The effects of unexpected changes to content delivery on student learning outcomes: A psychological contract perspective during the COVID-19 era.

Meta-analyses suggest that student learning outcomes (SLOs) are comparable across modalities of instruction. None of these studies examined how unmet student expectations (here, unexpected changes in course delivery) might increase perceptions of student-instructor-university psychological contract breaches (PCBs) and, ultimately, perceived SLOs within and across modalities. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to study these potential relationships because many residential institutions of higher education opted into, or were required to, offer distance and/or blended learning to accommodate COVID-19 safety mandates.