Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, university students worldwide have experienced drastic changes in their academic and social lives, with the rapid shift to online courses and contact restrictions being reported among the major stressors. In the present study, we aimed at examining students’ perceived stress over the course of the pandemic as well as individual psychological and social coping resources within the theoretical framework of the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping in the specific group of STEM students. In four cross-sectional studies with a total of 496 computer science students in Germany, we found that students reported significantly higher levels of perceived stress at both measurement time points in the second pandemic semester (October/November 2020; January/February 2021) as compared to the beginning of the first (April/May 2020), indicating that students rather became sensitized to the constant pandemic-related stress exposure than habituating to the “new normal”. Regarding students’ coping resources in the higher education context, we found that both high (a) academic self-efficacy and (b) academic online self-efficacy as well as low (c) perceived social and academic exclusion among fellow students significantly predicted lower levels of students’ (d) belonging uncertainty to their study program, which, in turn, predicted lower perceived stress at the beginning of the first pandemic semester. At the beginning of the second pandemic semester, we found that belonging uncertainty still significantly mediated the relationship between students’ academic self-efficacy and perceived stress. Students’ academic online self-efficacy, however, no longer predicted their uncertainty about belonging, but instead had a direct buffering effect on their perceived stress. Students’ perceived social and academic exclusion among fellow students only marginally predicted their belonging uncertainty and no longer predicted their perceived stress 6 months into the pandemic. We discuss the need and importance of assessing and monitoring students’ stress levels as well as faculty interventions to strengthen students’ individual psychological and social coping resources in light of the still ongoing pandemic.
Inklusive Digitalisierung in der Hochschulbildung. Eine Handreichung für Lehrende an Hochschulen
(2018)
Wenn deutsche Hochschulen alle Talente bestmöglich fördern und ausbilden wollen, so müssen alle Fördermöglichkeiten genutzt werden. Ob und wie auch inklusionsorientierte Digitalisierungsstrategien dazu einen Beitrag leisten können, zeigt diese Handreichung auf.
Digitalisierung kann Inklusion, Chancengleichheit sowie Flexibilisierung in der Hochschullehre fördern, wenn sie die diversen studentischen Bedarfe an Lernprozesse umsetzen hilft. Sie kann aber auch Bildungsbarrieren aufbauen und exkludieren, wenn sie nicht nach Universal Design Prinzipien gestaltet wird und neue Zugangsbarrieren (z.B. Ton, Sprache, Bild) aufbaut.Diese Handreichung bietet daher Lehrenden und IT-Entscheidern an Hochschulen Anregungen zu der Frage, wie der Einsatz digitaler Technologien ausgestaltet werden kann, um Inklusion nicht zu hemmen, sondern zu fördern.
Ihr Ziel ist, einen Beitrag zur inklusiveren Gestaltung von Lehre unter Berücksichtigung des Einsatzes aktueller technischer Entwicklungen zu leisten. Ausgangspunkte sind inklusionsrelevante Aspekte der Gestaltung von Lehre aus Perspektiven des Universal Design.