The Future of Education

The level of stress experienced during studying is one of the significant determinants of academic success in higher education [1]. This research examines a plethora of factors that are associated with a perceived level of learning stress among students in institutions of liberal arts education. Specifically, the study utilized a quasi-experimental research design to investigate the students' perception of academic, social, and personal stress levels in online and traditional learning environments. The posttest control group approach was implemented at the end of the investigation sequence. The study employed the Liberal Art Student Stress survey (LASSS) for data collection. The LASSS is an 18 items Likert ten-point scale type instrument purposefully designed for measuring the extent of student perception of stress at a liberal art college. The survey consisted of three subscales for measuring student academic, social, and personal stress. LASSS yielded a high Cronbach's Alpha coefficient (.87), which indicates a strong internal consistency of the applied instrument. The study sample consisted of undergraduate students who attended a course with large enrollment offered in both delivery modalities: fully online and traditional classroom instruction. The overall research findings revealed that a perceived level of stress was significantly higher in courses delivered in the traditional learning environment (M=8.91, SD=2.17) than online (M=7.67, SD=2.46); t (126) = -2.65, p=0.009. Further, the in-depth analysis identified six interrelated factors contributing to the general level of learning stress.  Thus, the emphasis of the discussion is placed on understanding the role of these specific stress factors grouped around three assessed categories of stress: academic, social and personal stress. In addition, special attention will be given to the strategies related to the course design and activities aimed at decreasing students level of stress in both online and traditional learning environments. Finally, the practical implications of the study findings and future research directions will be addressed accordingly.

Keywords: Online learning, academic stress, social stress, personal stress, course design, teaching methods;

References:
[1] Stoliker, B. E.& Lafreniere, K. D. (2015). The Influence of Perceived Stress, Loneliness, and Learning Burnout on University Students’ Educational Experience. College Student Journal, 49(1), 146–160.
[2] Taber, K. S. (2017). The Use of Cronbach’s Alpha When Developing and Reporting Research Instruments in Science Education. Research in Science Education, 48(6), 1273-1296.