MBO Council | Study Shows Student and Faculty Well-Being Under Strain

Commissioned by 14 vocationalschools, HAS University of Applied Sciences, and Radboud University, Turner investigated what schools learned from the lockdown from March through June 2020 and how they plan to apply those lessons to shape their education in the future. A total of 2,430 students and 2,606 staff members participated in the study. Due to the high response rate at the vocational schools—which consisted of 11 ROCs, 2 vocational schools , and 1 AOC, the study’s conclusions can be considered valid for the entire vocational education sector. The participating students and staff shared their experiences during the COVID-19 period regarding teaching methods, organizational agility, the social function of Education, and assessment and scheduling.

Missing interaction and social contact

Oege de Jong, a member of the executive board of MBO Rijnland who participated in this study, recognizes this. “The transition to online education happened very quickly, but now that several months have passed, we need to figure out how we can give teachers and students some breathing room. The workload is high. We need to help teachers and students alike become more proficient in delivering and participating in online education.”

Ensuring Experience with Online Education

“We want to secure the experience we’re gaining now with online education so that we can truly offer blended learning in the future,” says John van der Vegt, chair of the Executive Board of ROC van Twente, which is also participating in the study.

For students, instructors make all the difference. Students who report feeling much more heard and seen by their instructors than before also report being, on average, more satisfied with the various teaching methods used. There is therefore a correlation between the extent to which students are satisfied with distance education and the way they experience communication with their instructors.