In March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced colleges and universities to cease in-person classes and transition to what we call emergency remote teaching (ERT). Many instructors had a few days to a week to accomplish this transition, and here we report on an anonymous survey designed to investigate the student experience with ERT. Our findings have implications for future delivery of ERT lectures (e.g., synchronous vs. asynchronous or a combination of both) and exams (with respect to format, security, and fairness). They also highlight the need for instructors to be sensitive to reduced student motivation and new challenges students face with ERT.
Remote instruction is not new: “distance learning” or “remote learning,” for example, encompass any approach to learning from afar, and they long predate the invention of the internet.1,2 “Online learning,” on the other hand, is intentionally designed to exploit the affordances offered by online platforms.2,3...