Data_Sheet_1_Internet search data showed increased interest in supplementary online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, with females showing a greater increase.pdf

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to tremendous disruptions in people’s everyday activities, including the pursuit of education. Internet search data may provide insights into potential audiences’ interest in online education. Using Internet search data, we examined the impact of COVID-19 on people’s interest in supplementary online education in the US over nine months (10/14/2019–07/19/2020). We found there was increased interest in supplementary online education after WHO announced COVID-19 as a pandemic, with a greater increase among females than males. We found that the increased interest in online education persisted after the stay-at-home orders were lifted; in addition, we identified concerns over unemployment as a key variable that significantly explained the variance in the interest in online education, even after controlling for COVID cases and deaths. Policymakers and online education platforms may take advantage of people’s, especially women’s increased interest in online education when designing policies or marketing mix.

COVID-19疫情对人们的日常生活造成了巨大冲击，其中教育领域的追求亦然受到影响。互联网搜索数据或许能够揭示潜在受众对在线教育的兴趣。本研究利用互联网搜索数据，对美国民众在COVID-19疫情爆发后九个月内（2019年10月14日至2020年7月19日）对补充在线教育的兴趣影响进行了考察。研究发现，世界卫生组织宣布COVID-19为大流行病之后，人们对补充在线教育的兴趣有所上升，其中女性兴趣的增长幅度大于男性。我们进一步发现，即使在居家令解除之后，对在线教育的兴趣仍保持增长态势；此外，我们还发现，失业问题的担忧作为一个关键变量，在控制了COVID病例和死亡人数之后，对在线教育兴趣的变化仍具有显著的解释力。政策制定者和在线教育平台在制定政策或营销策略时，可充分利用民众，尤其是女性对在线教育兴趣的增长。