HomeAbstract of 7th-worldcre“Are you Concerned? – Not Really!”: A Case Study on the American College Students’ Perceptions of the COVID-19 from the Post-Pandemic Position

“Are you Concerned? – Not Really!”: A Case Study on the American College Students’ Perceptions of the COVID-19 from the Post-Pandemic Position

Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Research in Education

Year: 2024

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“Are you Concerned? – Not Really!”: A Case Study on the American College Students’ Perceptions of the COVID-19 from the Post-Pandemic Position

Olga Gould, Ph.D.

 

 

ABSTRACT: 

This IRB-approved, based on Glesne’s (2010) traditions, and grounded in Vygotsky’s (1978; 1987) socio-cultural constructivism theory qualitative case study on the topic of perceptions of the COVID-19 by college students was conducted in the northern United States. The subjects in this research were two international students in an American college. This longitudinal project initially took place in 2020, while its follow-up segment with the same participants was completed in 2023. The purpose of this project was to investigate the nature of the student perceptions, the possible roots of the produced behaviors in the young people, and the role of  the social media-based influencers in formation of attitudes, biases, and misconceptions in college students. The research questions were: 1. What were the college students’ perceptions of the personal, local, and global events during the COVID-19 time? 2. Which media literacy skills did the college students possess and apply, if at all? 3. In what ways did the college students reprocess the information from the media-based sources? The major instrument for this study were the semi-structured interviews with the participants. The data was collected online via participant observations, audio-recorded, and transcribed interviews, and media and social nets activity tracking. All the collected data were documented and triangulated in the process of the memoing data analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1984).  This research found multiple uncontrollable negative influences and manipulation by anonymous authors on the college students’ thinking and decision making. The significance of this study’s findings and implications is in their global applicability.

keywords: Higher Education, influencers, manipulation, perceptions, qualitative research