Lessons Learned From The Pandemic: New Modes of Tech-Supported Instruction in First-Year Writing

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Angel Chang, Amanda Emanuel Smith, Ryan Skinnell

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created challenges and prompted changes across the educational system, and higher education has been no exception. In particular, the pandemic has had a significant impact on the instructional modes and course learning outcomes in first-year writing programs. According to the FYW program exit survey, 95% of students in the FYW program at San José State University found that their courses gave them the time and support that they needed to be successful before the pandemic. During the Spring 2020 semester, however, that percentage decreased to 75%. Then in the post-pandemic Fall 2021 semester, it went back up to 94%. During the Spring 2020 semester, students had to change from in-person to online instruction mid-semester. This change elicited new types of instructional modalities in the post-pandemic era, including hybrid, fully in-person, and fully online. Online modalities, it should be noted, can be asynchronous and synchronous. Hybrid modalities either blend in-person and asynchronous instruction or in-person and synchronous instruction. In the Fall 2020 semester, all FYW courses at SJSU were offered online with three types of instructional modalities from which to choose. A revised exit survey was distributed to students at the end of the semester to explore their learning satisfaction and modality preferences. This study represents some preliminary research from that survey on how students are coping with the new modes of instruction the pandemic necessitated. It hopes to provide some insights into how students are adapting to post-pandemic teaching and learning.

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