Matt Chung

My First Research Paper: COVID19 and the impact on higher education

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Matt Chung
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Abstract—This research paper explores the impact of the COVID-19 health crisis on the education sector by unpacking the challenges and successes of the forced migration of professors and their curricula onto online learning platforms. Quantitative research was conducted in the form of a domestically focused survey to determine the success of those teaching models and the transition to online education by focusing on the experience of educators. This paper ultimately argues that under the specter of a pandemic, the ensuing online education has been as successful as possible, and that despite a myriad of global negative impacts, COVID-19 has opened the door to reform traditional learning, allowing educators to take advantage of this golden opportunity to unlock the power of online education.

Above is the abstract pulled from my first ever research paper: What does effective education look like in the context of COVID-19, and how can subsequent successes and challenges be measured in order to ensure the future of online learning and the educa- tors that make it possible?

I conducted the research (read at least three dozen of other educational peer reviewed papers, designing my own survey, sending survey out to thousands of professors teaching domestically) over  this past summer as part of Georgia Tech’s Educational Technology Course. Essentially, I wanted to identify the “best practices” of teaching in the midst of COVID19 and compare them against what was really happening: chaos.

For the survey, I was able to collect responses from 500+ professors teaching at universities including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech University, University of Washington and much more1.

Surveyed professors teaching at schools including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Georgia Tech University, University of California Berkeley
Surveyed professors teaching at schools including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Georgia Tech University, University of California Berkeley

 

The results were both surprising and not surprising. Not surprising in the sense that practically almost everyone found the limited amount of time (some professors reported no time: 0 days) to transition online extremely bumpy. Surprising that, despite all the “best practices” suggesting to not use online video because of potential technical issues, an overwhelming majority of professors experienced no technical glitches that derailed their lesson:

Lack of technical failures while transitioning from offline to online learning
Lack of technical failures while transitioning from offline to online learning

 

Anyways, I linked the paper above and wanted to share my work resulting from all the time and energy I threw into the writing the paper in such period of time.

References

1 – Complete list of universities are:

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  • California State University of Northridge
  • Georgia Tech University
  • Seattle University
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of Texas
  • University of Florida
  • University of Syracuse
  • University of North Dakota
  • University of Northern Iowa
  • University of Washington