No longer is online learning a choice, but a necessity. Most schools closed during the pandemic making it a requirement for all students and faculty to finish the semester, and what has now been a full year, online. Through this process, we as students have all realized the importance of technology. At times when we have taken it for granted, COVID allowed us to understand the power of technology and the opportunities it allows us to communicate with people around the world and stay in contact with our professors during months of isolation. Both students and teachers have had to learn how to adjust and work through it with no second chances or do-overs. Many students struggled through this transition since this is a new learning environment many of us have never experienced before. Unfortunately, what I have learned is there is a divide in what online learning has to offer and what students need to succeed. Finding the extra help students may need to excel in the classroom was easy when students could reach out to their peers during class, see the teacher for additional help, or attend group study sessions in the library. Now that we are online students, making a study group with peers is nearly impossible and having one-on-one time face-to-face with a professor is not what online learning is. Students must learn to cope with the new way of learning and find inventive ways to study and receive extra help.
During the pandemic, students used their technical skills to find the best online resources to help students succeed. One of those resources is GroupMe. At the beginning of the online courses, students created class-wide group messages for all students to communicate and ask questions. This app allowed for class collaboration and discussion. Some teachers rejected the app in affiliation with the school and their class due to FSU rules on cheating and promotion. But this tool was very useful for students struggling to find friends within their classes that they could reach out to for help, tutoring, or note sharing. Another application used is Chegg, an online platform for students to study and share course materials. This app allows students to get professional online tutoring and homework help by purchasing a membership with a small monthly fee. Chegg is a great resource for students who need a little extra help with their assignments or a specific problem they cannot figure out. Students have been able to discover so many resources online to help them with their assignments and coursework. This also means that teachers must be creative in their online learning approach to give students alternative ways to obtain extra credit, office hours, and other means of learning alternatives for students. Before the pandemic, 70 percent of colleges allowed students to take an online course without any type of online orientation. Meaning students were not prepped for an online learning environment and nearly one-third of colleges lacked any kind of teaching, learning, and technology (TLT) center available to them for support. This means most higher education intuitions were not prepared for the switch from face-to-face to 100% online when COVID-19 caused all campuses to shut down. As a result, many colleges opted for low-tech solutions, such as Zoom video conferencing and other third-party communication tools, to finish the term. This pieced-together approach may have given students and faculty the impression that distance education is stressful and hard. But with thoughtfully designed, integrated platforms and comprehensive training, however, that doesn’t have to be the case.
All of these changes are a lot of pressure to put on students who are already going through so many life changes at one time. What does this mean for our grades, GPA’s and mental health? How is the school system supporting our futures and our stress levels?
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