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

The [Coronavirus Disease 2019] 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. 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. 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.

The study had six main aims: (1) to examine the policy landscape to see whether and how universities updated their equity policies post-COVID; (2) to explore how CALDMR students in higher education experienced the ERD, including how these experiences are shaped by the intersectional variables of stage of study, residency status, gender, culture, and language; (3) to explore university educators' experiences of ERD, their awareness of the needs of CALDMR students in both synchronous and asynchronous online learning including how, if at all, they have adapted their teaching practices and strategies to scaffold CALDMR engagement; (4) to identify the support needs of CALDMR students through engagement with 'student-facing' university support staff, and to explore their experiences and perceptions of moving to remote forms of support; (5) to explore the awareness and understandings of educational developers of intercultural pedagogy as universities move courses online; and (6) to produce a strengths-based, research-informed advocacy agenda that outlines good practice strategies and practices for universities and students and make recommendations for policy and practice shifts to better support CALDMR students and university staff in the post-COVID context.

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