COVID.EDU
A college classroom used to be a great equalizer among students and their peers, but students are struggling to keep up with their classes from home in the time of COVID-19.
Jayden Cope, a freshman at Eastern Florida State College, and his older sister, Alycia Cope, a sophomore also at Eastern Florida State College, peered into their laptops as they both sat at their dining room table. Their first week seemed easy enough, like always. So far, it consisted of responding to discussion posts, taking syllabus quizzes, and watching lectures about how to use zoom for specific class meetings.
Alycia groaned, rolling her eyes as she typed up another response. Typically, she didn’t mind discussion posts as long as she felt they were meaningful. However, she complained that almost every class had asked her to describe herself in four to five paragraphs. “It’s literally just an online math class,” she said. “I feel like this is just busy work. No one cares about who I am in this math class.”
In order to save money, both Cope siblings had always planned on staying local for school while they complete their core classes. Neither of them really had thought much about having a stereotypical college experience. Dormitory life, fraternity parties, sorority fundraisers, and classes filled with over 100 students wasn’t something they thought they were missing out on, even before COVID-19.
Both Alycia and Jayden agree that taking remote classes from the safety of their own home has more pros than cons — neither of them want to put their family at risk of getting COVID-19 despite how difficult it is to stay focused in the comfort of their own home. However, neither of them thought staying at home would take up so much of their college experience, an experience that they felt was lacking in many ways.
While on-campus sources like tutoring, extra help sessions, and seminars have helped create a balance among students’ educational experiences, education inequality among college students is at an unprecedented high many weren’t prepared for due to COVID-19.
When colleges began closing their doors in March to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19, somewhere around 25,798,790 students were affected. Many rejoiced, thinking this only meant an extra week of spring break and not a full blown shut down that would shake up everyone’s plans. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, 43% of colleges and universities plan to continue to hold most of all of their classes online until further notice. Many didn’t think it would have such a large impact on not only their college experience, but also their mental health, quality of education, and motivation.
Alycia was excited about going remote at first. She used to somewhat dread going to physical classes. There was a certain anxiety about being in a classroom around a bunch of people she didn’t know and being taught by a professor she’d never met. It was more nerve racking that the monotony of high school, where she had friends in every class and knew most of the teachers by her junior year. When she found out her college classes were going completely online, she was, at first, relieved. But after a few months of sitting in front of her laptop, either in bed or at the dining room table, she began thinking that perhaps the anxiety she felt on campus was healthier for her than she previously thought. According to healthymindsnetwork.org, there was a 5.2% increase in depression amongst college students from March to May, so it’s not abnormal that Alycia’s mental health would be strained.
“I notice towards the end of last semester that my motivation was, like, gone,” Alycia explained. “So I’m a little worried that that’s going to happen again. And it’s hard for when I’m just sitting at home opening a computer screen. I don’t feel like I’m really doing anything even though I am.”
This lack of motivation seems to be a running theme among college students. Rachel Cowart, a finance major at Kennesaw State University, said it’s because much of her assignments seem like busy work.
“Prior to COVID-19 I felt like I was gaining much more out of my classes and really learning,” Cowart said. “I don’t really feel like I’m learning anymore.”
Cowart is taking seven classes, which she said are difficult to follow in an online setting. It was much easier to differentiate and organize her thoughts before when she had a variety of classes, some in person and some online. Cowart has expressed that it sometimes feels like she is teaching herself, which is something that’s very difficult for her to do through recorded lectures and assigned readings. If she has a question, then it is usually a long waiting period until she can get a response. For Cowart, the new online format seems to be failing her.
It seems to be failing many students. Jordan Timmerman, a sophomore at Auburn University, feels as though her professors are using online learning as a way to have less communication with their students.
“In my first year there were a lot of opportunities to volunteer and get involved around campus and even organized study groups for almost all of my classes,” Timmerman explained. “My professors encouraged us to ask questions and go to office hours.” However, since COVID-19, Timmerman has noticed more and more that her professors have been cutting back on those extra learning opportunities. She also feels that her assignments have been lightened in a way that is not helpful to her education.
However, this understandable lack of motivation and confidence is not the case for everyone. Some students have been thriving under this new norm. Christa Hunt, a graphic design major at Lanier Technical College, said her educational experience has benefited from the pandemic and that she is feeling more motivated than ever.
“I was scared at first,” Hunt said, “but it’s easier than I thought. Less travel has given me more time to work on class work. Not working in a social setting has helped me focus and my grades have improved a lot. It feels easier to get an A.”
While some may thrive in an online setting like Hunt, it’s clear that a lot of students are realizing that their education is lacking. According to Oneclass.com, 75% of college students are unhappy with the quality of online classes and 35% have even considered dropping out of college completely.
Some colleges, perhaps in an attempt to appease the 93% of students who think tuition should be lowered for online classes, have decided to have hybrid classes, where students may only go to class one day a week with less than 10 other students as opposed to 100 students, a number that was the norm for larger institutions before COVID-19.
Jordan Hauser, a sophomore at Georgia Southern University, has all hybrid classes for the fall semester. “I had the similar feeling of coming back to school as I did my freshmen year since I was nervous because of COVID,” Hauser said, “but I also was excited to get back since I had gone home for the last five months and had been doing school online.” Although Hauser has also expressed that she prefers regular classes as opposed to online or even the hybrid classes she’s enrolled in, she believes colleges won’t go back to having regular classes until at least fall of 2021, especially if they see that they are able to still make money while taking precautions and avoiding a Public Relations nightmare.
Although it is easy to look at Universities as being money hungry institutions that will do anything to make a profit, we as a society need to remember that we need to be thinking about not only established educators, but also our future educators.
Jayden is already feeling discouraged despite it being his first week as a college student. “I had a plan — save money, go to Eastern Florida, major in general education,” he said. “But now, I feel like, if things don’t change, I’ll have to figure something else out.” Alycia and Jayden are both in majors that deal with education and they both have said that a career in education right now doesn’t look too appealing anymore.
Majoring in early childhood education, Alycia is nervous but optimistic in her eventual career path. “I feel like there will always be a need to teach young kids,” she said. “If COVID-19 is still a problem when I am looking for a job, I feel like I won’t have too much trouble. It might not be the job I dreamed of or planned on, but I think I’ll at least be able to get a job.”
A self-proclaimed history nerd, Jayden loves government and geography, as well as science. He would love to teach any of those subjects eventually. However, Jayden Cope will be the first one to tell you that it’s difficult to express a passion of those subjects through an online class.
“I feel like a lot of teachers, high school and college, are being overworked,” Jayden Cope said. “Being overworked and not being able to see your students, well, I feel like that would get to me, too.”
Elizabeth Henry, a laboratory coordinator and instructor at Spelman College, said it was very strange to all of sudden not see her students after spring break. “I want nothing more than for the world to return to normal so I can see my students again,” Henry explained. “It’s such a strange thing to be working on a college campus and not have them here. Students really are the lifeblood of a college’s campus.”
Henry prides herself on being as approachable as possible for her students. She even had a bowl of candy on her desk and encouraged students to just come and talk to her — it didn’t have to be about school. She was there for them and she wanted them to know that. So when classes went remote, it hit her harder than she would have expected. She is worried for her students.
There is a positive side, though. Henry is hoping that this education crisis has made faculty and staff aware of things they might not have otherwise thought much about. Communicating in new and engaging ways is at the top of her list of how educators can help. “So much is lost over emails,” Henry said. “I think many students are concerned about how faculty may perceive them or think they may be seen as a nuisance if they email too often.”
She has also thought a lot about how accessible learning is and isn’t, and how a college classroom is somewhat of an equalizer when it comes to education. “When most students live on campus you don’t have to think about their home situation or internet connection,” Henry said. “They all come to class and learn in the same environment.”
It’s becoming more and more clear that remote learning has its own difficulties and inequalities. According to the Federal Communications Commission, “25 million Americans lack access to a broadband connection.” Not everyone, especially those living in rural areas, can walk to their local library, either. Inequality in the classroom is a silent enemy that many students and educators don’t realize or talk about. It could be a big factor of why so many students are considering dropping out of college.
“Things need to change,” Jayden said. He is hoping that, once he has started taking more classes related to his general education major, that they will incorporate classes into the curriculum that will help educators navigate remote learning platforms. It will be difficult if classes continue to be remote not only for the students and educators, but also for older students and educators that aren’t as tech savvy as their younger counterparts.
“I had one professor last semester who was an older lady,” Alycia said. “She was really nice and an ok professor, but she couldn’t figure out how to use Zoom. So there were a lot of classes that she just canceled, and we all suffered for it.”
Even though many students are hoping that classes will go back to normal eventually, they are also scared. They feel that the curriculum won’t change with them, and, since many feel their education has suffered thus far, they fear they will have a difficult time with more advanced courses.
“Whatever happens,” Alycia said, “this whole experience is changing the world. For better or for worse.”
