I read in a higher education blog that I follow of the results of recent study they did concerning students’ learning experiences since the start of this academic year. One of the questions asked students if they were to take the same courses again, how would they prefer to take it: entirely in person, mostly in-person, an even mix of in-person and online, or mostly or entirely on-line. From the article:
And though you might expect a huge rush to “100% in person”, you’d be wrong: in fact, only 26% of students plumped for that option, with another 22% saying they would like to take it mostly in person. Fully 20% said they would prefer to stick with a mostly/entirely online format. Now it’s not clear from this whether the reluctance to go back to in-person was due to fear of COVID, or because of genuine preference for the format. But that’s still an important number.
It goes on to conclude
Yes, on average, students would prefer to be back on campus. But depending on what percentage you want to use to represent students who might want to continue with an online experiment, nationally (Canada), we are talking about 200,000 to 400,000 students who might be open to making remote education a permanent part of their education. Even if you take the more conservative number (always the right choice in higher education), that’s a simply massive potential client base for a university that wants to go big into remote instruction. Such a move would not be easy, and it might not be possible for all universities (smaller ones would lack the capital resources, prestigious ones might not want to be seen to dilute their brand). But if one or two of them make the right investments, the rewards are potentially very, very high.
They probably should have asked the question with the condition of “everyone can get an effective COVID-19 vaccine” or some such to avoid current hesitancy due to concern about getting COVID-19 confounding the results.
But then it may not be a surprise that students at Canadian universities, where even the most desired ones are gigantic public universities located in major metro areas to be commute-accessible by large numbers of their students, may have many who are less itching to go back in person (especially if it means an annoying commute) than the US demographic in these forums (higher SES families sending their students to residential universities where the residential university life aspect is an important factor in choosing a university).
The two populations are not as dissimilar as you think. There is a similar cohort of Canadian youth (and not always from higher SES families) who desire a residential school experience irrespective of the majority of our schools being large public universities.
26% of students polled prefer all face to face. That leaves 74% would like or be OK with some sort of hybrid format, and that’s going to be one of the big impacts of COVID when we have it behind us. Sure, Harvard and LACs won’t go to some online offerings, but most if not all of the rest will because it saves money and the students prefer it.
Would online really save any money for colleges that have already invested heavily in their physical facilities? That debt needs to be serviced regardless.
Economies of scale will apply. The youtube video of the first lecture of single variable calculus on MIT open course ware has 1.4 million views. That is free but even if schools charge for them online provision can reach far more people than can fit in a typical lecturer hall.
Say they hired some TAs to mark assignments and run zoom tutorials then the professor only has to videotape them selves giving a course of lectures once and then perhaps select a honours class of the students with the strongest grades/projects for extra interactive lessons with them.
That is if the college converts to an online / distance business model. Adding online to an in person business model just costs more.
Colleges whose primary appeal is a specific kind of in person experience (e.g. LACs) may find it more difficult to survive as online / distance colleges.
Colleges whose appeal includes exclusivity may not be able to take advantage of economies of scale as much. If Harvard had 60,000 undergraduate students instead of 6,000, with corresponding lower admission selectivity, would it appeal to as many people?
Of course, it is not possible for all colleges to expand to convert to take advantage of economies of scale, since there are only so many students or potential students.
Students saying they might prefer some online classes doesn’t mean that employers, grad schools, etc would prefer it. I know of a bunch of high school kids who don’t mind online classes because it means they can stay in their pajamas, log in to class, and basically nap their way through (or multi-task with social media, etc) with their videos turned off. Cheating is easier with online classes, too. Just because there’s a bunch of kids who like it, doesn’t mean it is the best education. (I know, there are plenty of people who do a great job self-teaching and with online classes, too; I’m just pointing out that I wouldn’t read too much into survey results that ask kids what they “prefer”, without teasing out a whole lot of related questions).
so on a HS level, my D23’s school (small private) has been in full session this year, like the majority of schools in our midwest state. I saw a national news story, and then read the NYTs article about Clark County (vegas) NV. They’ve had a huge number of suicides (19 as of now). I physically felt ill, and started crying when i read that. They are going to start looking at reopening.
for those of you who are totally remote with HS, how is your district faring? I wonder if the suicides are a pandemic within this particular district? Is that happening elsewhere where schools are full remote? How are your HSs holding up holding up in those areas? {virtual hugs to all}
I have two in high school. They are both in private school and go to two different schools. Both have been in hybrid format since September. Our public schools are all virtual. My kids both did the hybrid format, going to in-person classes twice a week since school started until Thanksgiving. Because we had several surgeries scheduled at the end of Nov and in December (wrist and wisdom teeth), we decided not to risk any school exposure from the holidays and kept them home b/w Thanksgiving and Christmas. When winter break was over and it was time to go back to hybrid, they both decided/asked to remain remote for 3rd quarter. It just wasnt worth it for them to go to school two e a week. Their friends were either all-remote or in the alternate cohort, so they never saw their friends really at school. It was just kind of a hassle wearing a mask all day, following all the protocols, etc for two days in person. Being able to roll out of bed at 7:30, wear sweats on bottom rather than full uniform, eat lunch at home rather than a bagged lunch, etc versus versus getting up at 6:15 to shower, etc and then make the 30-45 min commute in dark, cold winter weather to their schools, not have a normal lunch period with friends, not get to hang out together on campus after school, etc. So they have actually chosen, at least for now, to be all remote. Neither suffers from depression, anxiety, etc and both have part time jobs (and one plays a club sport) so they are not completely isolated at home and have some in-person social contact at work and sports practice. Both would absolutely prefer to be in school, and will go back for fourth quarter, but for now, they prefer to just be home.
But this is just my kids’ experience. I know many kids are suffering, including my neighbor’s daughter. She goes to our public high school and is really struggling with being all-remote, both academically and socially. I really feel for these kids.
Your kids’ experience is nearly identical to my kid’s. But mine is struggling with motivation right now. The new block schedule gives him 3 hours during the school day where he has no classes. And turning in homework via email doesn’t have the same weight as turning in to teacher. He forgets. And all the days run together. We are going to implement some changes starting this week, but there’s just no joy or energy or umph. Sad.
My seniors have been 100% virtual since March, only the elementary schools managed to go back hybrid, and just for a month. School is from 9 - 12:30, office hours in the afternoon. Content has been condensed, and some of it they just aren’t learning, especially unfamiliar subjects (D is rocking BC calculus but goes to office hours daily for computer science since she was never exposed to it before). My kids get together with small circles of friends, fall soccer happened, but it’s definitely not business as usual.
UChicago will do virtual Convocation but College diploma ceremonies will be in-person. Class Day for the College seniors is the day before Convo and that will be remote by invitation. No surprises on any of this.
Its wrong that the university didn’t obtain the sons permission to use his dads lectures but it isn’t inherently wrong to use teaching resources written by someone who since died.
Imagine if schools couldn’t read Shakespeare’s plays or if the very concept of museums was banned.
We should continue to learn from our great minds after their time here has ended. Just ensure proper contracts.
After last spring, when students traveled abroad for spring break despite Penn strongly suggesting they not, the university is taking a firmer stance this year. From today’s email: You are implored not to travel, and Penn will not provide COVID-19 testing documentation for travel this semester.
Hopefully, this message deters students from traveling.