Lessons Learned About Teaching and Learning from the COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted student learning.The aim of this study was to measure differences in student learning outcomes for students exposed to different high impact practices in undergraduate psychology courses before, during, and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.High impact practices in this study included: Service-learning, diversity learning, and experiential learning or fieldwork.A cross-sectional longitudinal research design was used to measure differences in student learning outcomes (SLOs) for 659 students exposed to high impact practices in undergraduate psychology courses before, during, and after the pandemic.The results indicate that students exposed to diversity service-learning develop a deeper understanding of social justice issues and educational inequities in the community by the end of the course compared to those students exposed to traditional fieldwork.Students who engaged in service or fieldwork during the outbreak of the pandemic felt more connected to the University and prepared to enter the workforce after graduation compared to students who engaged in service or fieldwork during the endemic.Educational practices and instructional modalities that warrant further exploration post-pandemic are discussed.