2021 Gumbo final - Book - Page 80
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the new normal?
L
SU announced in a March email that it plans to
operate similarly in Fall 2021 as it did pre-pandemic,
assuming vaccinations continue to be administered
as planned.
But after a year of remote learning, hybrid classes and
strict health precautions across U.S. campuses, questions
remain about what changes are here to stay at universities:
what the new normal may look like at LSU and in higher
education more generally for the foreseeable future.
The abrupt switch to online learning in 2020 has forced
students, professors and administrators to rethink certain
aspects of college life, like the role of online classes in the
traditional university experience, virtual office hours and
virtual access to live events - some changes that may be here
to stay.
Nearly one-third of college students “never want to take
another class via Zoom,” according to a College Pulse and
Inside Higher Ed survey.
Mass communication freshman Ashlyn Anderson will take
her first in-person class in the fall as a sophomore. She said
she isn’t planning on taking hybrid classes in the future, but
that remote learning has taught her independence and selfdiscipline.
“I’ve had so many asynchronous classes and I’ve had to
keep up with due dates and studying on my own,” Anderson
said. “I’m taking that into account next semester when
dealing with studying and doing classes in the future.”
Mass communication junior Austin Wade said online
classes made it hard for him to understand the material
presented in class, and he said it made him feel like a
“horrible’’ student.
“I’m excited to be able to ask those questions in person,
have a classmate I can whisper to and walk up after class to
ask questions about things I’m a bit confused about,” Wade
said.
Despite many students’ desire to return to campus, some
aspects of the online experience are likely here to stay, like
Zoom office hours.
Mass communication professor Will Mari said the switch
to remote learning taught him that he could teach his classes
more efficiently.
“Sometimes less is more,” Mari said. “I’ve learned that
students don’t need to meet with me every class period.
Sometimes it’s okay to have a Friday or Monday class period
that has part of it outside of class.”
LSU higher education professor Ashley Clayton said she
was resistant to the online platform.
“I am very pro in-person delivery,” Clayton said. “I believe
that having that in-classroom discussion is so valuable. I just
feel like the online platform is impersonal.”
Despite her resistance to online learning, she said the
pandemic has forced her and others who study higher
education to reconsider how much of the college experience
can be replicated online.
“Prior to the pandemic, we had less confidence that we
could replicate on-campus learning to the online platform,
myself included, but I do think after the pandemic, we’ve
learned better practices of how to manage the online
classroom,” Clayton said. “I do think some meetings and
some office hours and interactions with students will remain
on Zoom.”
The same College Pulse and Inside Higher Ed survey
found that there are multiple COVID-era experiences
students would like to persist even as the pandemic ends:
- Nearly 80% of students said they’d like to see lectures
made available online so they can review material.
- Almost half said they’d like the option to attend courses
in-person or online.
- Roughly 35% percent said they still want virtual access to
live events and online access to college support resources.
The pandemic’s disruption of social life affected students
most acutely, according to the survey, which found that 73%
of students missed “friends and social life” the most.
“Students have been isolated in the past year--they
haven’t been able to make friends and go to events,” Clayton
said. “That is, in some ways, more concerning than the
online learning for me.”
Academic integration and social integration of students
are two main factors that contribute to student success and
retention, Clayton said.
“There’s tons of research showing that you need both
to persist through college,” she said. “If you’re only
academically integrated and engaged but you’re not socially
integrated, and you don’t have those social outlets and
networks, then you’re less likely to persist.”
Wade and Anderson said they’re looking forward to being
on campus again and experiencing LSU in a post-COVID
world.
“I miss seeing all the students in the quad, making friends
in classes and the rush of trying to make it from one place to
another,” Wade said. “It’s been really hard to relax and find
friends since the pandemic started.”