How Coronavirus Has Changed Learning

Video 

By Patrick Garratt

According to many students and teachers, the coronavirus pandemic has complicated learning and teaching due to the increase in online classes.

Many professors and students alike have had to turn to online classes this year. For some the change was easy, but for most that was not the case, including Heiko Todt, a mathematics professor at Stonehill College.

“Teaching remote students has been difficult, it has been harder to engage students. What makes it harder is that it puts more initiative on students, a lot of freshman students don’t immediately have that initiative,” said Todt.

Many of Todt’s classes have a mixture of in person and remote students, and he has found that the remote students have often been reluctant to participate.

“Not much has changed in regards to the in person students, but the remote students have been noticeably more hesitant. It is much easier to get distracted while participating remotely as opposed to in person, so it has been a bit easier to teach in person students because of this,” said Todt. 

Some students are also finding it difficult to learn effectively during the pandemic. Gabe Cogan, a freshman at Assumption University, had a lengthy adjustment period with online classes.

“It has been different for sure. I have had about half my classes online and half in person. I prefer the in person, it is much harder to focus online. But once I got adjusted and figured things out I haven’t really minded online classes,” said Cogan. 

Online classes also make it difficult for some students to connect with other students and teachers, according to David Han, a freshman at Columbia University.

“Columbia has gone fully remote this semester so I have had to do all my learning through Zoom. I’ve noticed that it has been harder to reach out for help and work with other students. Content wise however, there has not been a huge affect on the quality of learning. The biggest impact is not being able to interact with others as well,” said Han.

Ian Cann, a freshman at Stonehill College, found that the effects of remote learning are really dependent on the class.

“For some classes learning has been more difficult, but for some there hasn’t been a change. My computer science class has been remote and I find that a class like that is tougher to deal with remotely, whereas my philosophy class has not been an issue remotely. A class such as math is something that is much better in person. I think it really depends on the workload and the structure of the class, like if the class is more problem solving based or more discussion based,” said Cann.

Several students said they prefer in person classes, a sentiment shared by high school students, such as Sarah Garratt, a freshman at Westwood High School.

“COVID has definitely made it more difficult to learn because I am on Zoom for about 7 hours a day and the Wifi is very bad so there are a lot of glitches with Zoom that cause me to miss what my teachers are saying sometimes. Online classes have been hard because the teachers don’t always see the chat so it can be hard to communicate,” said Garratt. 

Professor Todt is aware that it has become difficult for remote students and professors to communicate effectively, but he believes more technology could be helpful for making remote students feel more involved in class.

“Having more cameras visible to remote students could help make them feel more like they are actually in class. If the in person students could be visible to Zoom as well as the professor that may be helpful to remote students,” said Todt. 

Many schools across the country have been closed for the fall or are operating under an altered schedule with the goal of combatting the Covid outbreak. According to a study by Education Week, Washington D.C has ordered all schools closed in the fall while 8 states (Oregon, California, Hawaii, New Mexico, North Carolina, Delaware, New York and West Virginia) have ordered a partial closure of schools. Just four states (Texas, Arkansas, Florida and Iowa) have ordered schools to be open during the fall. The remaining states have not mandated an order and are leading it up to the school districts. 

Many students have become accustomed to online learning but are hopeful to get back to what learning was before Covid.

“I think I’ve been able to adjust well. A good thing about remote classes is that it is pretty easy to ask questions because you can chime in pretty much whenever, but I still look forward to learning in person again in the future,” said Han.