The document discusses the forced transition to remote learning for university students due to COVID-19. It finds that most students lack self-regulating skills needed to succeed in remote environments. The sudden transition was especially difficult for students with low working memory capacity, who struggled to resume tasks. While some introverted students found remote learning less stressful, overall the transition had negative impacts on learning efficiency and mental health due to increased frustration from communication difficulties and an unbalanced commitment to teamwork. Educators and policymakers are called to action to help students adapt through new pedagogies, psychological support, and ultimately ending the pandemic to allow students to choose their preferred format.

1. THE FORCED TRANSITION
TOWARDS REMOTE LEARNING
Impacts on University Students under COVID-19

2. THE TRANSITION
TO REMOTE
LEARNING
• World-wide practice
since Jan 2020
• LEDs replace papers;
keyboards replace pens
• College students are
especially fragile in the
virtual space

3. REMOTE LEARNING IS
THE FUTURE
Image: (Wavebreak Media LTD, 2019)

4. OVERVIEW OF SYNTHESIS
Impacts
Efficiency of
Study
Remote
learning
environment
Sudden
transition
Mental
Health
Frustration

5. A STEADY STATE OF REMOTE LEARNING
Advantaged students Disadvantaged students
Personality
Well developed self-regulating skills Lack self-regulating skills
Behavior
Active engagement in learning at their
own pace
Poor goal-setting and planning during
in the self-paced environment
Result
Take advantage of the increased
flexibility and independence to explore
topics of their interest
Lose attention and no longer actively
thinking about the materials. Unlikely
to review or summarize after lectures
According to Kocdar et al. (2018), …

6. THE SUDDEN TRANSITION
Students with high WMC
• Better manage interferences
• Resume task performance quickly
• No considerable time cost
• The impact is trivial
Students with low WMC
• The interruption is significant
• Unable to resume task performance
• Severe time cost -> falling behind
• The impact is vital
Working Memory Capacity (WMC): a psychological feature that
dictates one’s ability to deal with interruptions during tasks
According to Foroughi et al. (2016), …

7. MENTAL HEALTH
Increased frustration
•Sources: (Capdeferro &
Romero, 2012)
•communicative difficulties
•unclear instructions
•unbalanced commitment to
teamwork
•etc.
•Threats students’ motivation
to study hard
Reduced socializing pressure
•Introverted students may
feel less stressful due to the
reduced pressure of
socializing in the university
community
•Supported by the study of
Japanese 1st year students
(Horita et al., 2021)

8. My standpoint: On balance, the transition towards remote
learning has negative influence over university students
Efficiency
• Need: self-regulating skill
• Fact: most people lack this skill (Kocdar et al., 2018)
Transition
• Need: high WMC to resume to task performance quickly
• Fact: quantitative measure lacked, but it makes the situation only
worse
Mental
health
• Need: Introverted and afraid of socializing
• Fact: this is a symptom of social anxiety disorder, a.k.a. “social phobia”

9. CALL FOR ACTION
Educators
• Adopt new pedagogies to increase
engagement with students
• Helps to reduce frustration
• Incorporate the “social context” to
cultivate self-regulating skills
• Guidance, external control, and high-
quality feedbacks
• According to Hadwin et al. (2010)
Policy maker
• Though helpful, setting up free
psychological consoling services online is
only a temporary way to ease the tension
• The ultimate solution is to allow students
to choose the format of education by their
own individualities
• Thus, the gov should enforce social
distancing rules and end the pandemic
ASAP.

10. References
Capdeferro, N., & Romero, M. (2012). Are online learners frustrated with collaborative learning experiences?
The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(2), 26.
https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v13i2.1127
Foroughi, C. K., Werner, N. E., McKendrick, R., Cades, D. M., & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2016). Individual differences in
working-memory capacity and task resumption following interruptions. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42(9), 1480–1488. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000251
Hadwin, A. F., Oshige, M., Gress, C. L., & Winne, P. H. (2010). Innovative ways for using gStudy to
orchestrate and research social aspects of self-regulated learning. Computers in Human Behavior,
26(5), 794–805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2007.06.007
Horita, R., Nishio, A., & Yamamoto, M. (2021). The effect of remote learning on the mental health of first year
university students in Japan. Psychiatry Research, 295, 113561.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113561
Kocdar, S., Karadeniz, A., Bozkurt, A., & Buyuk, K. (2018). Measuring self-regulation in self-paced open and distance
learning environments. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(1), 25–43.
https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i1.3255
Marchand, G. C., & Gutierrez, A. P. (2012). The role of emotion in the learning process: Comparisons between online and
face-to-face learning settings. The Internet and Higher Education, 15(3), 150–160.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.10.001