$ € £ ¥ social sciences Article How Did Students with Different Learning Proﬁles Experience ‘Normal’ and Online Teaching Situation during COVID-19 Spring? Anna Parpala * , Nina Katajavuori, Anne Haarala-Muhonen and Henna Asikainen   Citation: Parpala, Anna, Nina Katajavuori, Anne Haarala-Muhonen, and Henna Asikainen. 2021. How Did Students with Different Learning Proﬁles Experience ‘Normal’ and Online Teaching Situation during COVID-19 Spring? Social Sciences 10: 337. https://doi.org/10.3390/ socsci10090337 Academic Editor: Javier Díaz-Noci Received: 28 May 2021 Accepted: 1 September 2021 Published: 8 September 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afﬁl- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Centre for University Teaching and Learning, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland; nina.katajavuori@helsinki.ﬁ (N.K.); anne.haarala-muhonen@helsinki.ﬁ (A.H.-M.); henna.asikainen@helsinki.ﬁ (H.A.) * Correspondence: anna.parpala@helsinki.ﬁ Abstract: This study compares university students’ approaches to learning and experiences with the teaching–learning environment in general and during online studying as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines students’ learning proﬁles and how students with different learning proﬁles experienced the teaching–learning environment during COVID-19 as well as their approaches to learning and study-related burnout in general. The participants were 665 ﬁrst- and second- year students. The proﬁles were examined using K-means cluster analyses and the differences in learning proﬁles using one-way ANOVA and the Tuckey Test. The results show changes in students’ approaches to learning and their experiences with the teaching–learning environment and study- related burnout within the different proﬁles when comparing a normal situation to the COVID-19 pandemic. We suggest that changes in study-related burnout can be different among different study proﬁles. The results imply that students with a fragmented knowledge base and difﬁculties in managing time and effort would require special attention in online teaching situations. Keywords: approaches to learning; teaching–learning environment; study-related burnout; higher education; COVID-19; person-oriented approach 1. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has affected higher education in many ways. In spring 2020, universities around the world have been forced to close their doors and move solely to online teaching (Marinoni et al. 2020). Without prior opportunity to practice navigating a shift from contact teaching to fully online teaching, many students and teachers found the quick transition to online teaching challenging, which consequently had negative effects on students’ learning, level of engagement (Petillion and McNeil 2020) and men- tal wellbeing (e.g., Huckins et al. 2020; Kaparounaki et al. 2020; Wang and Zhao 2020; Zimmermann et al. 2020; Baticulon et al. 2021). Especially ﬁrst- and second-year students have had greater difﬁculties in adjusting to online learning (Baticulon et al. 2021). Moreover, a recent comprehensive study comparing 62 countries focuses on students’ experiences with teaching, studying and wellbeing, revealing that while students have been satisﬁed with the support provided by the teaching staff, they also reported increased feelings of anx- iety and frustration and that the heavy workload has prevented them from perceiving how their performance has improved in the new teaching environment (Aristovnik et al. 2020). A study by Lovric et al. (2020) showed similar results, as students praised the teacher support and work done by faculty members during the pandemic. Furthermore, a study by Bdair (2021) found that both students and teachers have appreciated the ﬂexible on- line learning environment and that teachers and students feel that students’ academic achievement has improved through online learning (Bdair 2021). However, at the same time students have reported difﬁculties in motivation and learning, in feeling integrated Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, 337. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10090337 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/socsci