Week #2 - MBA 6101 - My College Students Are Not OK

In his essay, My College Students Are Not Okay, Jonathan Malesic discusses his disheartening experiences as an instructor as his students became increasingly disengaged during the pandemic.  I don’t know how well I would have performed in an online environment in my late teens/ early twenties.  I am a much better, more disciplined, more focused student now than I was then. 

I think the internet has provided overwhelming numbers of opportunities for formal and informal students interested in learning.  Since the pandemic I’ve managed to rack up almost 1,000,000 meaningless internet points on Khan Academy working my way through math classes, my local library offers free access to The Great Courses which has been more mentally nutritious than binging true crime podcasts, and YouTube has been very helpful for home repairs (in the last six months I learned how to diagnose and swap out a failed-out capacitor on a ceiling fan, replace a faulty actuator on a dishwasher, and do an IoT retrofit of our overhead garage door).   And of course, earning my MBA at BenU.  By comparison, when I was an undergraduate, Blackboard (an email-based discussion/ chat platform) and LISTSERV were available, but only used by a handful of my professors, usually in a very limited, supplementary capacity. 

While it’s not out of the question that I could have attended classes in-person at a university in either Chicago or its suburbs, I think the stresses of commuting and being “on” (even a couple of days a week) would be taxing enough to be discouraging.  The online learning environment, although a very different experience than the traditional learning environment, does have shortcomings including unique stressors.  However, the opportunities provided by an online learning environment are its strongest advantage.     

I think there is a misconception held by some instructors (and some students) that online, “self-paced” learning is a wholly independent, hands-off experience, that just kind of happens on its own.  If anything, I think it requires more effort from instructors (and students), especially to overcome the lack of in-person engagement that is the missing from the online classroom. 

I had the opportunity to share a dining room table with my fiancé, a high school chemistry teacher, during the lockdown.  Along with learning more about stoichiometry than I could ever hope, I also learned how challenging her job could be even in optimal conditions. While I’m sure her advanced work in curriculum and instruction and educational technology were invaluable assets, I think the basics of teaching and learning still applied-- the instructors and students have to be active and engaged.  She still held lectures, discussions, and office hours (over Google Hangouts and through chat) and she still demonstrated examples (replacing her whiteboard with an iPad).  From speaking with her, it seems like usually strong instructors were still strong instructors and usually strong students were still strong students.  I think this held until the school district relaxed grading standards and attendance rules. 

After spending over 160 hours watching Sal Khan’s math videos, I feel an uncanny bond with him. I’ve had a similar experience during my time at BenU—hearing and seeing an instructor seems to create a more meaningful experience for me than exclusively reading text (but that’s not to say that the “text” experience can’t be engaging— especially skilled communicators are just as engaging through print as they are “live”).  I feel a greater sense of commitment to a course where the instructor posts an occasional vlog or hosts a live lecture/ discussion.  And I look forward to meaningful insight to forum posts or in response to papers (“copypasta” comments and critiques are not helpful). 

I think the political and social climate in the US has added unparalleled levels of stress and distractions that have permeated nearly every aspect of life.  I am not sure if it’s necessarily accurate to base the success or lack of success of remote learning (or work) based exclusively on the last two or so years.  Like Malesic points out, I think instructors, especially at the primary and secondary levels, will continue to see the ripples of the pandemic on students.