The COVID Cohort: Student Transition to University in the Face of a Global Pandemic

In 2020, the rapid onset of a pandemic related to the disease known as COVID-19 resulted in a widespread lockdown of societies across the globe. Universities rapidly closed campuses, forcing the transition to emergency remote teaching within just a few weeks. The distinct difference between Australian universities and those in the Northern Hemisphere was that this coincided with the very beginning of the academic year. Accordingly, students starting their undergraduate degree were faced with the prospect of commencing their university experience fully online. A number of important insights emerged from this unprecedented situation relating to how students make the transition to university, including navigating and understanding how learning is structured, the importance of student–student interactions, and the role that quality asynchronous multimedia content plays in supporting student learning.