COVID-19 online learning landscapes and CALDMR students: Opportunities and challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities of educational systems in Australia and around the world. For universities, campus closures and a rapid shift to teaching and learning online — which we call emergency remote delivery (ERD) to distinguish from planned online learning — has deepened inequalities in access to quality learning experiences. While the challenges created by COVID for universities and students have not yet fully unfolded, ERD has both created new, and magnified existing barriers for educational participation, as well as some unanticipated positive consequences for enhanced flexibility and more engaged learning. In particular, it has created new educational and social vulnerability for culturally and linguistically diverse migrant and/or refugee (CALDMR) communities. COVID has also exposed the stresses and difficulties for educators, student-facing support staff (SFSS; equity practitioners, student advisors, learning advisors, counsellors), and educational developers. This research project draws on the expertise of a collective of interdisciplinary academics across Australia. Working with a steering group from the Refugee Education Special Interest Group, this study examines the equity-related challenges and opportunities of ERD for four groups of ‘stakeholders’: CALDMR students, university educators, ‘student-facing’ support staff, and educational developers. This research draws on data from a national, mixed-methods study involving 30 universities. It gathered data from 87 CALDMR university students who completed an online survey and 10 students who participated in a Photovoice exercise; 29 university educators who completed an online survey and eight who participated in semi-structured interview; 13 SFSS who participated in semi-structured interviews; and 19 educational developers who completed on online survey.