covid 19 assignment for students

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How can educators leverage the COVID-19 pandemic to engage students in active learning? This collection of resources was curated to support high-school and middle-school teachers in bringing timely, high-quality material on the current COVID-19 pandemic into the "classroom" whether it be online, hybrid or physical. Each tile within the collection brings together a key resource on the topic and some sample activities, discussion prompts, or tools to generate ideas for teaching and learning. This teaching pack is…

Teaching Pack: Lessons

How can educators leverage the COVID-19 pandemic to engage students in active learning? This collection of resources was curated to support high-school and middle-school teachers in bringing timely, high-quality material on the current COVID-19 pandemic into their "classrooms," whether digital or physical.

This online curriculum produced by the COVID-19 Student Response Team at Harvard Medical School (HMS) …

This online curriculum produced by the COVID-19 Student Response Team at Harvard Medical School (HMS) is a resource portal containing information about Coronavirus in three formats tailored to elementary school students, middle school students, and high school and college age students. Modules for elementary students include a guided series of printable coloring pages. Middle school students can learn the science behind viruses and the timeline of COVID-19 via a series of videos, readings, and interactive…

The purpose of this protocol is to design an art assignment that communicates public health …

The purpose of this protocol is to design an art assignment that communicates public health information. This is inspired by the United Nations Global Call Out to Creatives, a campaign to marshal creative efforts in translating critical public health message to different communities. A provocative or eye-catching piece of art, video, or audio can transform evidence into a format that is both attractive and memorable. Resources Students may want to refer to the following resources…

This collection of resources from The New York Times is designed to help students and …

This collection of resources from The New York Times is designed to help students and educators stay updated on the COVID-19 outbreak, think critically about information, consider the “essential” questions the pandemic raises about our world today. Popular resources include a lesson on how coronavirus hijacks cell function, weekly data literacy activities, short Film Club documentaries on COVID-related stories, and daily writing prompts for students. The page is regularly updated with new student-centered content from…

This video and facilitator guide from KQED, aimed at students, talks about the importance of …

This video and facilitator guide from KQED, aimed at students, talks about the importance of social distancing, even for young people. The facilitator guide includes prompts for students to practice their writing, specifically about their personal experiences social distancing and their tips for survival. Educators have the option to integrate the resource directly to Google Classroom.

These resources from BrainPOP offer multiple ways to teach about coronavirus that are most appropriate …

These resources from BrainPOP offer multiple ways to teach about coronavirus that are most appropriate for younger students. After watching the anchor video, students can take quizzes or make a visual map of their learning through BrainPOP’s web-based tool. It also includes a worksheet about prevention, graphic organizer on fact vs. fear, and vocabulary flash cards.

This resource collection from Scholastic Classroom Magazines brings together age-appropriate information for teaching about the …

This resource collection from Scholastic Classroom Magazines brings together age-appropriate information for teaching about the coronavirus. Among the resources for middle school and high school students is an interview with a physicist who explains how sneezes (and mucus droplets) spread the disease, as well as an accessible article on pandemic preparedness.

This web portal from the Viswanath Lab at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public …

This web portal from the Viswanath Lab at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together a wide variety of credible Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) related information that is easy to access, digest, and act upon. The rapid spread of COVID-19 has simultaneously led to a rapid spread of information, misinformation, and disinformation related to the pandemic. This portal seeks to aid journalists, non-governmental organizations, and community members in navigating this deluge of…

These activities from Facing History and Ourselves encourage students to grapple with the ethics around …

These activities from Facing History and Ourselves encourage students to grapple with the ethics around social distancing, a new social norm with the spread of COVID-19. In particular, the activities in this resource help students explore the meaning of “common good” and consider its implications for collective action. Each activity includes reflection questions, which students can respond to through text, virtual discussion, or multimedia. This resource also includes student-facing Google Slides that can be integrated…

This resource library from National Geographic includes photos, videos, maps, and activities related to infectious …

This resource library from National Geographic includes photos, videos, maps, and activities related to infectious diseases. The resources within the collection focus on bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. The resources within the collection would be useful to educators seeking to contextualize COVID-19 within the context of other infectious disease prevention and treatment efforts. Educators can filter by content type (e.g., video, infographic, activity) or by subject (e.g., biology, social studies, geography). Most resources are suitable…

This case vignette will be most useful to high-school educators looking to introduce COVID-19 to …

This case vignette will be most useful to high-school educators looking to introduce COVID-19 to their classroom. The case focuses on understanding why local and federal governments need to "implement guidelines for social distancing". Students will learn what "social distancing" means, and how it can involve population-based measures such as canceling group events and closing public spaces as well as individual-level behavior change such as staying home, working remotely, and avoiding of crowds. Students will…

This documentary uncovers the history of the 1918 flu epidemic—the worst epidemic in American history, …

This documentary uncovers the history of the 1918 flu epidemic—the worst epidemic in American history, which killed over 600,000 people. Since 2018 represents the centenary of this deadly epidemic, many are drawing parallels to the current, deadly flu season. The film is accompanied by a teacher’s guide, a timeline tracking the disease’s spread, and a photo gallery of the medical investigation of influenza.

This article in the Biomedical Science Journal for Teens compares two non-pharmaceutical approaches for addressing …

This article in the Biomedical Science Journal for Teens compares two non-pharmaceutical approaches for addressing COVID-19: mitigation approaches, which emphasize protecting the most vulnerable in the population, and suppression approaches, which minimize the spread of the disease until treatment is available. This article, written in plain language accessible to middle school and high school audiences, bases this comparison on a computer model for flu pandemic simulations, modified for COVID-19. The authors find that suppression strategies—which…

Welcome to the Incubator's Digital Repository

Our digital repository is a searchable library of selected resources that support learning and teaching about interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary population health challenges across the globe. It includes general resources (e.g., reports, articles, country profiles, data, etc.) and teaching resources (e.g., teaching cases, curated resource packs, and lesson-based teaching packs). Open-access sources are prioritized, and include peer-reviewed journals, global reports from multilateral institutions and alliances, and knowledge-related public goods from reputable research and policy organizations.

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COVID-19 Impact Project

Assignments

The following projects document assignments and classroom activities designed during the pandemic. These are either assignments that have been created or altered to adjust for the pandemic’s impact, or to capture the impact of the pandemic on students. Please follow the links below to find out more about each participant and their projects. The list is organized alphabetically.

LENNAY M. CHAPMAN | PH.D. PROGRAM IN MARKETING (BARUCH/GC CUNY) | CONTACT: [email protected] |  EXPLORE LENNAY’S PROJECT

Bio:  Lennay Chapman holds an MBA from Baruch College and currently is a fourth-year Ph.D. Candidate in Marketing at Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. She teaches Marketing Foundations, which is a course that introduces students across all business majors to fundamental marketing concepts. Lennay’s academic research examines the impact of technology on consumer behavior, and has been presented at the Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP) conference. Before transitioning to academia, Lennay spent nearly a decade working in merchandise planning and allocation for companies including Ann Taylor, LOFT, and Ross Stores; she also wrote articles for The Motley Fool.

Project description:  While COVID-19 has created countless challenges for educators, it also has contributed learnings and opportunities through novel teaching methods. In this reflection, I identify one unexpected opportunity associated with Zoom-mediated teaching: increased student engagement through the chat feature. The chat feature enables students to participate in an unobtrusive way, and can facilitate frequent, enthusiastic participation (when combined with questions and calls for examples). This reflection is designed for other educators who may not be using the chat feature to increase engagement. I also am sharing my experience to capture one way in which COVID-19 has impacted higher education.

MAXINE KRENZEL | PH.D. PROGRAM IN ENGLISH |  EXPLORE MAXINE’S PROJECT

Bio:  Maxine is a sixth year Ph.D. Candidate in English with a focus in composition-rhetoric. My research interests are in the history and pedagogy of teacher education, literacy studies, writing pedagogy, autobiography theory, and the history of composition studies as a discipline. I currently teach the First Year Writing Sequence at Baruch College and am a Writing Across the Curriculum Fellow at Bronx Community College where I am developing writing intensive training curricula for new teachers across disciplines.

Project description:  I am sharing an archival research assignment I developed last spring that asks students to research an artifact through the CUNY Digital History Archive. In this assignment, students consider the importance of a chosen artifact in relation to CUNY’s history of student activism and to their experience as CUNY students today. I offer this as a resource for any instructor interested in teaching archival research skills while we don’t have physical access to CUNY’s libraries. I found that asking students to conceive of historiography as a form of storytelling opens up pertinent questions regarding how to locate oneself in a still unfolding history and how student voices are essential to telling and documenting the story of the present.

SOOHYUN (ASHLEY) LEE | PH.D. PROGRAM INDUSTRIAL-ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY (BARUCH/GC CUNY) | CONTACT: [email protected] |  EXPLORE SOOHYUN’S PROJECT

Bio:  Soohyn (she/her) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. I research workplace emotions and motivations. I am teaching Social Psychology (PSY3056) and Advanced Organizational Psychology (PSY4181) at Baruch College, and teaching Industrial-Organizational Psychology (PSY240) at Lehman College.

Project description:  During the pandemic, many students struggle with being on track with assignments and exams. I have created an “online checklist” that students can easily check upcoming assignments and important deadlines and be more organized in their learning. Moreover, I have shared class discussion questions that students reflect on the current pandemic situation through psychology perspectives (topics: virtual teams, leadership in crisis, diversity & inclusion). Finally, I have included an essay assignment that students apply course contents to the pandemic situation. Through this assignment, students think deeply about how organizations can help their employees stay engaged while working from home.

SARAH MADY | PH.D. PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY | CONTACT: [email protected] |  EXPLORE SARAH’S PROJECT

Bio:  I teach Ancient Peoples and Cultures (ANT212) at Lehman College, Department of Anthropology. I am also a Ph.D. Candidate in Archaeology at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and an art teacher at Hudson Montessori School. During the March lockdown, many schools did not offer online art classes for children. At first, I wanted to help my students who are parents by offering their children free art classes, but then I realized they were enjoying them just as much. The objective was for the children to keep creating, and for the parents to be inspired by new ideas and projects for their little ones.

Project description:  For this collection, I chose the Zentangles over a hand tracing. This project could be used as a resource for others to use in their classrooms. It could be scheduled once a month at the end of class, for those interested. Since it requires minimal drawing skills, it is engaging for all levels and ages. Many of us do not have the means to pay for art classes, which don’t need to teach us how to draw, but at least offer simple yet therapeutic projects. These meetings allowed us to meet informally and have some much-needed fun at the time.

ASHLEY MARINACCIO | PH.D. PROGRAM IN THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE | CONTACT: [email protected] |  EXPLORE ASHLEY’S PROJECT

Bio:  Ashley Marinaccio (she/her) is a New York-based documentarian dedicated to shedding light on the socio-political issues that define our times. Currently, she is a Ph.D. Candidate in Theatre and Performance at The Graduate Center, CUNY where she researches documentary theatre and theatre performance in war zones. She has taught Theatre and Social Justice, Theatre of the Oppressed, Ensemble Devised Theatre, and various other classes that explore the role of theatre within social justice and political movements. You can learn more about her work at ashley-marinaccio.com.

Project description:  I am sharing a documentary theatre project I assigned in both my Introduction to Theatre (THEA 10100) at Hunter College and Theatre and Social Change at Pace University. Drawing from oral history, theatre, and film techniques, students were asked to create short documentary theatre pieces about coronavirus based on interviews and testimonies they collect from people in their communities. Students edited these testimonies to create a short play that they performed via Zoom. Many students interviewed family members, essential workers, and healthcare workers to create a tapestry of voices at the frontline of the pandemic in New York. The pieces in conversation with each other highlighted the hardships, realities, and resilience of the students during the pandemic.

Many of my students were also essential workers, taking care of sick and dying family members, and working full-time in addition to attending school. The documentary theatre pieces created by students captured how this moment is impacting their communities. I am sharing this assignment as a reflection to capture this moment, and as a tool for others to use in their classrooms. At a time where live theatre is entirely virtual – it is important to share creative theatre methodologies that can be used in the classroom and adaptable for any virtual platform

KYONG MAZZARO | PH.D. PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE | CONTACT: @KLMAZZARO (TWITTER) |  EXPLORE KYONG’S PROJECT

Bio:  Kyong Mazzaro is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at The Graduate Center, CUNY and a Fellow at the PublicsLab, CUNY. In her research, she uses mixed methods to study violence, electoral politics, and media freedom in Latin America. Kyong teaches comparative politics at Brooklyn College and Hunter College.

Project description:  The pandemic pushed me to rethink my teaching and recognize the ways that political science teaching can be exclusionary. In this reflection, I share three teaching strategies that helped my students tap into their experiences to engage with and claim space in the discipline. I make the case that by (1) talking about the racist and exclusionary origins of academic conventions, (2) calling out language gatekeeping, and (3) articulating how there can be no rigor without diversity, we can broaden the scope of our work and make political science more inclusive.

CARLI SNYDER | PH.D. PROGRAM IN HISTORY | CONTACT: [email protected] |  EXPLORE CARLI’S PROJECT

Bio:  Carli Snyder is a Doctoral Student in History at The Graduate Center, CUNY. She researches the politics of Holocaust memorialization and education in the United States during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. At Brooklyn College, she teaches World History courses including the Shaping of the Modern World and Myth and Memory in Modern World History. She has also worked in the Education department at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where she facilitated school group visits, organized seminars on topics in Holocaust history, and annotated and made video clips out of testimonies from the Museum’s collection.

Project description:  In Spring 2020, I was teaching a course called, “Myth and Memory in Modern World History.” My students and I explored how histories of slavery, colonization, and genocide are remembered globally. I am sharing an assignment my students completed: they suggested artifacts for a future exhibit about COVID-19. Ideas included: a photo of an empty Times Square, a copy of the stimulus check, and a Department of Education record of students borrowing technology for distance learning. This assignment helped me to better understand how my students experienced this historic moment as students, as young people, and as New Yorkers, while it unfolded.

QUEENIE SUKHADIA | PH.D. PROGRAM IN ENGLISH |  EXPLORE QUEENIE’S PROJECT

Bio:  Queenie Sukhadia  (she/her) is a Doctoral Student in the Ph.D. Program in English at The Graduate Center, CUNY. Apart from being a scholar, she is also a creative writer and published a collection of short stories, A City of Sungazers, in 2017. Queenie is also Managing Editor of the Graduate Center newspaper, the Advocate, and works with the PublicsLab as a Mellon Humanities Public Scholar. She is passionate about making humanities scholarship & research available in the public sphere, and her Instagram project at @academiaforall is one way this commitment has taken shape. She holds a BA (with high honors) from Dartmouth College and an MA in English (with distinction) from Georgetown University.

Project description:  Here, I offer a reflection on a project I had assigned to my First Year Writing class, which was disrupted by the pandemic and its social distancing imperative. I provide my students’ thoughts on undertaking this project during this time and my own perspective on supervising it. I want to share this work because: 1) It can serve as a teaching resource. The project is broken up into sequenced activities, which teachers can import into their own courses to creatively build rapport; 2) My reflection also demonstrates how the disruptions caused by the pandemic encourage us all to engage in creative play, which can be a quite generative exercise.

KAREN ZAINO | PH.D. PROGRAM IN URBAN EDUCATION | CONTACT: [email protected] | EXPLORE KAREN’S PROJECT ( PART 1 ;  PART 2 )

Bio:  Karen Zaino is a doctoral student in Urban Education at The Graduate Center, CUNY and a Graduate Teaching Fellow in English Education in the Queens College Secondary Education and Youth Services Department. Prior to graduate study, she was a high school English teacher for 12 years in Philadelphia, PA and Covington, KY. She has also worked as a project researcher for the CUNY Initiative on Immigration and Education, the CUNY-New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals, and the College Access: Research and Action Center. Karen’s research leverages affect theory and critical literacy to re-conceptualize teacher education.

Project description:  Following the Covid-19 outbreak in Spring 2020, our course objectives in Multimodal Writing in the Standards-Based Classroom shifted drastically. My students were first year teachers, and we used the asynchronous course blog and small-group synchronous check-ins as spaces to reflect, empathize, and troubleshoot how to best support their students. Course content shifted to the present moment, rather than pre-assigned texts. For their final project, students created an open access handbook for other English Language Arts teachers. These artifacts demonstrate the community we created together during a difficult period and our shared attempt to create a resource for others.

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How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Students can share how they navigated life during the coronavirus pandemic in a full-length essay or an optional supplement.

Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays

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Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic.

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many – a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them – and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic – and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

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• Our Mission

Covid-19’s Impact on Students’ Academic and Mental Well-Being

The pandemic has revealed—and exacerbated—inequities that hold many students back. Here’s how teachers can help.

The pandemic has shone a spotlight on inequality in America: School closures and social isolation have affected all students, but particularly those living in poverty. Adding to the damage to their learning, a mental health crisis is emerging as many students have lost access to services that were offered by schools.

No matter what form school takes when the new year begins—whether students and teachers are back in the school building together or still at home—teachers will face a pressing issue: How can they help students recover and stay on track throughout the year even as their lives are likely to continue to be disrupted by the pandemic?

New research provides insights about the scope of the problem—as well as potential solutions.

The Achievement Gap Is Likely to Widen

A new study suggests that the coronavirus will undo months of academic gains, leaving many students behind. The study authors project that students will start the new school year with an average of 66 percent of the learning gains in reading and 44 percent of the learning gains in math, relative to the gains for a typical school year. But the situation is worse on the reading front, as the researchers also predict that the top third of students will make gains, possibly because they’re likely to continue reading with their families while schools are closed, thus widening the achievement gap.

To make matters worse, “few school systems provide plans to support students who need accommodations or other special populations,” the researchers point out in the study, potentially impacting students with special needs and English language learners.

Of course, the idea that over the summer students forget some of what they learned in school isn’t new. But there’s a big difference between summer learning loss and pandemic-related learning loss: During the summer, formal schooling stops, and learning loss happens at roughly the same rate for all students, the researchers point out. But instruction has been uneven during the pandemic, as some students have been able to participate fully in online learning while others have faced obstacles—such as lack of internet access—that have hindered their progress.

In the study, researchers analyzed a national sample of 5 million students in grades 3–8 who took the MAP Growth test, a tool schools use to assess students’ reading and math growth throughout the school year. The researchers compared typical growth in a standard-length school year to projections based on students being out of school from mid-March on. To make those projections, they looked at research on the summer slide, weather- and disaster-related closures (such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina), and absenteeism.

The researchers predict that, on average, students will experience substantial drops in reading and math, losing roughly three months’ worth of gains in reading and five months’ worth of gains in math. For Megan Kuhfeld, the lead author of the study, the biggest takeaway isn’t that learning loss will happen—that’s a given by this point—but that students will come back to school having declined at vastly different rates.

“We might be facing unprecedented levels of variability come fall,” Kuhfeld told me. “Especially in school districts that serve families with lots of different needs and resources. Instead of having students reading at a grade level above or below in their classroom, teachers might have kids who slipped back a lot versus kids who have moved forward.” 

Disproportionate Impact on Students Living in Poverty and Students of Color

Horace Mann once referred to schools as the “great equalizers,” yet the pandemic threatens to expose the underlying inequities of remote learning. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center analysis , 17 percent of teenagers have difficulty completing homework assignments because they do not have reliable access to a computer or internet connection. For Black students, the number spikes to 25 percent.

“There are many reasons to believe the Covid-19 impacts might be larger for children in poverty and children of color,” Kuhfeld wrote in the study. Their families suffer higher rates of infection, and the economic burden disproportionately falls on Black and Hispanic parents, who are less likely to be able to work from home during the pandemic.

Although children are less likely to become infected with Covid-19, the adult mortality rates, coupled with the devastating economic consequences of the pandemic, will likely have an indelible impact on their well-being.

Impacts on Students’ Mental Health

That impact on well-being may be magnified by another effect of school closures: Schools are “the de facto mental health system for many children and adolescents,” providing mental health services to 57 percent of adolescents who need care, according to the authors of a recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics . School closures may be especially disruptive for children from lower-income families, who are disproportionately likely to receive mental health services exclusively from schools.

“The Covid-19 pandemic may worsen existing mental health problems and lead to more cases among children and adolescents because of the unique combination of the public health crisis, social isolation, and economic recession,” write the authors of that study.

A major concern the researchers point to: Since most mental health disorders begin in childhood, it is essential that any mental health issues be identified early and treated. Left untreated, they can lead to serious health and emotional problems. In the short term, video conferencing may be an effective way to deliver mental health services to children.

Mental health and academic achievement are linked, research shows. Chronic stress changes the chemical and physical structure of the brain, impairing cognitive skills like attention, concentration, memory, and creativity. “You see deficits in your ability to regulate emotions in adaptive ways as a result of stress,” said Cara Wellman, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University in a 2014 interview . In her research, Wellman discovered that chronic stress causes the connections between brain cells to shrink in mice, leading to cognitive deficiencies in the prefrontal cortex. 

While trauma-informed practices were widely used before the pandemic, they’re likely to be even more integral as students experience economic hardships and grieve the loss of family and friends. Teachers can look to schools like Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, as a model for trauma-informed practices . 

3 Ways Teachers Can Prepare

When schools reopen, many students may be behind, compared to a typical school year, so teachers will need to be very methodical about checking in on their students—not just academically but also emotionally. Some may feel prepared to tackle the new school year head-on, but others will still be recovering from the pandemic and may still be reeling from trauma, grief, and anxiety. 

Here are a few strategies teachers can prioritize when the new school year begins:

• Focus on relationships first. Fear and anxiety about the pandemic—coupled with uncertainty about the future—can be disruptive to a student’s ability to come to school ready to learn. Teachers can act as a powerful buffer against the adverse effects of trauma by helping to establish a safe and supportive environment for learning. From morning meetings to regular check-ins with students, strategies that center around relationship-building will be needed in the fall.
• Strengthen diagnostic testing. Educators should prepare for a greater range of variability in student learning than they would expect in a typical school year. Low-stakes assessments such as exit tickets and quizzes can help teachers gauge how much extra support students will need, how much time should be spent reviewing last year’s material, and what new topics can be covered.
• Differentiate instruction—particularly for vulnerable students. For the vast majority of schools, the abrupt transition to online learning left little time to plan a strategy that could adequately meet every student’s needs—in a recent survey by the Education Trust, only 24 percent of parents said that their child’s school was providing materials and other resources to support students with disabilities, and a quarter of non-English-speaking students were unable to obtain materials in their own language. Teachers can work to ensure that the students on the margins get the support they need by taking stock of students’ knowledge and skills, and differentiating instruction by giving them choices, connecting the curriculum to their interests, and providing them multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.

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How is COVID-19 affecting student learning?

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, initial findings from fall 2020, megan kuhfeld , megan kuhfeld senior research scientist - nwea @megankuhfeld jim soland , jim soland assistant professor, school of education and human development - university of virginia, affiliated research fellow - nwea @jsoland beth tarasawa , bt beth tarasawa executive vice president of research - nwea @bethtarasawa angela johnson , aj angela johnson research scientist - nwea erik ruzek , and er erik ruzek research assistant professor, curry school of education - university of virginia karyn lewis karyn lewis director, center for school and student progress - nwea @karynlew.

December 3, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced uncertainty into major aspects of national and global society, including for schools. For example, there is uncertainty about how school closures last spring impacted student achievement, as well as how the rapid conversion of most instruction to an online platform this academic year will continue to affect achievement. Without data on how the virus impacts student learning, making informed decisions about whether and when to return to in-person instruction remains difficult. Even now, education leaders must grapple with seemingly impossible choices that balance health risks associated with in-person learning against the educational needs of children, which may be better served when kids are in their physical schools.

Amidst all this uncertainty, there is growing consensus that school closures in spring 2020 likely had negative effects on student learning. For example, in an earlier post for this blog , we presented our research forecasting the possible impact of school closures on achievement. Based on historical learning trends and prior research on how out-of-school-time affects learning, we estimated that students would potentially begin fall 2020 with roughly 70% of the learning gains in reading relative to a typical school year. In mathematics, students were predicted to show even smaller learning gains from the previous year, returning with less than 50% of typical gains. While these and other similar forecasts presented a grim portrait of the challenges facing students and educators this fall, they were nonetheless projections. The question remained: What would learning trends in actual data from the 2020-21 school year really look like?

With fall 2020 data now in hand , we can move beyond forecasting and begin to describe what did happen. While the closures last spring left most schools without assessment data from that time, thousands of schools began testing this fall, making it possible to compare learning gains in a typical, pre-COVID-19 year to those same gains during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from nearly 4.4 million students in grades 3-8 who took MAP ® Growth™ reading and math assessments in fall 2020, we examined two primary research questions:

• How did students perform in fall 2020 relative to a typical school year (specifically, fall 2019)?
• Have students made learning gains since schools physically closed in March 2020?

To answer these questions, we compared students’ academic achievement and growth during the COVID-19 pandemic to the achievement and growth patterns observed in 2019. We report student achievement as a percentile rank, which is a normative measure of a student’s achievement in a given grade/subject relative to the MAP Growth national norms (reflecting pre-COVID-19 achievement levels).

To make sure the students who took the tests before and after COVID-19 school closures were demographically similar, all analyses were limited to a sample of 8,000 schools that tested students in both fall 2019 and fall 2020. Compared to all public schools in the nation, schools in the sample had slightly larger total enrollment, a lower percentage of low-income students, and a higher percentage of white students. Since our sample includes both in-person and remote testers in fall 2020, we conducted an initial comparability study of remote and in-person testing in fall 2020. We found consistent psychometric characteristics and trends in test scores for remote and in-person tests for students in grades 3-8, but caution that remote testing conditions may be qualitatively different for K-2 students. For more details on the sample and methodology, please see the technical report accompanying this study.

In some cases, our results tell a more optimistic story than what we feared. In others, the results are as deeply concerning as we expected based on our projections.

Question 1: How did students perform in fall 2020 relative to a typical school year?

When comparing students’ median percentile rank for fall 2020 to those for fall 2019, there is good news to share: Students in grades 3-8 performed similarly in reading to same-grade students in fall 2019. While the reason for the stability of these achievement results cannot be easily pinned down, possible explanations are that students read more on their own, and parents are better equipped to support learning in reading compared to other subjects that require more formal instruction.

The news in math, however, is more worrying. The figure below shows the median percentile rank in math by grade level in fall 2019 and fall 2020. As the figure indicates, the math achievement of students in 2020 was about 5 to 10 percentile points lower compared to same-grade students the prior year.

Figure 1: MAP Growth Percentiles in Math by Grade Level in Fall 2019 and Fall 2020

Source: Author calculations with MAP Growth data. Notes: Each bar represents the median percentile rank in a given grade/term.

Question 2: Have students made learning gains since schools physically closed, and how do these gains compare to gains in a more typical year?

To answer this question, we examined learning gains/losses between winter 2020 (January through early March) and fall 2020 relative to those same gains in a pre-COVID-19 period (between winter 2019 and fall 2019). We did not examine spring-to-fall changes because so few students tested in spring 2020 (after the pandemic began). In almost all grades, the majority of students made some learning gains in both reading and math since the COVID-19 pandemic started, though gains were smaller in math in 2020 relative to the gains students in the same grades made in the winter 2019-fall 2019 period.

Figure 2 shows the distribution of change in reading scores by grade for the winter 2020 to fall 2020 period (light blue) as compared to same-grade students in the pre-pandemic span of winter 2019 to fall 2019 (dark blue). The 2019 and 2020 distributions largely overlapped, suggesting similar amounts of within-student change from one grade to the next.

Figure 2: Distribution of Within-student Change from Winter 2019-Fall 2019 vs Winter 2020-Fall 2020 in Reading

Source: Author calculations with MAP Growth data. Notes: The dashed line represents zero growth (e.g., winter and fall test scores were equivalent). A positive value indicates that a student scored higher in the fall than their prior winter score; a negative value indicates a student scored lower in the fall than their prior winter score.

Meanwhile, Figure 3 shows the distribution of change for students in different grade levels for the winter 2020 to fall 2020 period in math. In contrast to reading, these results show a downward shift: A smaller proportion of students demonstrated positive math growth in the 2020 period than in the 2019 period for all grades. For example, 79% of students switching from 3 rd to 4 th grade made academic gains between winter 2019 and fall 2019, relative to 57% of students in the same grade range in 2020.

Figure 3: Distribution of Within-student Change from Winter 2019-Fall 2019 vs. Winter 2020-Fall 2020 in Math

It was widely speculated that the COVID-19 pandemic would lead to very unequal opportunities for learning depending on whether students had access to technology and parental support during the school closures, which would result in greater heterogeneity in terms of learning gains/losses in 2020. Notably, however, we do not see evidence that within-student change is more spread out this year relative to the pre-pandemic 2019 distribution.

The long-term effects of COVID-19 are still unknown

In some ways, our findings show an optimistic picture: In reading, on average, the achievement percentiles of students in fall 2020 were similar to those of same-grade students in fall 2019, and in almost all grades, most students made some learning gains since the COVID-19 pandemic started. In math, however, the results tell a less rosy story: Student achievement was lower than the pre-COVID-19 performance by same-grade students in fall 2019, and students showed lower growth in math across grades 3 to 8 relative to peers in the previous, more typical year. Schools will need clear local data to understand if these national trends are reflective of their students. Additional resources and supports should be deployed in math specifically to get students back on track.

In this study, we limited our analyses to a consistent set of schools between fall 2019 and fall 2020. However, approximately one in four students who tested within these schools in fall 2019 are no longer in our sample in fall 2020. This is a sizeable increase from the 15% attrition from fall 2018 to fall 2019. One possible explanation is that some students lacked reliable technology. A second is that they disengaged from school due to economic, health, or other factors. More coordinated efforts are required to establish communication with students who are not attending school or disengaging from instruction to get them back on track, especially our most vulnerable students.

Finally, we are only scratching the surface in quantifying the short-term and long-term academic and non-academic impacts of COVID-19. While more students are back in schools now and educators have more experience with remote instruction than when the pandemic forced schools to close in spring 2020, the collective shock we are experiencing is ongoing. We will continue to examine students’ academic progress throughout the 2020-21 school year to understand how recovery and growth unfold amid an ongoing pandemic.

Thankfully, we know much more about the impact the pandemic has had on student learning than we did even a few months ago. However, that knowledge makes clear that there is work to be done to help many students get back on track in math, and that the long-term ramifications of COVID-19 for student learning—especially among underserved communities—remain unknown.

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Wake Forest News

A timely assignment: wake students complete covid-19 class project.

As the total number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. exceeds 15 million and cases surge to record levels in places around the world, understanding the pandemic and its ongoing impact remains critically important.

Students in biology professor Sarah McDonald Esstman’s virology class spent several weeks exploring COVID-related topics for a course project. Groups named the virologists, the physicians, the epidemiologists, the immunologists, the communicators and the policy makers – consisting of five or six students each – were responsible for creating 20-minute PowerPoint presentations.

Students presented their findings virtually just before the University let out for Thanksgiving.

Maddie Porter, a senior biology major, took on the policy maker perspective and studied the balance between health, economics, social and environmental impacts of COVID 19.

“We focused mainly on the U.S. but also pulled in different things we’ve been seeing globally,” Porter said. “For example, on the environmental impact we noted that there’s a large decrease in smog in some parts of the world like India, New Delhi and Los Angeles, because fewer people are driving to work. We talked about the state quarantine orders, the mask mandates and the declarations of emergency.”

Porter’s group examined non-medical impacts of the pandemic, including the Paycheck Protection Program and unemployment rates. She focused on mental health impacts and found a study released by the CDC that said in June the suicide ideation rates were disproportionate among young people aged 18-24, essential care workers and Hispanic and Black patients.

Sarah McDonald Esstman

Esstman, an expert on rotavirus, wanted her students to work on the project as a means of incorporating what they’re experiencing, because of the pandemic, with the virology concepts they discussed during the semester. She spent several years earlier in her career studying coronaviruses and the mechanisms of coronavirus replication.

“It was fun for me to sit and listen to what they put together,” Esstman said after the first day of presentations. “It was interesting to hear about the clinical management of the virus in the hospital from students in the physicians group. I felt like I was the student.”

Porter said the class has exceeded her expectations.

“Dr. Esstman is very well versed on many viruses, and her class has opened my eyes on how complex and evolutionary diverse viruses are and how they can impact our global food security, major food crops that we rely on and other things,” she said. “All of the biology behind it was eye-opening for me. This has definitely been my favorite class this semester.”

Porter acknowledges that being a college student in the midst of a global pandemic has been challenging and said working on the COVID-19 project made the virus even more real for her.

“It made me look at the pandemic in a different light because I got to understand the biology behind it and understand what was happening in people’s bodies,” she said. “Things that people were saying now have more meaning to me.”

The policy makers group also examined what the post-pandemic society will look like and concluded, among other things, that remote working will continue, travel will decrease – at least for a few years – and there will likely be major lasting impacts on poor and impoverished people.

“We were able to draw connections to one another’s subtopics which speaks to the interconnectedness of the multitude of effects COVID-19 has had on the earth and society,” said Porter, who is minoring in chemistry and environmental science. “Our group presented last and we ended with our predictions of how this virus is going to forever impact our world and society in the future.”

Members of the media that want to interview Esstman or Porter should contact [email protected] .

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The Pandemic Hurt These Students the Most

New research shows that all groups are behind in math and reading after disruptions during the pandemic. But it’s the most vulnerable students who experienced the steepest setbacks.

By Sarah Mervosh

How much did the pandemic affect students?

The latest research is out, and the answer is clear: dramatically.

In math and reading, students are behind where they would be after a normal year, with the most vulnerable students showing the steepest drops, according to two new reports from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company and the NWEA, a nonprofit organization that provides academic assessments.

The students did not just stall early on; the setbacks accumulated over time — and continued even after many students had returned to the classroom this spring.

The reports echo the outcomes from Texas and Indiana , some of the first states to release test results from the past school year. Both states showed significant declines in reading and math.

The findings paint an alarming picture of an education system plagued by racial and socioeconomic inequities that have only gotten worse during the coronavirus pandemic. An educational gap became a gulf.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” said Karyn Lewis, a senior researcher at the NWEA and the lead author of the organization’s report, which was released on Wednesday. “It just keeps you up at night.”

For example, in math, Latino third graders performed 17 percentile points lower in spring 2021 compared with the typical achievement of Latino third graders in the spring of 2019. The decline was 15 percentile points for Black students, compared with similar students in the past, and 14 for Native students, according to the NWEA report.

Asian and white students also underachieved compared with the performance of similar students in 2019, but the impact was less severe, at nine percentile points each.

The report used data from about 5.5 million public school students in third through eighth grade who took the NWEA’s tests during the 2020-21 school year, and compared their performance to similar students in 2019. The percentiles in the report ranked student achievement for both groups against national norms before the pandemic.

Perhaps even more troubling, the students who were most affected by the crisis were already behind their peers before the pandemic, and the added losses have pushed them further back.

In one stark example, third graders who attended a low-income school tested 17 percentile points lower in math this spring compared with similar students in 2019, moving the average performance of low-income third graders from the 39th to the 22nd percentile nationally. Scores for their peers in wealthier schools, who have historically performed in the 71st percentile, declined by just seven points, leaving them in the 64th percentile, well above the typical national average.

The losses did not just happen early on. In one surprising finding, NWEA researchers found that students made some gains in the fall, but that the pace of learning stalled more significantly from winter to spring, even after many schools had returned in person.

“We were all caught off guard by that,” said Dr. Lewis, who hypothesized that pandemic fatigue may have played a role.

By the end of the school year, students were, on average, four to five months behind where students have typically been in the past, according to the report by McKinsey , which found similar impacts on the most vulnerable students.

Students who attended schools that were majority Black or Hispanic were six months behind where they normally would have been in math, compared with four months for white students. Similarly, students who attended a low-income school ended the year seven months behind their typical performance in math, compared with four months for schools where families were financially better off.

The report also found that setbacks in reading accumulated over time.

“Reading was almost as bad as math,” said Emma Dorn, an associate partner at McKinsey and the lead author of the report, which was released on Tuesday and used data from Curriculum Associates, an assessment company. The report analyzed the results from more than 1.6 million elementary school students who took assessments this spring and compared the results with demographically similar groups in the spring of 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Ms. Dorn cautioned that the results might be an underestimate because the data relied on in-person tests and did not account for students who were still learning remotely.

The disparities quite likely reflect a number of factors. Low-income communities and communities of color tended to have less access to technology , and they experienced disproportionate rates of Covid-19 and higher unemployment. The McKinsey report also found that students at more urban schools faced greater setbacks than at rural schools , which generally were more likely to go back to school in person.

There is some good news. Contrary to images conjured by phrases like “learning loss,” almost all students made gains during the pandemic, just at a slower rate than normal. And the setbacks were on the lower end of some earlier projections .

And while the new research offers a clearer view of how students fared, the usefulness of measuring student performance has been contested, particularly during a year of upheaval and trauma .

“The problem with the learning loss narrative is it is premised on a set of racialized assumptions and focused on test scores,” said Ann Ishimaru, an associate professor at the University of Washington College of Education who pushed back against framing the pandemic’s impact as children “falling behind.”

“It is especially kids of color who are presumed to be harmed by being at home,” said Dr. Ishimaru, who said her conversations with families of color suggested that some children preferred learning remotely, because they did not have to deal with micro and macroaggressions and other challenges they encounter in school.

She argued that many children learned plenty in the past year and a half — about loss and grief, about racism and resistance, about cooking and family traditions at home. “What if we were to focus on the learning found, and then we rebuild our education systems from that learning?” she said.

One argument for measuring student performance, however, is to document where help is needed.

“I’m less interested in standardized tests that are used to rank kids, and much more interested in assessments to diagnose learning needs,” said Pedro Noguera, dean of the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education.

He called on schools to hire more tutors and specialists and develop a personalized plan for every student, similar to the individualized plans that are required for students with disabilities.

“We need that kind of approach for all kids,” he said.

Research shows that frequent, intensive tutoring — one-on-one or in small groups, multiple times a week — is one of the most effective ways to help students make up for academic gaps, though it is expensive. A report from Georgia State University estimated that tutoring could cost as much as $3,800 a year per student, compared with other options like extending the school day for an hour (about $800 per student) and offering summer school (at least $1,100 per student).

“If you have one teacher with 33 kids, that is not going to be a recipe for addressing this problem,” Dr. Noguera said.

Sarah Mervosh is a national reporter based in New York, covering a wide variety of news and feature stories across the country. More about Sarah Mervosh

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Assignment strategies modulate students’ academic performance in an online learning environment during the first and second COVID-19 related school closures

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Roles Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Centre for Mathematical Cognition, School of Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom, Leibniz-Institut fuer Wissensmedien, Tübingen, Germany, LEAD Graduate School and Research Network, University of Tuebingen, Tübingen, Germany

Affiliations Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States of America, Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States of America, Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany

• Markus Wolfgang Hermann Spitzer, 
• Korbinian Moeller, 
• Sebastian Musslick

• Published: May 3, 2023
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868
• Reader Comments

A growing number of studies seek to evaluate the impact of school closures during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While most studies reported severe learning losses in students, some studies found positive effects of school closures on academic performance. However, it is still unclear which factors contribute to the differential effects observed in these studies. In this article, we examine the impact of assignment strategies for problem sets on the academic performance of students (n ≈ 16,000 from grades 4–10 who calculated ≈ 170,000 problem sets) in an online learning environment for mathematics, during the first and second period of pandemic-related school closures in Germany. We observed that, if teachers repeatedly assigned single problem sets (i.e., a small chunk of on average eight mathematical problems) to their class, students’ performance increased significantly during both periods of school closures compared to the same periods in the previous year (without school closures). In contrast, our analyses also indicated that, if teachers assigned bundles of problem sets (i.e., large chunks) or when students self-selected problem sets, students’ performance did not increase significantly. Moreover, students’ performance was generally higher when single problem sets were assigned, compared to the other two assignment types. Taken together, our results imply that teachers’ way of assigning problem sets in online learning environments can have a positive effect on students’ performance in mathematics.

Citation: Spitzer MWH, Moeller K, Musslick S (2023) Assignment strategies modulate students’ academic performance in an online learning environment during the first and second COVID-19 related school closures. PLoS ONE 18(5): e0284868. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868

Editor: Ehsan Namaziandost, Ahvaz Jundishapur University: Ahvaz Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Received: October 7, 2022; Accepted: April 10, 2023; Published: May 3, 2023

Copyright: © 2023 Spitzer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Data are available at https://osf.io/astgp/ Identifier: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/ASTGP .

Funding: This work was financially supported by Schmidt Science Fellows, in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, in the form of a grant awarded to SM. No additional external funding was received for this study. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Starting from March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to school closures around the world [ 1 ]. These closures required teachers to adopt different approaches to home schooling and distance learning —with varying degrees of success [ 2 , 3 ]. One such approach are online learning environments, the use of which grew rapidly since the outbreak of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic [ 4 – 8 ]. For instance, the use of the curriculum-based online learning environment for mathematics Bettermarks increased exponentially in Germany among students (age range:10–16) from the point of first school closures [ 6 ]. The flexibility provided by such online learning environments, which can be used both remotely as well as in class, affords different strategies of assigning problem sets to students to work on. For instance, in Bettermarks , teachers can assign small chunks of problem sets (so called single problem sets ) within a book (e.g., Basics of Fractions ) or they can assign large chunks which include the entire book—including all single problem sets of this book—to their students. In addition, students may select problem sets themselves. These different problem set assignment strategies may have modulated students’ performance during school closure. If so, evaluating potential differential effects of assignment strategies on students’ academic performance (e.g., better performance for smaller bits for learning) would help to better understand what makes online learning more successful. To examine this hypothesis, we assessed the effect of different assignment strategies on student’s performance in Bettermarks during times of first and second school closures. In the following, we will first elaborate on the impact of school closures on students’ academic achievements before we will outline the details of the current study.

The effect of school closures on students’ academic performance

A growing number of studies investigated the influence of school closures on students’ academic performance [ 4 – 7 , 9 – 12 ]. Most of them reported detrimental effects on academic achievement [ 9 – 11 ], as well as student’s physical [ 13 , 14 ], mental [ 15 – 18 ], and social wellbeing [ 19 – 22 ]. For instance, Engzell et al. (2021) assessed student’s performance in national monitoring examinations [ 23 ] before and after school closures in the Netherlands and reported a 60% learning loss based on data from 350,000 students (age range 8–11). The detrimental performance effects observed in this study comport with earlier reports on learning losses during summer holidays [ 24 – 27 ]. In addition, complementing results from Engzell et al. (2021), Schult et al., 2021 reported learning losses for fifth grade students in Germany, equivalent to about one entire month of education after the first closure of schools which lasted for less than three months. Similar effects of school closures were also reported by Maldonado and De Witte (2020), who evaluated the effect of the closure of Flemish schools in Belgium in more than 4,000 students. In line with the two studies mentioned earlier [ 9 , 10 ], their findings revealed significant learning losses in mathematics, specifically for students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Contrary to the detrimental effects described above, a separate line of studies reported no or even positive effects of school closures on academic performance [ 4 – 7 , 12 ]. For instance, Gore et al. (2020) found no significant influence of school closures on students’ academic learning outcomes in mathematics in an Australian cohort which included over 4,800 primary school students from New South Wales. In addition, Tomasik et al. (2020) analyzed data from 28,000 students who used an online learning environment before, during, and after school closures in Switzerland. Their results suggested severe learning losses in mathematics—in particular for low-performing Swiss students. However, Tomasik et al. (2020) also observed that some students seemed unaffected by school closures.

Finally, a growing number of studies reported the use of digital technologies to learn from distance during school closures [ 28 – 31 ] and some studies indicated that academic performance in online learning environments improved during school closures [ 4 – 6 ]. For instance, Meeter (2021) examined data from almost 100,000 students from the Netherlands and reported significant learning gains for the period of school closures in an online learning environment for mathematics. Similarly, Van der Velde (2021) investigated students’ performance when learning French in an online environment and found significant learning gains across more than 130,000 students from the Netherlands.

Such performance improvements in online learning have been attributed to a remarkable increase in their usage during school closures and concomitant increase in study time [ 4 , 5 ]. However, a recent within-student analysis of over 2,500 students in Germany (grades 4 to 10; age range:10–16) reported improvements in academic performance while controlling for the extend of online learning and problem set difficulty [ 6 ]. Results from this analysis suggest that students performed mathematical problem sets more accurately during the first period of school closures in Germany compared to the same time period in the year before (not affected by the COVID pandemic). Moreover, results from this study suggested a narrowing performance gap, with low-performing students showing more pronounced improvements in performance than already high-performing students [ 6 ].

While the above studies substantiate the relevance of online learning environments during school closures, they offer little insight into which factors contributed to the reported learning gains. Some suggested that such positive effects may result from a higher focus when learning at home compared to the classroom which may be nosier and thus more distracting [ 4 , 5 ]. Others argued for the beneficial effects of software integrated features, such as rapid feedback [ 32 – 37 ] or computer-based scaffolding in STEM subjects (i.e., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) [ 38 – 42 ], both of which may aid learning over and above traditional teaching materials.

Another feature of online learning environments is the flexibility with which they can be used. Teachers may assign problem sets either one by one (i.e., in small chunks) following the progression on the content taught, in bulk (i.e., in larger chunks), or students may even select problem sets themselves. The most common form of assignment in, for instance, Bettermarks , are one by one assignments by teachers (65%), followed by bulk assignments by teachers (24%), and self-selected assignments (11%). As teacher-student interaction is known to affect students’ learning outcomes [ 43 ], we aimed at evaluating the role of problem set assignment strategies within online learning environments during school closures. In particular, we contrasted the most common form of assignment (single problem sets assigned by teachers) against the two alternative assignment strategies (teachers assign problem sets in bulk or students self-select their problem set) in determining students’ performance outcomes in Bettermarks .

The present study

In this study, we investigated performance-dependent changes as a function of assignment policy by contrasting the most common assignment policy (teachers assigning single problem sets one by one to their students) against two other assignment policies: (1) teachers assigning all problem sets in an online math book at once (e.g., Basics of Fractions ) or (2) students’ self-selected problem sets. We also examined whether time window-dependent performance changes (i.e., performance before vs. performance during school closures) were affected by the assignment policy. Finally, to evaluate the validity of our results we replicated these analyses for the second period of school closure in Germany and its respective time window in the previous year. As such, this study not only evaluated evidence for the first period of school-closures in Germany but also replicated the analyses for the second school-closure, which reaffirms reported effects. Similar to previous studies on the influence of school closures on learning losses within online learning environments [ 4 , 5 , 7 ], we compared performance-dependent changes as a function of assignment policy with a between-student analysis approach for the first period of school closures and replicated this analysis for the second period of school closures to examine the robustness of the first results. In addition, this also allowed us to examine whether results for the second period of school closures would be similar to the first period of school closures and thus would generalize the findings to more than one period of school closures. These analyses encompass data from more than 16,000 students (more than 1,900 classes) who calculated on more than 170,000 problem sets.

Based on the set of findings described above [ 4 – 6 ], we expected performance increases due to school closures in the online learning environment. Our hypotheses about the effects of assignment strategy derive from prior studies on spaced and massed learning [ 44 – 49 ]. In this context, it was repeatedly observed that spaced learning—breaking down learning content into smaller bits covered in several sessions (separated by up to several days)—led to significantly better learning outcomes than massed learning reflecting long but fewer learning session on one and the same topic. Against this background one might assume that students’ learning outcomes should be better when teachers’ assign problem sets one-by-one and not all at once. Thus, we expected that assignments of single problem sets, compared to assignments of entire books, may foster greater improvements in performance.

Finally, we were interested in whether assigning single problem sets (the most common assignment policy) or self-selecting single problem sets may have had different effects on performance because these two assignment policies might imply differences in extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation to complete the respective problem sets [ 50 , 51 ]. In particular, allowing students freedom to choose has been associated with increased intrinsic motivation, effort, and task performance [ 52 – 55 ] with higher intrinsic motivation leading to increased performance [ 56 , 57 ]. Thus, one might expect better performance for students who selected single problem sets themselves as compared to being assigned single problem sets by teachers.

In summary, investigating differences between assignment policies on a large scale, may have important implications on how students best learn mathematics in online learning environments. Thus, we sought to explore whether differences between assignment policies which imply influences of spaced vs. massed learning (i.e., assigning single problem sets vs. all at once) and differences in motivational aspects (i.e., teacher-assigned vs. self-selected problem sets) exist and modulated effects of school closures.

Online learning environment

We made use of data collected with the Bettermarks online learning environment. The user interface of Bettermarks is depicted in Fig 1 . Teachers and students use this software in both private and public schools in all states in Germany, including different school types (i.e., from vocational to academic track schools). The online learning environment contains over 100 different text books covering the curriculum for mathematics in Germany for grades 4 to 10. These virtual mathematics text books cover over 2 000 different mathematical problem sets. Teachers and students with access to the software can freely decide when and how many problem sets they want to work on. Bettermarks is used to solve mathematical problem sets online, which can be done inside, but also outside the classroom (e.g., at home). Typically, Bettermarks is used to work on problem sets. Two different assignment possibilities exist. Teachers can assign mathematical problem sets (each including eight mathematical problems on average) to their students using the online learning environment. However, students may also work on problem sets on their own, independently of assignments they receive from their teachers. Students receive immediate feedback on each computed problem, indicating whether their answer was correct or not. After completing a problem set, they may choose to repeat it. However, on each new repetition, the parameterization of the problem set changes, and thus, students do not benefit from memorizing the answer of the same problem set.

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(1) Students and teachers can choose mathematical topics, such as “Calculating with Money” from a library. (2) Each mathematical topic contains several problem sets which contain several individual problems. (3) Immediate feedback is given on every problem. (4) Explanations can be provided.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868.g001

Students may also leave the system anytime during their learning process. The dataset is entirely anonymous, and thus, it is not possible to identify any personal information from students or teachers (e.g., gender or age). When signing up with the software, each software user agrees that their data will be stored anonymously and used for data analyses. This analysis considered a retrospective assessment of data collected by Bettermarks. All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

The software covers the curricula of mathematics from classes 4–10 in Germany. Mathematical topics are placed in different books such as Basics of Fractions . These books are described in more detail in the S1 Text . The software collects data on each computed problem set on (1) the accuracy of a student; (2) which problem set he/she worked on; (3) whether the problem set was assigned or self-selected; (4) the date the problem set was worked on, and (5) whether students completed the problem set or left the assignment without completion. Bettermarks implements an internal incentive structure according to which students gain a star within the system if they complete a problem set with 100% accuracy. They receive a coin if they perform a problem set with more than 60% accuracy. Fig 2 illustrates some example problem sets of the software. Fig 3 depicts its usage over the past five years.

Example problem sets of the books (A) Basics of Fractions , (B, C) Calculating Percents , and (D) “ Linear Equations ”.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868.g002

Each dot resembles the total number of students (left panel) and classes (middle panel) using the online learning environment, as well as the total number of problem sets completed (right panel) per month of the year. Different colors, lines and dot shape correspond to different years of usage. Note a stark increase in software usage in March 2020 when schools closed for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868.g003

Importantly, the online learning environment did not change over the past years. This allowed us to investigate the performance on problem sets across different time points before and during school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inclusion criteria for sample selection

Data considered in the current study (i.e., students, problem sets, dates, and the performance on these problem sets) were selected based on the following criteria which were set prior to data analysis (also see Fig 4 ). First, we only included students who calculated problem sets in books covering three major mathematical topics, namely fractions, percentages, and linear equations. We predefined these three book topics prior to all analyses and included no other book topics (see S1 Text ). Second, we only considered problem sets computed during the first period of school closures in 2020 (March 15 th , 2020, until June 1 st , 2020) and the same period in the year before (March 15 th , 2019, until June 1 st , 2019). In addition, we included data from the second period of school closures in 2021 (January 1 st , 2021 until February 28 th , 2021) and the same time window in the year before (January 1 st , 2020 until February 28 th , 2020). Third, we only included students who registered with the software before March 15 th , 2019. Forth, for each book topic, we only considered students who calculated at least five problem sets of a book, and who worked on a book before school closures or during school closures, but not both. In case students repeated a problem set, only the best result of each student on each problem set was included whereas all other repetitions were excluded from the analysis, so to approximate their best performance. Fifth, within a class, the same assignment strategy was always assigned. That is, if students of a class computed problem sets, all of them selected these problem sets on their own or via one of the two assignment types by their teacher. Finally, for single problem set assignments and entire book assignments, we only considered classes with at least 15 students, to assure that we assessed teacher-student interactions within a class context of a minimum size of 15 students. Based on these inclusion criteria, the dataset comprised a total of 16,646 students from 1,908 classes who calculated a total of 170,522 problem sets.

Only students who were already registered before first school closures were included in all analyses.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868.g004

Independent and dependent variables

Independent variables encompass the categorical variable time window which indicated whether schools were closed or not and a categorical assignment variable which denoted assignment policy. We additionally controlled for the number of problem sets assigned to students by considering computed problem sets as a covariate in our analyses. We compared the most frequently applied assignment policy of teachers assigning single problem sets (labeled as single problem sets ) with two other possible assignment policies, namely assigning entire books (labeled as book ) and self-selecting problem sets (labeled as self-selected problem sets ). Note that teacher-directed assignment policies are independent from the number of students who receive the assignment. In other words, teachers may assign single problem sets or books to either one or multiple students. We considered three different dependent variables that derive from the binary incentive structure of Bettermarks . These included (1) a binary completion variable indicating whether students completed a problem set or not, irrespective of their performance (2) a binary stars variable indicating whether students received a star (i.e., achieved 100% accuracy on a given problem set), and (3) a binary coins variable indicating whether students received at least one coin (i.e., achieved at least 60% accuracy on a given problem set).

Data analysis

We applied this model across different analyses, with each analysis contrasting different levels of each independent variable. That is, one set of analyses contrasted the single problem set assignment policy against the book assignment policy, and another set contrasted the single problem set policy against the self-selected assignment policy. We also performed different analyses for different contrasts of time windows: in one set of analyses, we compared the first period of school closures in 2020 with the same period a year before and in another set of analyses, we compared the second lockdown period in 2021 with the same period in the previous year. This resulted in 3 (three dependent variables) x 2 (assignment policy contrasts) x 2 (time window contrasts) statistical models that we report on below. As six regression analyses were run for the first school closure, we corrected the significance level using Bonferroni correction meaning that we refer to significant results with p-values below .0083. To investigate the robustness of these results, we replicated each analysis for the second period of school closures.

First shutdown of schools

Results from these analyses are depicted in Figs 5 and 6 . All results are also shown in Tables 1 – 3 . In the following sections, we describe the respective analyses.

Predicted estimates from the regression models for performance under single problem set assignments (red) and book assignments (lightblue), for the school closure in 2020 (left panels) and 2021 (right panels) compared to the same time periods in the preceding years. Error bars indicate one standard error of the mean (SEM). Students showed greater completion rates, gained more stars, and gained more coins during single problem set assignments, compared to entire book assignments. In addition, students completed more problem sets and gained more coins during the first and second school closure when they were assigned single problem sets compared to the same time period in the previous year. This pattern did not replicate in cases where teachers assigned entire books.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868.g005

Predicted estimates from the regression models for performance for single problem set assignments (red) and self-selected problem sets (black), for the school closure in 2020 (left panel) and 2021 (right panel) compared to the same time periods in the preceding years. Error bars indicate one SEM. Students completed more problem sets and gained more coins during the first and second school closure if they were assigned single problem sets as compared to the same time periods in the preceding years. We did not observe the same pattern if students self-selected their problem sets.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868.t001

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868.t002

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868.t003

Completion rate (single problem sets vs. entire books).

The main effect of time window was significant ( b = 0.14; z = 3.94; p < .001), with more completed problem sets during school closure as compared to the same time window in the previous year. The significant main effect of assignment ( b = 0.29; z = 11.62; p < .001) reflected higher completion rates if individual problem sets were assigned compared to books assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b = -.001; z = -1.49; p = .136). Finally, the interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = .13; z = 5.20; p < .001), suggesting that the difference in completion rates between school closures and control periods was larger for students who got assigned single problem sets versus entire books.

We additionally conducted a post-hoc analysis on the effect of assignment strategy for the time period before school closures, controlling for number of assignments. Results of this logistic mixed model revealed a significant effect of assignment ( b = 0.15; z = 5.16; p < .001), with higher completion rates on single problem set assignments compared to entire book assignments. The main effect of computed assignments was significant ( b = -0.01; z = -3.00; p = .003) with lower completion rates when students computed more assignments.

Stars (single problem sets vs. entire books).

The main effect of time window was significant ( b = -.02; z = -0.55; p = .586). The main effect of assignment was significant ( b = .15; z = 5.94; p < .001), with more stars gained on single problem set assignments compared to book assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < .001; z = 0.91; p = .364). The interaction of time window and assignment was not significant ( b = .03; z = 1.12; p = .264).

As in the previous analysis, we carried out a post-hoc analysis on the effect of assignment before school closures. Results of the logistic mixed model with computed problem sets as covariate revealed a significant effect of assignment ( b = .12; z = 3.83; p = .001), with more coins gained before school closures on single problem set assignments compared to book assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < .001; z = -0.20; p = .844).

Coins (single problem sets vs. entire books).

The main effect of time window was significant ( b = .09; z = 2.85; p = .0043), with overall more coins gained during school closure as compared to the same time window in the previous year. The main effect of assignment was significant ( b = .25; z = 10.15; p < .001), with more coins gained on single problem set assignments compared to book assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < -.001; z = -0.40; p = .688). The interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = .10; z = 4.19; p < .001) suggesting that students who got assigned single problem sets showed a greater difference in acquired coins as a function of time window, as compared to students who got assigned entire books.

We conducted a post-hoc analysis to investigate the effect of assignment before school closures in isolation. Results of this logistic regression model revealed a significant effect of assignment ( b = .14; z = 4.68; p < .001), with more coins gained before school closures on single problem set assignments compared to book assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b = .002; z = -1.00; p = .050).

Completion rate (single problem sets vs. self-selected problem sets).

Again, the main effect of time window was significant ( b = 0.20; z = 6.12; p < .001) indicating that overall, students completed more problem sets during school closure as compared to the same time window in the previous year. On the other hand, the main effect of assignment was not significant ( b = -0.10; z = -0.47; p = .637). The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < .002; z = -2.29; p = .022). The interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = 14; z = 4.24; p < .001). The interaction indicates that the difference in completion rate as a function of school closures was larger for students who got assigned single problem sets by their teachers compared to students who selected their problem sets.

The post-hoc analysis on the main effect of assignment before school closures was not significant ( b = -0.45; z = -1.85; p = .064). The main effect of computed problem sets was significant ( b = -0.005; z = -2.96; p = .003) with lower completion rates when more assignments were computed.

Stars (single problem sets vs. self-selected problem sets).

The main effect of time window was not significant ( b = .007; z = 0.22; p = .827). The main effect of assignment was not significant ( b = -.03; z = -0.12; p = .906). The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < -.001; z = -0.27; p = .786). The interaction of time window and assignment was not significant ( b = .04; z = 1.14; p = .255).

The post-hoc analysis on the main effect of assignment before school closures did not reveal a significant main effect for assignment ( b = -0.19; z = -0.82; p = .412). The main effect for computed problem sets was also not significant ( b < -0.01; z = -1.10; p = .271).

Coins (single problem sets vs. self-selected problem sets).

The main effect of time window was significant ( b = .13; z = 4.03; p < .001), with overall more coins gained during school closure as compared to the same time window in the previous year. The main effect of assignment was not significant ( b = -.09; z = -0.44; p = .662). The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < -.001; z = -1.04; p = .297). The interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = .13; z = 4.05; p < .001) indicating that students who got assigned single problem sets by their teachers showed a greater difference in acquired coins as a function of time window relative to students who self-selected their problem sets.

The post-hoc analysis on the main effect of assignment before school closures did not reveal a significant main effect for assignment ( b = -0.43; z = -1.77; p = .077). The main effect for computed problem sets was also not significant ( b < -0.01; z = -2.11; p = .034).

Second lockdown

Figs 5 and 6 as well as Tables 1 – 3 show the results of the analyses. Each analysis is described in the following sections.

The main effect of time window was not significant ( b = -.01; z = -.35; p = .73). The main effect of assignment was significant ( b = .54; z = 22.31; p < .001), with higher completion rates on problem sets if they were assigned one by one as opposed to as entire books. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b = -.001; z = -1.76; p = .079). The interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = .30; z = 12.48; p < .001), suggesting that the difference in completion rates as a function of time window was larger for single problem set assignments as compared to book assignments.

The post-hoc analysis on the main effect of assignment before school closures was significant ( b = -0.27; z = 5.34; p < .001), with higher completion rates on single problem set assignments compared to entire book assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < -0.01; z = -0.05; p = .960).

The main effect of time window was significant ( b = -.15; z = -3.81; p < .001), with less stars gained during school closure. The main effect of assignment was significant ( b = .34; z = 13.55; p < .001), with more stars gained on single problem set assignments, compared to entire books assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < .001; z = 1.64; p = .101). The interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = .15; z = 5.78; p < .001), indicating that the difference between stars gained during the two time windows was more expressed for single problem set assignments as compared to book assignments.

The post-hoc analysis on the main effect of assignment before school closures was significant ( b = 0.21; z = 3.74; p < .001), with more stars gained on single problem set assignments compared to entire book assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < 0.01; z = 0.87; p = .375).

The main effect of time window was not significant ( b = .01; z = .19; p = .853). The main effect of assignment was significant ( b = .46; z = 19.07; p < .001), with more coins gained on single problem set assignments compared to book assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < -.001; z = -1.22; p = .224). The interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = .23; z = 9.52; p < .001) with the difference in coins gained between the two time windows being more pronounced for single problem set assignments as opposed to book assignments.

The post-hoc analysis on the main effect of assignment before school closures was significant ( b = 0.22; z = 4.44; p < .001), with more coins gained on single problem set assignments compared to entire book assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < 0.01; z = 1.04; p = .297).

The main effect of time window was not significant ( b = -.05; z = -1.31; p = .191). The main effect of assignment was significant ( b = .65; z = 2.93; p = .003), with higher completion rates for single problem set assignments as compared to book assignments. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b = -.001; z = -1.09; p = .274). The interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = .41; z = 9.92; p < .001), suggesting greater differences in completion rate as a function of time window if problem sets were assigned one by one as opposed to being self-selected.

The post-hoc analysis on the main effect of assignment before school closures was not significant ( b = -0.24; z = 0.63; p = .526). The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < -0.01; z = -0.71; p = .478).

The main effect of time window was significant ( b = -.15; z = -3.22; p = .845), with less stars gained during school closure. The main effect of assignment was significant ( b = .66; z = 2.94; p = .003), with more stars gained if single problem set were assigned as compared to being self-selected. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < .001; z = 1.55; p = .121). The interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = .17; z = 3.65; p < .001), indicating that the lockdown period was associated with more stars compared to the same time frame in the previous year if problem sets were assigned one by one by teachers.

The post-hoc analysis on the main effect of assignment before school closures was not significant ( b = -0.15; z = 0.39; p = .696). The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < -0.01; z = -0.17; p = .865).

The main effect of time window was not significant ( b = -.06; z = 2.71; p = .007). The main effect of assignment was significant ( b = .66; z = 2.86; p = .004), with more coins gained on single problem set assignments, compared to self-selected problem sets. The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < -.001; z = -0.29; p = .774). The interaction of time window and assignment was significant ( b = .37; z = 8.73; p < .001) with the difference in coins gained between the two time windows being more pronounced for single problem set assignments by teachers.

The post-hoc analysis on the main effect of assignment before school closures was not significant ( b = 0.05; z = 0.13; p = .894). The main effect of computed problem sets was not significant ( b < 0.01; z = 0.55; p = .581).

In this study, we investigated the influence of teachers’ assignment policies during school closures on the performance of students (grade 4–10; age range:10–16) in an online learning environment for mathematics with a between-student analysis approach. We observed that if teachers assigned single problem sets to students, the probability of completing a problem set, as well as the probability of achieving at least 60% accuracy on a given problem set was significantly and consistently higher for students who computed these single problem sets during the first (i.e., 15.03. to 1.06.2020) and second period of school closures (i.e., 01.01.to 28.02.2021) in Germany as compared to students who computed the same problem sets during the same period the year before, respectively. However, we did not find this effect if teachers assigned entire books or if students self-selected problem sets. We observed this effect across three mathematical topics (i.e., fractions, percentages and interest, and linear equations; see S1 Text ). Taken together, these results indicate that the beneficial effects of assigning single problem sets persist across two different periods of school closures and across different mathematical topics and pertain to students’ completion rates, as well as their performance (achieving at least 60% accuracy).

It is noteworthy that this study differed from previous analyses of student performance in the same learning software [ 6 , 61 , 62 ]. An important difference pertains to the way in which we operationalized students’ performance. In an earlier study, we measured students’ performance in terms of their average error rate, normalized by problem set difficulty [ 6 ]. Here, we employed binary factors coding students’ accuracy (e.g., whether they completed a problem set, gained a star, or gained a coin) as we restricted the analysis to specific mathematical contents which were studied most frequently within the online learning environment. An advantage of such an approach is that we were able to evaluate whether our analyses replicate across book topics. The three mathematical topics (fractions, percentages and interest, and linear equations) considered are of tremendous importance for students to perform well on as they have been observed to be robust predictors for future mathematical achievement [ 63 – 67 ], socio-economic status and overall income during adulthood [ 68 – 72 ].

Another advantage of this analysis is the assessment of completed problem sets in combination with students’ performance on mathematical problem sets. This allowed us to examine whether students completed more and got better on these completed problem sets. Without considering completion rates in online learning environment, it may be that students just complete easy problem sets, but do not complete rather challenging problem sets. Thus, finding that students completed more problem sets and increased their performance at the same time on these completed problem sets compared to two previous cohorts suggests that students actually performed better. If students would have shown increased performance but decreased completion rates, then this could have suggested that students just completed rather simpler problem sets.

Finally, we investigated whether the performance of two cohorts of students (before each lockdown) differed from another two cohorts of students (during each lockdown) with respect to completion rates, achieving 60% accuracy and achieving 100% accuracy on the same problem sets. We considered the performance on specific mathematical topics with a between-student analysis approach (akin to previous analyses on COVID-19 related performance changes [ 4 , 5 , 7 ]) as improvements on the same problem sets within the same students over longer time horizons would have been expected.

The reported analyses may shed light on previously observed performance improvements of students using online learning environments during the first COVID-19 related school closure in 2020 [ 4 – 6 ]. These observations seem unexpected given that most studies suggest detrimental effects of school closures [ 9 – 11 ]. As such, the results of the present study suggest that students may learn better during school closures when small bits of information were assigned.

The beneficial effects of teachers assigning problem sets one after another, as opposed to assigning them in bundles or letting students self-select, highlight the importance of how learning materials should be presented to students. In particular, these results suggest that assigning smaller bits of learning content in terms of smaller sets of problem sets as compared to entire books as well as compared to letting students self-select problem sets was most beneficial for students’ mathematical learning.

As such, our results are in line with previous evidence suggesting that spacing out learning content over time, provided to students in small chunks, leads to enhanced learning outcomes [ 44 – 49 ]. Moreover, our results rather speak in favor of a large effect teacher incentives may have, as single problem set assignments were associated with overall increased performance and increased completion rates compared to self-selected assignments. These results may be explained by motivational theories of effort allocation which propose a positive connection between incentives and academic performance [ 73 – 75 ]. Based on these theories, one may speculate that students’ performance depends on incentives provided by the teachers. More precisely, students may be more extrinsically motivated to complete and perform well on problem sets when they were assigned by their teachers (e.g., as part of homework) compared to when they select to perform these problems themselves. Importantly, this rather extrinsic motivational view does not speak against intrinsic motivational effects which the self-selection of problem sets might have [ 76 ], but it may be that the effect of extrinsic incentives was larger than the effect of intrinsic incentives. Nevertheless, the positive effect single problem set assignments had, compared to self-selected problem sets, which increased during school closures, highlights the important role of teachers within online learning environments—especially when teachers and students do not see each other in school.

Importantly, students were exposed to the same learning content (the three different mathematical topics fractions, percentages and interest, and linear equations), independent of the assignment strategy (i.e., single problem sets, books, and self-selected problem sets). Thus, overall students from different assignment strategies should have been exposed to problem sets of the same difficulty. To investigate the robustness of our results across different book topics, we ran further control analyzes replicating our original analyses for each book topic separately (see S1 Text ). These results showed that the obtained pattern of results was replicated for each book. Thus, differences in difficulty between books did not influence the effect of assignment strategy. Therefore, we are confident our results are not biased by differences in difficulty between book topics.

Another important avenue for future investigation is the effect of teacher-student interactions within online learning environments on students’ performance. For instance, teacher-student interactions within classrooms have been reported as a key source eliciting mathematical anxiety [ 77 , 78 ] which in turn was reported to reduce mathematical performance [ 79 – 82 ]. In contrast, our results suggest that students who got problem sets assigned by their teachers via an online learning platform outperformed students who studied on their own (i.e., with no teacher-student interaction). Thus, future research may investigate whether teacher-student interactions within online learning environments may elicit less math anxiety such that online teacher-student interactions may reduce negative aspects such as mathematical anxiety.

When interpreting the results of the present study some limitations need to be considered. First, it should be acknowledged that performance improvements observed in this study may also be influenced by other factors such as an increase in the overall usage of learning software during lockdowns and school closures [ 61 , 83 , 84 ]. However, control analyses indicated that the mere degree of software usage did not explain observed differences between time windows. Aside from software usage, one might argue that students exhibited different degrees of motivation in the different time windows, leading to differences in performance [ 73 – 75 ]. The latter may result from the fact that online exercises were the only exercises available during school closures. Other potentially confounding factors include increased support from family members when studying at home, as well as a higher focus when learning from home [ 4 , 5 ]. Such motivational factors might indeed have driven the main effect of time window. However, even if such motivational factors are at play, one would not necessarily expect these to differentially affect the interaction between time window and problem set assignment. That is, we observed selective performance improvements when single problem sets were assigned. Third, our results stem from students from 10–16 years of age and are thus limited to this specific age range. An interesting future avenue would be to test the generalizability of our results to older or younger cohorts of students who studied with an online learning environment during COVID-19 related school closures.

Another limitation of this study is that the data do not include information on why some teachers assigned single problem sets whereas others assigned problem sets in bundles. The learning environment offers both assignment policies and the data suggest that both policies are used by teachers. Nevertheless, assigning single problem set leads to higher completion rates and higher probabilities of gaining a coin (60% accuracy) or a star (100% accuracy) within the online learning environment. Importantly, this effect was already present before school closures. During both school closures, the positive effect of assigning single problem sets seemed to be increased. The present findings thus point toward a beneficial way of how to assign mathematical problem sets to students from classes 4–10 (age range 10–16) best—in small bits rather than big bundles. These results are in line with previous studies on spaced learning [ 44 – 49 ] which repeatedly showed that assigning smaller bits of learning content into smaller bits led to increased learning outcomes compared to massed learning (few but learning sessions).

Working with data obtained from online learning environments may not always allow to control for specific influencing variables such as socioeconomic status, gender, or age as these may be considered sensitive information and may not be shared. Additionally, these data may typically not incorporate specific aspects such as how teachers incentivize their students as well as additional information on students’ general traits and abilities (e.g., self-regulated learning abilities), which were repeatedly observed to influence students’ performance in general [ 85 ], and specifically during school closures [ 86 , 87 ]. For instance, the reported results of differential outcomes depending on the assignment strategy may be explained by self-regulated learning. In particular, the decision-load for bulk assignments as well as when students self-selected problem sets (note that students self-select problem sets from a book which is the same as a bulk of assignments) is much higher, so students may struggle to make the right choice where to begin when learning in a self-regulated way. Conversely, when provided with particular small problem sets, students can more easily motivate themselves to perform them because they don’t have to make as many decisions about what to start with. Nevertheless, analyzing these data does allow to evaluate average trends estimated from student samples which are typically considerably larger than sample sizes from experimental studies and in the present case worked on curricular-based mathematical problem sets. As such, investigating such large-scale data from online learning environments (for other online learning environments see: [ 5 , 7 , 88 , 89 ]) comes with a trade-off between not being able to control for covariates typically assessed in experimental research (e.g., age and gender) and investigating several subgroups in the population (e.g., males vs. females or groups of differing socioeconomic background), and the benefit of being able to examine data from thousands of students providing information on general trends in the (student) population (classes 4–10; age-range: 10–16).

In the present study, we evaluated the influence of assignment policy on students’ (classes 4–19; age-range 10–16) performance in an online learning environment for mathematics during school closures. Results suggest performance improvements during school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, relative to the years before. Importantly, however, our results also suggest that the degree of students’ improvements was specified by the way students were assigned problem sets: We observed significant performance benefits if students were assigned problem sets one by one as compared to in entire books or having students self-select problem sets. These results indicated that assigning smaller bits of information seemingly was a beneficial strategy during school closures during the pandemic. The results also highlight the importance of teachers for online learning environments—a finding that encourages further research on the exact role of teacher behavior within online learning environments.

Supporting information

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284868.s001

Acknowledgments

We thank Bettermarks for sharing their data with us. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bettermarks. Bettermarks had no role in study design and data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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• 48. Toppino TC, Gerbier E. About practice. Repetition, spacing, and abstraction. 1st ed. Psychology of Learning and Motivation—Advances in Research and Theory. Elsevier Inc.; 2014. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800090-8.00004–4
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Grounding COVID-19’s flight plan: Students simulate viral spread in airports

A project with Amazon Web Services offers insight into the disease’s transmission.

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COVID-19 originally spread to the U.S. from travelers on commercial flights. That’s why two Johns Hopkins computer science students have developed a new, ultra-realistic simulation to illustrate the rapid spread of airborne viruses like COVID-19 in an airport terminal and demonstrate the efficacy of various countermeasures, like masking and social distancing. Their goal is to educate people and reduce the risk of future travel-related outbreaks, as well as to inform future airport designs.

Michelle Wang and Alisa Yang.

Third-year computer science students Alisa Yang and Michelle Wang partnered with Amazon Web Services to develop the simulation of passengers moving through an airport terminal. To create it, they used the AWS SimSpace Weaver , a software tool that enables large-scale entity simulation.

The pair will present its work on May 1 as part of the Whiting School of Engineering’s annual Design Day , which showcases the innovative work of Hopkins engineering students.

The team’s algorithmic visualization.

The simulation is driven by an algorithm comprising various disease variables and movement logic. Users can input their own values for variables—like a particular COVID-19 variant’s R-naught or degradation and acceleration rates—or they can watch how presets, like the well-known Omicron and Delta variants, spread.

The students’ highly realistic visualization, which is powered by the latest iteration of the Unreal Engine , is currently limited to one airport scenario, but the algorithm itself can be customized for any number of specific airports.

“Public spaces have been an enigma in the quest for understanding how infectious respiratory diseases are spread,” says associate research scientist Anton Dahbura , who spearheaded the larger Delineo Disease Modeling Project in partnership with AWS, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy , and the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare .

“This project will be helpful for future designs of airports and other public spaces,” he says. “The work also provides a vivid visualization for people to better assess their risk of infection while traveling. We’re grateful to our partners at AWS for providing access to the resources to make the project possible and for their valuable assistance throughout the project.”

See their simulation at work here or w atch the video below for more on the Whiting School’s work with the AWS SimSpace Weaver:

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Ames high school creates space for students to work on mental health following covid-19 pandemic.

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High school students in Ames now have a space where they can go to work on their mental health during the school day.

The Brain Health Retreat Room opened in October. Associate Principal Nicole Patton said the idea was fueled by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We saw this anxiety, high anxiety coming in," Patton said.

The room is open every day of the school week from 7:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A counselor is in the room at all times to assist students with whatever they may be dealing with. Kids can go in for 15 minutes at a time.

"We really want kids to be able to come in this room and feel like they're having a safe space to go to," Patton said.

The school said 72 students visited the room a total of 145 times in the first four months. There will be a grand opening for the room at the start of the 2024-25 school year.

The room is funded by Brain Health Now, an organization that wants to end the stigma of mental illness. A handful of other schools in the state have similar rooms.

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Vanguard University class of 2024 reflects on college years impacted by pandemic

COSTA MESA, Calif. (KABC) -- The class of 2024 at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa has achieved a milestone many of the 542 graduate and undergrad students didn't know was going to look like.

Some of these students graduated high school in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among them, Dyane Velazquez, who gets to experience a commencement ceremony for the first time.

"Pure excitement, pure happiness. I know for sure I think I'll have tears of joy," Velazquez said. "I did not get a graduation like today - in-person and all. I had a virtual one at first, and then they also had one as a drive-thru."

Vanguard University President Dr. Michael Beals is proud of how the students were able to persevere.

"The dedication and resilience of these students and of these families to be able to graduate, and most of them graduated in four years, is super significant," Beals said.

Over 35% of graduating class is also first-generation.

Anita Rotich was the graduate class student speaker during Thursday's ceremony.

"I made a sacrifice leaving my family in Kenya. and I trusted God that there would be a community at Vanguard to hold me. And there was," she said.

Velazquez's parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico.

"I'm the first in my family to get my bachelor's degree in the United States, so it's a huge accomplishment and I'm very proud to be here today," Velazquez said.

This graduating class dealt with unprecedented obstacles and overcame every challenge.

Beals believes they're ready to tackle whatever is thrown their way.

"I think they were called upon to dig deep in a really turbulent time and in a time of greater uncertainty than I think maybe any students have experienced in this generation," he said.

Velazquez's bachelor's degree in biology gets her one step closer to becoming a pediatric oncologist.

She hopes her classmates never forget this experience and keep pushing toward their goals.

"I would say to keep going and believe in yourself," she said.

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College professor recognized for Netflix and Skill assignments

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May 2—GREENVILLE — When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Thiel College — along with every other college and school district — was forced to embrace remote learning.

Like her students, Dr. Kristel M. Gallagher, an associate professor of psychology at Thiel College, found herself watching quite a bit of Netflix at home during this period.

But where some viewed Netflix as a way to pass the time, Gallagher — an associate professor of psychology — said she found a way to teach psychology using a service most of her students were already familiar with.

That idea would eventually lead to a positive experience for her students, and the chance to present her work at the national level.

"I spent that summer binge-watching hours and hours of Netflix shows, and I realized this would be great to use in class, and the students would love it," Gallagher said.

Gallagher piloted the assignments, which she dubbed "Netflix and Skill," in the fall of 2020 as part of her social psychology class.

Gallagher said the class would watch something at the beginning of a week, then spend that week in class discussing different psychological concepts.

In the beginning, Gallagher's course included many of the reality shows she previously watched, such as "Tiger King," a series about the former zookeeper Joe Exotic.

Later, the class expanded to other programs, such as a documentary about the failed Fyre Festival in the Caribbean to "Black Mirror," a science fiction series that a student recommended to Gallagher.

"I think it's neat for the students to see that, whether it's a documentary, drama or sci-fi, psychology is everywhere," Gallagher said.

At the end of each week, those students would worked on assignments that incorporated those lessons and whatever they watched.

However, each assignment was different, Gallagher said.

For "Tiger King," which touched on concepts such as groupthink and how groups can make bad decisions, the students made a PowerPoint presentation for the workers at Joe Exotic's zoo, Gallagher said.

Between the different shows and assignments, Gallagher said her students greatly enjoyed the class' variety and opportunity for student input.

"Psychology is a field where student engagement is very important," Gallagher said.

One of her students was freshman Madalyn Triskett, who took the social psychology course last semester.

Triskett said she was excited when Gallagher first discussed using Netflix for assignments, and thought the idea would be a fun contrast to the more strict assignments in other classes.

"There's so many different characters and types of shows you can watch, that you never really think about analyzing the characters," Triskett said.

"Now after taking the class, any time I'm watching a show I think, 'oh, I know what that is,' so it really helps you apply the skills you learned."

Senior Paige Long took the social psychology class as a freshman in the spring of 2021, when she was deciding between social psychology or developmental psychology as a career.

Netflix and Skill proved to be very different but exciting for the students, with the reality show "Hoarders" becoming one of the more memorable assignments due to the lessons the students gleaned from it, Long said.

"We learned a lot about fundamental attribution error, where you're basically attributing someone's behavior to their personality instead of the situation," Long said.

"So with 'Hoarders,' a lot of people think hoarders are greedy and selfish or compulsive, but a lot of people's hoarding habits come from an illness, or their mental or cognitive ability."

For the final Netflix and Skill assignment, the students could choose their projects — which for Long involved the series "When They See Us" about the Central Park Five case in New York City.

Seeing concepts such as automatic thinking, stereotypes and accountability played out through the show served as preparation for when Long will have to apply psychology in a hands-on setting, such as an internship or in a clinic.

"It's definitely helped me when dealing with implicit bias and challenging myself a lot more, or if I'm with a group of friends in public I might start challenging what we're doing," Long said.

"It's kind of nerdy, but it's been very helpful."

At the end of the course, Gallagher asked students what they thought of Netflix and Skill.

Gallagher said she was surprised to see that students enjoyed the course and by how much they students learned, compared to other assignments in the psychology department.

In particular, the students overwhelmingly said "don't get rid of this," Gallagher said.

Gallagher had a chance to present her findings, "If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em — From Netflix and Chill to Netflix and Skill," at the 46th Annual National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, where she received the Doug Bernstein Award.

The institute's faculty determined Gallagher's presentation to be the most humorous, creative or original, or as making the strongest contribution to the teaching of introductory psychology.

Gallagher said it was a "big surprise" to win the award, although she prides herself on finding fun and exciting opportunities to reach her students.

"I let the students create their final assignment, and I let the students sometimes recommend things to me, so it shows the students that they're interested in it and gives them some ownership in the class," Gallagher said.

Both Long and Triskett recommended future psychology students give "Netflix and Skill" a chance, both due to the continued popularity of Netflix and other streaming services and the course's educational value.

"My friends and my roommate were always very interested in these assignments, but the class in general really is a foundational psychology class," Triskett said.

"Dr. Gallagher does a great job finding ways to make people want to learn while covering so many different things."

Like David L. Dye on Facebook or email him at [email protected] .

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One of MIT’s best-kept secrets lives in the Institute’s basement

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When MIT's Walker Memorial (Building 50) was constructed in 1916, it was among the first buildings located on the Institute’s then-new Cambridge campus. At the time, national headlines would have heralded Gideon Sundback’s invention of the modern zipper, the first transcontinental phone call by Alexander Graham Bell, and Charles Fahbry’s discovery of the ozone layer. It would be another 12 years before the invention of sliced bread, and, importantly, four years before the first U.S.-licensed commercial radio station would go on the air.    

In true MIT fashion, the past, present, and future of Building 50 seem to coexist within its hallways. Today, the basement of Walker Memorial is home to what some students consider to be one of the Institute’s best-kept secrets — something that likely never crossed the minds of its original architects: a 24-hour, high-fidelity radio station. 

Operating under the call sign WMBR 88.1 FM (for “Walker Memorial Basement Radio”), this all-volunteer troupe has endured many hurdles similar to those faced by others in the field as radio itself has largely changed over the years. But as general managers James Rock and Maggie Lin will tell you, there’s something special about this station’s ability to build deeper connections within the larger community.

“Students have the opportunity to get to know a bunch of our community members,” explains Rock. “Our tech director works closely with every student who wants to contribute, which involves anything from manning a drill to climbing to the roof of Walker and manually bending the antenna back into shape, which I did a couple of weeks ago,” laughs Rock. “Most of our student members are trained by someone who's been around and really knows what they’re doing with radio after decades of experience.”

“It’s really fun,” says Lin. “It’s being able to hang out with people who love music just as much as you do. The older members of the station are such a cool resource for talking about different kinds of music.”

Now sophomores, Rock and Lin first arrived at MIT and WMBR two years ago. At the time, the station was mitigating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which WMBR went off the air temporarily. “We’ve been general managers since last spring, so the majority of our time at the station has been managing the station,” explains Lin. “We just came at a time when the station didn’t have many student members because of Covid.”

Lin recalls stories from disc jockeys who were at the station the night in 2020 when WMBR went off the air: “I’m told it was extremely sudden. There was someone here who said they finished their show and left a tote bag of records for the next time they were going to come back, and they left … and they still haven’t [returned].” 

However, resilience is a trait that WMBR has displayed in abundance throughout its storied 80-year history. First signing on as WMIT on Nov. 25, 1946, the station’s original equipment was built from the ground up by MIT electrical engineering students. In 1956, when the station’s call letters were licensed to a radio station in North Carolina, the Cambridge-based station became WTBS. And when the station was in dire need of cash for new equipment in the 1970s, its members found a creative solution: an agreement with media mogul Ted Turner to exchange the call letters WTBS for $50,000. This afforded the station the new equipment it dearly needed and allowed Turner to launch the Turner Broadcasting System. The station subsequently became WMBR on Nov. 10, 1979.          

So it’s no surprise how station members responded to the challenges posed by Covid. “The tech team pulled off something kind of crazy when they set that up,” says Lin. “Within weeks, they set up a system where people could upload files of shows they recorded from home, and then it would be broadcast live.”

“Sticking to the hybrid system means that especially new members have the flexibility to start out recording from home,” adds Rock. “That’s what Maggie and I did. It means if you're scared, a little jumpy, or stutter as you speak, you can go back and edit.”

The station also expanded its slate of new content in the years following the pandemic. “I think the most lasting effect of Covid is that we are now 24/7,” says Rock. “Most of the time it’s fresh material now. The spring schedule is guaranteed fresh material from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.”

“It’s a packed schedule,” adds Lin.

Considering the sheer amount of original programming now airing on WMBR, it would be easy to assume the station relies heavily on ad revenue to keep the lights on. But, thanks to one fundraising week held each November, the station keeps pumping out music and spoken-word shows such as “ Music for Eels ,” “ Post-Tentious ,” and “ Crunchy Plastic Dinosaurs .”

“And operating an FM radio station is not cheap,” says Rock, “maintaining the antennas and buying new tech equipment, getting music, paying licensing fees, and ordering pizza to keep the students on board because the DJs have to be happy, etc. So it’s a real privilege that we are able to operate on that listener funding from that one week each year.”

“It’s kind of crazy, because when you're broadcasting, it’s to Greater Boston, but you really don’t know how many people are listening,” adds Lin. “And I think it's really awesome when you see fundraising week. It’s like, ‘Yeah, people really do listen.’” 

“And if a donor chooses to pledge to a show, generally the DJs will mail a postcard back as thanks for that donation. So, if you want a signature of Maggie’s or mine, support us in November!” laughs Rock. “Limiting [fundraising] to one week means that we never advertise, so as long as we keep that contained to one-52nd of the year, the rest of the time you just get the music and the DJ’s commentary you tuned in for. There’s no solicitation.”

In many ways, this highlights the paradox of WMBR: reconciling its undeniable audience of loyal listeners and passionate community members with the fact that many MIT students and employees have never heard of WMBR.

“I think a lot of people just don’t quite know that the radio station is something that exists,” explains Lin. “I understand it’s because people our age don't really listen to radio much anymore, but I think the space is so amazing. A lot of the new students that we bring in are pretty awed by it, especially the record library; with hundreds of thousands of records and CDs, and the studios,” says Lin, referencing the station’s impressive collection of music, which fills a space so large that it once held a bowling alley. “It’s an opportunity that is kind of easy to miss out on. So I feel like we’re bringing in new members — which I’m really happy about — but I just want people to know that WMBR is here, and it’s really cool.”

“Yes. I second that,” says Rock. “MIT is so full of opportunities and resources that you can’t possibly take advantage of all of them, but we are hidden here in the basement of Walker Memorial where students don’t really make it [to] that often.”

“Listeners don’t even know,” laughs Lin. “We had someone pass by the door once, and they were like, ‘The radio station? It’s here?’”

“I didn’t know there was a campus radio station, and I frankly hadn’t really thought of campus radio until I walked into Activities Midway during my first CPW [Campus Preview Weekend], and maybe orientation,” adds Rock. “One of the great things about it is that you can share your own music tastes with all of greater Boston. You have the aux cord for an hour every week, and it’s such a privilege.”

“It’s kind of scary-sounding to think, ‘You're going to go sit behind a microphone and all of Greater Boston will hear you,’” adds Lin. “But James is always full of confidence, so I just thought, ‘What if we did a show together?’ That’s another thing that we like as we get new students in: people who want to co-host shows together.” 

“We are always looking for new student members,” says Rock. “Whether you want to do a radio show, podcast, help with maintaining and upgrading our broadcast equipment, or gain valuable experience helping to manage and lead a nonprofit organization that is an eclectic mix of MIT students, staff, and members of the local community, let us know!”

Walker Memorial Basement Radio (WMBR) is currently on the air and streaming 24/7. Listen online here , or tune your dial to 88.1 FM. To find out more about joining WMBR, send a message to [email protected] .

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Class of 2024 reflects on college years marked by COVID-19, protests and life’s lost milestones

A recent graduate wears a garment with their graduation year on the University of Southern California campus Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation ceremony Thursday. College officials across the U.S. are worried the ongoing Israel-Hamas war protests could disrupt plans for commencement ceremonies next month. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Pro-Israeli demonstrators gather near a Pro-Palestinian encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A display shows commencement-related information on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The university canceled its main graduation ceremony Thursday and dozens more college students were arrested at other campuses nationwide as protests against the Israel-Hamas war continued to spread. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Graduating seniors take photos around the Tommy Trojan statue on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The university canceled its main graduation ceremony Thursday and dozens more college students were arrested at other campuses nationwide as protests against the Israel-Hamas war continued to spread. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A graduating senior takes photos under the University of Southern California mascot on campus, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. The school has canceled its main graduation ceremony as protests against the Israel-Hamas war continued to intensify. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — On a recent afternoon, Grant Oh zigzagged across the University of Southern California campus as if he was conquering an obstacle course, coming up against police blockade after police blockade on his way to his apartment while officers arrested demonstrators protesting the Israel-Hamas war.

In many ways, the chaotic moment was the culmination of a college life that started amid the coronavirus pandemic and has been marked by continual upheaval in what has become a constant battle for normalcy. Oh already missed his prom and his high school graduation as COVID-19 surged in 2020. He started college with online classes. Now the 20-year-old will add another missed milestone to his life: USC has canceled its main commencement ceremony that was expected to be attended by 65,000 people.

His only graduation ceremony was in middle school and there were no caps and gowns.

“It’s crazy because I remember starting freshman year with the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which came after senior year of high school when the Black Lives Matter protests were happening and COVID, and xenophobia,” he said “It feels definitely surreal. It still shocks me that we live in a world that is so fired up and so willing to tear itself apart.”

Oh, who is getting a degree in health promotion and disease prevention, added that his loss of a memorable moment pales in comparison to what is happening: “At the end of the day, people are dying.”

College campuses have always been a hotbed for protests from the civil rights era to the Vietnam war to demonstrations over apartheid in South Africa. But students today also carry additional stresses from having lived through the isolation and fear from the pandemic, and the daily influence of social media that amplifies the world’s wrongs like never before, experts say.

It’s not just about missed milestones. Study after study shows Generation Z suffers from much higher rates of anxiety and depression than Millennials, said Jean Twenge, a psychologist and professor at San Diego State University, who wrote a book called “Generations.” She attributes much of that to the fact that negativity spreads faster and wider on social media than positive posts.

“Gen Z, they tend to be much more pessimistic than Millennials,” she said. “The question going forward is do they take this pessimism and turn it into concrete action and change, or do they turn it into annihilation and chaos?”

Protesters have pitched tents on campuses from Harvard and MIT to Stanford and the University of Texas, Austin, raising tensions as many schools prepare for spring commencements. Hundreds of students have been arrested across the country. Inspired by demonstrations at Columbia University , students at more than a dozen U.S. colleges have formed pro-Palestinian encampments and pledged to stay put until their demands are met.

The campus will be closed for the semester at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, which has been negotiating with students who have been barricaded inside a campus building since Monday, rebuffing an attempt by the police to clear them out.

USC announced Thursday that it would be calling off its main graduation ceremony after protests erupted over not only the Israel-Hamas war but the school’s decision earlier this month to call off the commencement speech by its valedictorian Asna Tabassum, who expressed support for Palestinians. Officials cited security concerns.

“By trying to silence Asna, it made everything way worse,” Oh said, adding that he hopes there will be no violence on graduation day May 10 when smaller ceremonies will be held by different departments.

Maurielle McGarvey graduated from high school in 2019 so was able to have a ceremony but then she took a gap year when many universities held classes only online. McGarvey, who is getting a degree in screenwriting with a minor in gender and social justice studies at USC, called the cancellations “heartbreaking,” and said the situation has been grossly mishandled by the university. She said police with batons came at her yelling as she held a banner while she and fellow demonstrators said a Jewish prayer.

“It’s definitely been like an overall diminished experience and to take away like the last sort of like typical thing that this class was allowed after having so many weird restrictions, so many customs and traditions changed,” she said. “It’s such a bummer.”

She said the email by the university announcing the cancellation particularly stung with its link to photos of past graduates in gowns tossing up their caps and cheering. “That’s just insult to injury,” she said.

Students at other universities were equally glum.

“Our grade is cursed,” said Abbie Barkan of Atlanta, 21, who is graduating from the University of Texas in two weeks with a journalism degree and who was among a group of Jewish students waving flags and chanting at a counter-protest Thursday near a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus.

University of Minnesota senior Sarah Dawley, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, is grateful graduation plans have not changed at her school. But she said the past weeks have left her with a mix of emotions. She’s been dismayed to watch colleges call in police.

But she said she also feels hope after having gone through the pandemic and become part of a community that stands up for what they believe in.

“I think a lot of people are going to go on to do cool things because after all this, we care a lot,” she said.

Watson reported from San Diego. AP journalists Stefanie Dazio and Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles, Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis, Jim Vertuno and Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, and Rodrique Ngowi in Boston contributed to this report.