The Study

This past year has seen a profound shift in the way university students navigate their academic landscapes. With the introduction of the new novel coronavirus, COVID-19, many universities across the globe have opted to shift the delivery of education away from traditional brick and mortar institutions. Instead, a significant number have positioned their academic offerings to take place mostly, if not entirely, online. As such, the area of study in which this my research takes place in is the field of education. Specifically, the topic of my study seeks to understand the experiences and attitudes of distance education students as they undergo participation in online university-level education during the 2020/2021 COVID-19 pandemic. While there is a substantial body of work surrounding the attitudes of distance education students, this work fails to include the perspectives of students who are otherwise given no option other than to participate in online education. This is because, as a whole, the institution of academia has never faced a crisis such as the Covid-19 global pandemic before in history. Therefore, given these unprecedented circumstances it is important that we seek to understand the perceptions and attitudes of students during this unique time in our history in order to both improve the current landscape of mandatory distance education as well as obtain a historical record for posterity.