What helped German students learn online in COVID?
In Germany’s first digital semester, teacher digital competence and interactive online courses strongly predicted students’ satisfaction with what they learned.
Source
Digital studying in times of COVID-19: teacher- and student-related aspects of learning success in german higher education
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Nationwide German summer 2020 survey modeling predictors of perceived learning success
- N
- N=18000 · Analyses based on over 18,000 students (~192,000 invited)
- Population
- German higher-education students in the first digital COVID semester
- Outcome
- Satisfaction with acquired knowledge/competencies predicted by teacher and student digital factors
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What helped German students learn online in COVID?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
Around 192,000 students invited to the survey
around 192,000 students were invited via email to join the online survey between June and August 2020.
Analyses based on over 18,000 students
the experiences and assessments of over 18,000 students.
What they did
Using the nationwide “Studying in Germany in Corona Times” survey from summer 2020, researchers modeled how teacher-related conditions (videoconference share, interaction opportunities, teacher digital competence) and student-related factors predicted students’ satisfaction with acquired knowledge and competencies.
What they found
Teacher- and student-related factors both mattered for perceived learning success. On the teacher side, satisfaction with teachers’ digital competencies was especially predictive, and more videoconference-based and interactive courses were associated with higher learning-success satisfaction.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Outcomes are self-reported satisfaction with learning, not objective test scores. Cross-sectional survey data cannot prove that improving teacher digital skills caused better learning, and the COVID emergency context may not match ordinary online courses.
Key terms
- Transactional distance
- The psychological and communication gap between instructors and learners in distance education, shaped by dialogue, structure, and autonomy.
- Digital competencies
- Skills and readiness to teach or learn effectively with digital tools and platforms.
- Videoconference/webinar teaching
- Synchronous online sessions where instructors and students meet live through video platforms.
- Learning success (perceived)
- Students’ satisfaction with the knowledge and competencies they believe they acquired.
- OLS regression
- A statistical method estimating how predictor variables relate to a continuous outcome.
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What was the main student outcome variable?
Common questions
What mattered most on the teacher side?
Students’ satisfaction with their teachers’ digital competencies showed a relatively strong association with perceived learning success.
Did live online classes help?
A higher share of courses offered as videoconferences/webinars was linked to greater satisfaction with learning success.
Was this only about technology access?
No. Interaction opportunities and both teacher and student digital-related factors were also examined as predictors.
How large was the evidence base?
The survey invited around 192,000 students, and analyses drew on experiences of over 18,000 students.
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