Abstract:

Due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the different governments imposed sanitary measures, which resulted in the transition from face-to-face teaching to remote teaching. This situation, which included changes in the academic and social environment of the university student, had an impact on their mental health with a greater presence of anxiety and depressive symptoms, mainly due to situations such as academic overload, constant exposure to devices, physical and mental fatigue. The academic burnout syndrome is a phenomenon that is characterized by being a condition that commonly afflicts the population currently, especially in the field of Higher Education, since institutions have constantly been interested in knowing variables that are related to academic performance and dropout, in such a way this construct little addressed in the region, is defined in the academic field as the condition of prolonged and intense stress that is caused by hostile and adverse circumstances that may perceive students related to the demands of the university institution. Given the relatively short time of existence of COVID-19, the knowledge of it is still incomplete, particularly with regard to long-term consequences and effects. At the time of this study, there is no information on the existence of reports about the possible influence of SARS-CoV-2 infection on burnout and engagement in students recovered from the disease. Therefore, taking into account that pandemic induces significant risks to the health and well-being of the university students, we decided to assess the influence of COVID-19 on their academic engagement and burnout. Eighty nine students of the Degree in Pharmacy from the University of Granada voluntarily took part in this study. The age ranged between 18 and 21 years. After enrolment, informed consent was obtained and two experimental groups were established: control group (n=51), students who did not suffer the COVID-19 and the experimental group (n=38), students who suffered COVID-19 in the last 6 months. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS) was used to assess the academic engagement and burnout of the students. The results obtained allow us to conclude that psychological variables such as academic self-efficacy and satisfaction with studies related to academic burnout syndrome are negatively influenced after having suffered COVID-19. The level of Self-efficacy of Learning in students who have suffered COVID-19 is lower and have a higher level of academic stress than those students who have not suffered the disease. Therefore, it is necessary to reinforce the learning process and carry out personalized tutorials to improve self-efficacy in students to improve the teaching-learning process and face academic stress.

Keywords:

Emotional intelligence, teaching innovation, learning, information and communication technologies (ICT).