Sudden transition to online learning: Exploring the relationships among measures of student experience

Online learning anxiety might be related to how university students perceived their learning and performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in course modules with mathematical content, math anxiety may also have come into play. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between these types of anxiety, as well as to explore other possible factors associated with students’ experience of sudden transition to online learning in a module with high mathematical content. Participants were 125 psychology undergraduates enrolled in a Research Design module. The main results showed that students reporting greater online learning anxiety found online materials less useful and suffered from greater math anxiety; their self-perceived performance was also worse. In the year following lockdown, online learning anxiety was lower and the perceived usefulness of online material was greater than during lockdown. Finally, analysis of the association between psychological state in the use of e-learning tools during COVID-19 and online learning anxiety revealed that online learning readiness played a mediating role in this relationship. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations regarding how universities might better prepare for future unforeseen disruptions to face-to-face teaching. In particular, there is a need to improve students’ readiness for online learning and to ensure that online materials are perceived as useful.