← Back to Vol. 07 Issue No. 01 — May
Abstract
The COVID pandemic has prompted extensive use of online instruction and has provided first- generation college students (FGCS) with new challenges as well as opportunities. (Berg, 2020). The migration to online learning dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic has required the creation of virtual modalities for instructors and institutions (Lederman, 2020) and has presented unique stresses for first-generation college students. While it is too soon to obtain adequate data to fully determine the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent transition to online learning, a few sources of reliable data are now emerging. Research conducted at Berkeley, California by Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium surveyed 28,198 undergraduate students and was done May through July 2020 at nine universities (26% of respondents (n = 7,233) identified as first-generation students}. (Soria, 2020). Their data reflects and supports findings from studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) as well as Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey (Davis, 2020). The findings indicate first-generation college students are facing new, major, and wide-ranging obstacles in the sudden shift to remote learning. Along with the broader impacts of the pandemic, this new information raises concerns about these highly vulnerable students as they face multiple stresses and new challenges.