Student Preference for Course Delivery in the Post-pandemic University

Abstract

In January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that a deadly and contagious variation of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was rapidly spreading to all corners of the globe. As COVID-19 spread, countries and cities entered complete lockdowns that resulted in the closure of schools, businesses, and recreational, sports, and cultural venues; furthermore, all non-essential workers were ordered to work from home. At the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM), the pandemic disrupted the face-to-face course delivery mode that characterized a typical campus environment. Once the cases of COVID-19 began to subside, the UHM campus returned to in-person teaching. Meanwhile, many colleges and schools began questioning how their students would now prefer to have their courses delivered after nearly two years of online synchronous and asynchronous courses. The Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa surveyed their department majors about their preferred learning modalities during the fall 2021 intersession to understand course scheduling in a post-pandemic environment.