What?
How do institutions communicate about COVID-19?
How do COVID-19 changes impact faculty and students?
What resources are most important for the demonstration of resilience across undergraduate education?
In order to answer these questions, we are randomly sampling institutions across the United States using the Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to represent various school sizes and types. Our hope is that this method of sampling will be inclusive and best represent experiences across the United States.
We will be collecting crisis communication documents from the universities as well as conducting three waves of surveys and follow-up interviews. Through such a rigorous process we might be able to better measure experiences, reactions and how these unfold over time. This research is unique as we are studying the pandemic while it unfolds.
Why?
This research offers an opportunity to help the greater academic community that has been significantly uprooted and disrupted by COVID-19. There are dozens of other studies going on at the same time to unlock the secrets of this unprecedented event. Our approach is specifically designed in a way that will help us contribute a substantial piece of the puzzle. By opening a channel for the participating institutions, faculty, and students to systematically share their experience and their voices, we hope to contribute to a stronger, more resilient system of Higher Education that will emerge from this experience with the information and lessons needed to thrive in the future.
Who?
This project will examine the experiences faced by faculty and students in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand the complexity of the situation we combine theory and best practices from the fields of I/O Psychology, Crisis Communication, Disaster Management, and Higher Education. Essentially, better understanding faculty and student perspectives will help us understand what sorts of directional changes Higher Ed might take in future adverse situations.
When?
The majority of our data collection will take place in the summer and fall of 2020 and we will be working with the data for about one year.
Where?
Our recruitment process ensures that results will be generalizable to all higher education institutions in the United States, no matter whether they are public or private, large or small, located in urban or rural settings, or minority-serving.