Digital readiness and its effects on higher education students’ socio-emotional perceptions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on higher education in 2020. Worldwide, universities developed and implemented online courses for distance learning within a relatively short amount of time. The current study investigated how ready students were for this exceptional situation and how their readiness for digital learning influenced their socio-emotional experiences. N = 1,826 students from across all institutional faculties of a German comprehensive university took part in the online survey immediately before the semester began. Results indicate that, on average, higher education students seem to be ready for digital learning. A k-means cluster analysis revealed two groups of students that significantly differed with respect to their readiness for digital learning (in terms of technological equipment, prior experiences with e-learning, and skills for digital learning). Finally, students’ socio-emotional experiences, that is, their perceived stress, their work-life-balance as well as social and emotional loneliness significantly differed due to their cluster membership. Hence, the study points to the need to support higher education students in successfully coping with the challenges of emergency remote studying.