University students’ study strategies before and during the pandemic: Experiences from Swedish students

Abstract

The pandemic has affected students' studying methods. The purpose of the article is to gain insight into the ways students' study strategies have changed after transitioning from on-campus to full-distance education. An in-depth understanding is important for designing learning activities and teaching regarding distance education and flexible learning. The study is based on a survey administered to 347 students via strategical sampling, and the empirical material is analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The results show that many students displayed difficulties in addressing and explaining both their former and present study strategies, something that can be linked to the lower degree of concentration and attention they described during the pandemic. This result indicates that the framework of the courses provided should pay more attention to study strategies. Having awareness of one's learning strategies can also be linked to the ability to set goals and plan for the studies, self-regulated learning, which is altogether an important component for studying success. Based on these results, we also discuss the ways to develop students' study strategies that favor academic success. Furthermore, we draw conclusions about how students can conduct their studies in the best way to improve their own conditions and create a basis for meta-learning that assists them in lifelong learning.

Keywords

• Changing study strategies
• Pandemic
• Self-regulated learning
• Study strategies