During the spring 2021 semester, COVID-19 forced most universities around the world to teach exclusively online in a very short time frame. This situation reversed itself, however, during the fall 2021 semester when COVID-19 restrictions were lifted as teachers and students returned to classrooms. This study includes ninety-seven international students who participated in surveys at the beginning and the end of the fall 2021 semester, which included questions related to burnout, self-efficacy, resiliency, home environments, and technical issues. Students were asked to reflect on their educational experiences during the spring 2021 and fall 2021 semesters. The purpose of this study is to identify and examine the most significant changes that occurred between these two semesters. The results indicate a significant shift in student burnout as challenges with home environments were replaced with ones related to returning to the classroom. Even as the concerns about COVID-19 lessen, higher education institutions must understand the magnitude and permanence of its impact.

Clayton Christensen’s theory of “disruptive innovation” describes how smaller firms, with access to far fewer resources, are still able to challenge and displace well-established industry leaders. Uber and Airbnb as startups were able to disrupt the global taxi and hotel industries despite the economic shock of the financial crisis (2007-2008). The COVID-19 pandemic is currently an even more powerful catalyst that is forcing businesses and institutions to define and adapt to the “new normal”. Higher education also finds itself at a critical crossroads where universities around world need to quickly adapt to the changing needs of younger generations, discover the optimal balance between traditional and online learning, find ways to reduce costs and avoid tuition escalation, and become better prepared for future health crises and geopolitical events. The COVID-19 pandemic has already significantly accelerated trends in education and a failure to adapt could spark the disruption in education that Christensen spoke of more than a decade ago. This research utilizes valuable feedback from a diverse group of international students to help educators better understand changes that occurred during COVID-19 and form recommendations regarding how to use technology to maximize learning outcomes.

In August of 2020, the United Nations reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected 1.6 billion learners, in more than 190 countries and on all continents [1]. The closing of schools and other learning spaces impacted an astonishing 94% of the world’s student population. These sudden school closures, at all levels, had the immediate and unprecedented effect of triggering a mass migration to emergency remote teaching. While mass vaccinations have enabled educational institutions to reopen and students to return to classrooms in the Fall of 2021, the educational disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Higher education must now permanently transition from reductionist, emergency remote learning systems to permanent, holistic online learning platforms. In order to better understand this transition, an online survey was delivered to diverse groups of international students attending Corvinus University and ESSCA School of Management, at the beginning and end of the Spring 2021 semester. The analysis of this survey, strongly indicates that the home and social environments of University, had a significant impact on the student’s learning aptitudes.