Project | Teaching and learning in the time of COVID

About the project

When the pandemic hit, there were unprecedented changes in how higher education providers delivered their teaching. Almost overnight, staff had to change from face-to-face approaches to online teaching, learning and assessment. And this was against the backdrop of the higher education sector being one of the least digitised sectors. 

These dramatic changes led to concerns that the pandemic has or will further widen the gap in student outcomes that exists between disadvantaged students and their peers, given that disadvantaged students may face greater challenges accessing and using online content due to digital poverty or a lack of suitable study space at home.

This project looked at evidence that was generated prior to or during the pandemic on the effect of online teaching and learning on student outcomes. We were interested in how different higher education providers responded to the pandemic: the technology choices they made, the way they adapted their examinations, and the extent to which they made use of synchronous (live) versus asynchronous (non-live) learning.

The project involved a rapid review of the existing evidence and data analysis.

If you would like to find out more or have any questions around this project, please get in touch with us at research@taso.org.uk.

Related outputs

Background

The change to online teaching and learning happened as soon as the pandemic hit, late in the 2019/20 academic year. But the impact has been longer term, with changes to teaching and assessment approaches being made to the way modules were taught in 2020/21 and beyond. 

Online learning, sometimes called digital learning, is learning, teaching and support carried out in the absence of face-to-face contact, instead using computers, and often requiring an internet connection. Online learning can either be synchronous (resources being available at set intervals following the timings of a traditional face-to-face course) or asynchronous (all resources are available immediately and students are responsible for deciding their study schedule).