The Mental Challenges of Emergency Remote Learning: UAE Engineering Students Case Study

Abstract

Student mental health in higher education has been an increasing concern. The COVID-19 pandemic situation has brought this vulnerable population into renewed focus. Governments had to close several sections, including educational institutes and universities, around the world suddenly in March 2020. Hence, emergency remote learning was adopted as alternative and as an immediate response to the ongoing situation using whatever available online tools. As a result, both students and instructors were forced to adapt to this new situation. While there were several studies that addressed several issues related to preparation, contents, course delivery, readiness, etc., there are few ones that were intended to address the mental challenges resulted from the shift to emergency remote learning. The main motivation behind this study is to understand the mental challenges and effects of the sudden transformation into emergency remote learning considering engineering students as case study and improve the delivery and experience of learning for both the instructors and the students.