The effects of unexpected changes to content delivery on student learning outcomes: A psychological contract perspective during the COVID‐19 era

Abstract

Meta‐analyses suggest that student learning outcomes (SLOs) are comparable across modalities of instruction. None of these studies examined how unmet student expectations (here, unexpected changes in course delivery) might increase perceptions of student–instructor‐university psychological contract breaches (PCBs) and, ultimately, perceived SLOs within and across modalities. The COVID‐19 pandemic provided an opportunity to study these potential relationships because many residential institutions of higher education opted into, or were required to, offer distance and/or blended learning to accommodate COVID‐19 safety mandates. This study sampled undergraduate students ( n = 155) from a university, which, before the pandemic, offered exclusively face‐to‐face classroom instruction. During the Fall 2020 semester, however, this university offered three modalities of instruction: (1) face‐to‐face; (2) blended learning; and (3) distance education. The results of this study suggest that perceived PCBs by instructors and universities negatively influence underling indices of student achievement in terms of motivation, engagement, and learning within and across modalities of instruction. Given this and near universal decrements in student enrollment and retention in institutions of higher education, it is important for universities and instructors to understand, explicitly and transparently negotiate, and meet student expectations to improve student progression to graduation and maintain competitiveness among similar institutions.

Implementation of Blended Learning during COVID-19

“…However, they found it difficult to combine online and face-to-face activities as, in many cases, both of these overlapped [17,22]. Despite all of this, in their study, Gazica et al [23] concluded students reported higher levels of motivation, commitment, and fulfillment of expectations created in the face-to-face modality and preferred it over BL.…”

Student Experience, Satisfaction and Commitment in Blended Learning: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

“…Affective-cognitive experience reflects how learning in BL has made the student feel, both emotionally and intellectually. Gazica et al [29] demonstrated that BL did not generate greater motivation in students in comparison to the face-to-face modality. However, it does provide the student with a greater capacity for reasoning and understanding the subject matter [30].…”

Interplay between technology and society: Effects of remote emergency teaching on undergraduate students' performance

“…Three distinct teaching and learning environments are identified when discussing them: traditional face-to-face (F2F) classroom education, distance learning, also known as e-learning, and a hybrid format that may offer the "best of both worlds" [4] [5]. Technologies-in-practice are thought to be responsive to students' knowledge, practices, and contextual factors [6].…”

“…Given that many higher education institutions decided to offer distance learning and/or hybrid teaching and learning environments, synchronously or asynchronously, to comply with Covid-19 safety regulations [5] or were required to, the Covid-19 pandemic gave researchers the chance to investigate potential connections between the methods used and measurable outcomes. The following research questions are aimed to be answered in this paper:…”