On a Student Voice survey administered to college students in May 2021, 52% of respondents said they learned less during the 2020 – 2021 academic year than they had in pre-COVID years, and close to a quarter of first-year students reported feeling very underprepared for college.
Students might have perceived that they learned less
in the first year of the pandemic, but did they?
Senior psychology major, Jacqueline Lewis, posed this
question in her internship experience at James Madison University (JMU) in
summer 2021. Jacqueline was one of three undergraduate interns selected to work
on an independent project supporting the mission of JMU’s Center for Assessment
and Research Studies.
Her initial training included becoming familiar with
assessment and learning how to use statistical software. Working
with a mentor, a professor affiliated with the Center for Assessment and
Research Studies, Jacqueline then designed a project to measure how well first-year
students developed information literacy skills, one of JMU’s general education
competencies. Her research also considered the role motivation plays in
learning.
At James Madison University, an institution serving
more than 19,000 undergraduates, students participate in two assessment days:
one during their first-year orientation and the second after earning 45 – 70
credits hours. This allows the university to implement a pre-and-post test
design that examines total score growth, objective level growth, and item
growth over time.
Jacqueline collected the pre-test data and the
post-test results, the latter of which were generated after students completed
an online curriculum in information literacy. She also gathered data on a
Student Opinion Scale, an instrument that measures two aspects of motivation:
effort and importance.
An analysis of both sets of results showed an increase
in the mean total score from the pre-test to the post-test, and a statistically
significant mean difference in effort and importance, leading her to conclude
that yes, despite the adverse impact of the pandemic on the student experience,
learning was happening!
This internship experience exposed Jacqueline
to an area of study she was not familiar with: assessment and the scholarship of teaching and learning. In addition, it expanded her
opportunities for graduate study and gave her access to a professional network.
In November 2021, Jacqueline Lewis presented her work
at the Virginia Assessment Group Conference, thus contributing to the body of
scholarship in the field of assessment. Her work also added to the growing
narrative about the pandemic’s impact on college students’ learning, a topic
that will attract researchers for at least the next five years. Jacqueline
herself is continuing her research in this area by collaborating with her Utica
College advisor and mentor, Dr. Kaylee Seddio, on measuring ADHD and anxiety in
college students during the pandemic.
"I am extremely grateful for my experience at JMU
and for those who helped me get there,” Lewis said. “I value the opportunity
and all that I have learned, but more so the feeling that I helped make an
important contribution to understanding learning during this unprecedented
time."
