OTESSA 2022 - Online or Remote Learning and Mental Health
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Moore, S., Barbour, M. K., & Veletsianos, G. (2022, May). Online or remote learning and mental health [Paper]. Open/Technology in Education, Society, and Scholarship Association Annual Conference. Abstract: While there has been a great deal of debate over the impact of online and remote learning on mental health and well-being, there has been no systematic syntheses or reviews of the research on this particular issue. In this session, we will present a review of research on mental health / well-being and online or remote learning. Our preliminary analyses suggest that little scholarship existed prior to 2020 and that most of these studies have been conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We report three findings: (a) it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to control for pandemic effects in the data, (b) studies present a very mixed picture, with variability around how mental health and well-being are measured and how / whether any causal inferences are made in relation to online and remote learning, and (c) results across these studies are extremely mixed. Based on this study, we suggest that researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and administrators exercise extreme caution around making generalizable assertions with respect to the impacts of online/remote learning and mental health.
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OTESSA 2022 - Online or Remote Learning and Mental Health
- 1. Online or Remote Learning and Mental Health
- 2. Welcome
- 3. Share
- 4. Purpose
- 5. Process
- 6. Coding SETTING / CONTEXT METHODOLOGY FINDINGS
- 7. Coding Screening QUALITY 63 45 Based on our coding, 18 were screened out as not actually research studies (these included opinion pieces, summaries of research, and other pieces that were not studies)
- 9. Preliminary Findings Is the pandemic the context for the study? Count No 1 Yes 42 Both before and after 2
- 10. Preliminary Findings Very few regression analysesNo controlled experiments 2 studies started before pandemic
- 14. Themes
- 15. Themes
- 16. Themes
- 17. A little bit of history repeating … Moderating Variables comparing online to F2F Modality Pacing Student-Instructor Ratio Pedagogy Means, Bakia & Murphy (2014) Instructor Role Online Student Role Online Online communication synchrony Source of feedback Role of online assessments Fully online Blended (over 50% online) Blended (25-50% online) Web-enabled FTF Self-paced (open entry, open exit) Class-paced Class-paced with some self-paced ≤ 35 to 1 36-99 to 1 100-999 to 1 ≥ 1,000 to 1 Expository Practice Exploratory Collaborative Active instruction online Small presence online None Listen or read Complete problems or answer questions Explore simulation and resources Collaborate with peers Asynchronous Only Synchronous Only Some blend of both Automated Teacher Peers Determine if student is ready for new content Tell system how to support the student (adaptive instruction) Provide student or teacher with information about learning state Input to grade Identify students at risk of failure
- 18. A little bit of history repeating … Moderating Variables comparing online to F2F Mental Health Modality
- 19. A little bit of history repeating … Moderating Variables comparing online to F2F Mental Health Modality Managing their own illnesses and symptoms Loneliness Isolation Physical distancing Quarantine Intangible losses: daily routines eating and sleeping habits impacted changes to exercise Psychological impacts of how the pandemic was being handled by federal, state, and local leaders Worried about own health and that of loved ones Loss of loved ones and grief Hypothesis: Online learning without social distancing does not impact a sense of loneliness or isolation, but in the context of a pandemic with quarantine and distancing measures, online can either exacerbate these feelings or mitigate them (design decisions)
- 20. Themes – Coping / Coping Mechanisms (Apgar & Cadmus, 2021)
- 21. Themes – Coping & Grief(Biber, Melton & Czech, 2020)
- 22. Conversation
- 23. References
- 24. Thank you
Editor's Notes
- Stephanie
- Stephanie
- Michael
- Michael
- Michael
- Michael
- Michael (note the animation – the screen data is animated to fill in on clicks)
- George (animated – charts appear after text)
- George (animated – table appears after text) Two studies just happened to start a study in Fall 2019 and continued their studies into Spring 2020
- George (animated – chart appears BEFORE text) Significant issues – “online learning” rarely defined and often measured using self-report perceptions / satisfaction Establishing causality requires certain methods (controlled experiments or structural equation modeling or controlled pre-post) – yet of these, very few even used regression analyses (of those that did, online learning was not a significant variable), there were no controlled experiments, and only 2 studies started before the pandemic
- George (animated – chart appears BEFORE text)
- George (animated – chart appears BEFORE text)
- George (animated) For those 9 with no quality concerns: 6 were in US, 1 in UK, 1 in Switzerland, and 1 was global 4 were mixed methods, 4 were quantitative, and 1 was qualitative Findings – 4 indicated negative impacts, 4 indicated mixed impacts, and 1 indicated positive impacts Role of remote learning – 4 no specific focus, 3 one of many variables, and 2 individual variable 1 conducted before the pandemic, 8 focused on the pandemic as the context Studies: Apgar D, & Cadmus T. (2021). Using Mixed Methods to Assess the Coping and Self-regulation Skills of Undergraduate Social Work Students Impacted by COVID-19. Clinical social work journal, 1–12. doi:10.1007/s10615-021-00790-3 Becker, S. P., Breaux, R., Cusick, C. N., Dvorsky, M. R., Marsh, N. P., Sciberras, E., & Langberg, J. M. (2020). Remote Learning during COVID-19: Examining School Practices, Service Continuation, and Difficulties for Adolescents with and ADHD. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 67(6), 769–777. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.09.002 Goldberg, A. E., McCormick, N., & Virginia, H. (2022). School-age adopted children’s early responses to remote schooling during COVID-19. Family Relations, 71(1), 68–89. doi:10.1111/fare.12612 Halliburton, A. E., Hill, M. B., Dawson, B. L., Hightower, J. M., & Rueden, H. (2021). Increased Stress, Declining Mental Health: Emerging Adults’ Experiences in College During COVID-19. Emerging Adulthood. doi:10.1177/21676968211025348 Lischer S, Safi N, & Dickson C. (2021). Remote learning and students’ mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-method enquiry. Prospects, 1–11. doi:10.1007/s11125-020-09530-w Lister, K., Seale, J., & Douce, C. (2021). Mental health in distance learning: a taxonomy of barriers and enablers to student mental wellbeing. Open Learning. Perkins, K. N., Carey, K., Lincoln, E., Shih, A., Holt, M. K., & Green, J. G. (2021). School Connectedness Still Matters: The Association of School Connectedness and Mental Health During Remote Learning Due to COVID-19. Journal of Primary Prevention, 42(6), 641–648. doi:10.1007/s10935-021-00649-w Racine, N., McArthur, B., Cooke, J., Eirich, R., Zhu, J., and Madigan, S. (2021). Global prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents during COVID-19. JAMA Pediatrics, 175(11), 1142-1150. Schaffer GE, Power EM, Fisk AK, & Trolian TL. (2021). Beyond the four walls: The evolution of school psychological services during the COVID-19 outbreak. Psychology in the schools, 58(7), 1246–1265. doi:10.1002/pits.22543
- Stephanie
- Stephanie We have not aggregated the data or effect sizes across the studies, so we should underscore that this is something we think we may be observing in the data. When we do not control for these factors, we may see very mixed effects or no significant effect. The data in the studies that did control for these factors suggest these should be very carefully considered for discussions on online learning moving forward.
- Stephanie Apgar & Cadmus (2021) – primary cause identified isn’t online learning but loneliness and isolation Social distancing and isolation during the pandemic created a pervasive feeling of isolation and loneliness that filled in all the cracks with a grief, coloring every interaction and turning devices into a constant reminder of that grief. Everyone experienced losses at the same time, and these losses rippled across everything from proms and graduations to special events or celebratory trips to health issues and loss of loved ones and friends. Loss is the pervasive, ghostly figure floating through all of these accounts. Online learning can't combat that. But I think because it was so present in front of everyone, the sense of loss crept in - very understandably, and the two became intimately intertwined. Guilt by association. As happens with loss and grief, feelings turned to anger, and that anger gets directed at a safe target. That's not to say every instance of emergency remote teaching was superb. We know it wasn't, which is another part of the problem with trying to declare online learning ineffective. But it does make me think that we need to deal with this more as a matter of loss and grief. Even as students return to classrooms, we're still seeing this sense of loss and grief accompanied by impacts on capacity and resiliency (https://chronicle.com/article/it-feels-like-im-pouring-energy-into-a-void…). A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “It feels like pouring energy into a void,” is a description of grief and loss and the individual and collective effects of those. Where the shift to online made them feel more disconnected, it came from "Zoom school" where others turned off their cameras or muted themselves or the instructors muted everyone. Participants in the Apgar & Cadmus (2021) study said that directly increased their sense of isolation, made them feel more disconnected, and understandably negatively impacted their motivation. We know these issues can be combatted with design decisions in online learning.
- Stephanie Not going to talk through these – just presented for effect on HOW MANY MODERATING VARIABLES THERE ARE
- Stephanie The research on mental health and online learning seems to be repeated the same methodological and interpretation issues as media comparison studies where modality is treated as the key variable. This ignores all the confounding or moderating variables at play.
- Stephanie Rather than positing the effects of modality on mental health, the body of research begins to suggest to us a suite of moderating variables. If modality plays any role at all, it is more of an indirect effect, impacting issues such as loneliness and isolation. What we believe we see emerging in the research is that online learning has a relationship with loneliness and isolation in particular but can play different roles – it can exacerbate or mitigate these, depending on design decisions in online classes.
- Stephanie As we consider design possibilities, the research does offer insights into coping strategies and mechanisms.
- Stephanie One theme that comes through the higher quality studies in this collection is that of thinking in terms of barriers to and enablers of mental health and well-being. Student mental health stems from a number of coping strategies, classroom strategies, and systemic supports.
- Stephanie So we want to end with some positive framing here as well and brainstorm strategies we can employ in our learning environments as educators and as designers. Let’s discuss …