive beings striving for psychological alignment with the social world through autonomy, relatedness, and competence fulfillment. Based on this, we've developed a framework and tools with tailored questions for second and fourth-grade students, including true/false and degree-based queries, along with a question bank. Annually, since the year 2020, we have been randomly selecting 30% of students from various schools for testing.

This evaluation aims to comprehensively gauge each school's strengths and weaknesses, enabling informed decisions and targeted improvements, fostering equity and excellence in regional education. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw people largely confined during the first half of the year 2022 in Shanghai, primary school students underwent a transition to remote online education. As a result, we had to stop our regular testing activities. In response, we analyzed the progress of a randomly selected cohort of students, totaling 531 individuals, who participated in assessments during both 2021 and 2023. Through this longitudinal analysis, we aim to delve into the impact of the online learning environment during the pandemic phase on these students.

Findings:
After subjecting the data to standardization procedures, it has become evident that the average autonomy levels of students have shown improvement. However, the relatedness levels and competence levels have both displayed a declining trend. When examining the data through a gender-specific lens, it is apparent that boys have experienced a notable enhancement in their autonomy levels. In contrast, there is a conspicuous decrease in their sense of relatedness. On the other hand, girls have exhibited a significant reduction in their sense of competence.

Contribution:
In conclusion, we believe that online education has weakened the physical interaction between students and schools, leading to a decrease in the sense of relatedness, particularly for boys. However, students in an online environment may require more self-planning and learning management, which has led to an increase in the level of autonomy, with a greater impact on boys. Additionally, prolonged isolation and online learning may have increased students' stress levels. Those who experienced online education in 2022 may have encountered difficulties in adapting to this new mode, resulting in a negative impact on their competence feeling, with a greater negative impact on girls.

Moving forward, it is paramount to emphasize face-to-face social interactions, collaborative teamwork, and interactive discussions to foster interpersonal connections, especially among boys. Moreover, the provision of a diverse array of curriculum options to nurture autonomy is strongly recommended for both genders. Furthermore, recognizing the importance of mental well-being, offering psychological guidance and support should be a central consideration to assist students, particularly girls, in effectively managing and mitigating psychological stress in the post-pandemic era.

Authors

• Ying Zhang, East China Normal University

• Zhang Wanpeng, East China Normal University

• Yifan Wang, East China Normal University