‘We can’t see your slides!’ Undergraduate psychology students’ perceptions of emergency remote teaching

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic precipitated a national lockdown, and the implementation of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in higher education (HE), but there is a gap in the literature in terms of how Psychology students, studying a single-honours degree in the UK, responded to ERT for practical lab classes. The aim of this study was to assess the experiences of first year Psychology students undertaking practical lab classes via ERT. Ninety-one participants completed a Qualtrics survey asking them to record challenges to engaging in lab classes delivered through ERT, and to suggest improvements for these. Responses were analyzed using Thematic analysis. A novel finding in the study was that a large proportion students discussed issues relating to the structure, format and content of practical classes, to a greater extent than other issues reported in similar studies involving psychology students (e.g. communication, motivational and digital issues). Other novel findings were that students either witnessed or admitted to engagement in social loafing occurred during online group activities, and there was disagreement amongst students regarding the role of groupwork in improving ERT. These results have implications for online teaching provision in higher education institutions.