Students are weary of online
classes, but colleges can't say
whether they'll open in fall 2020
USA Today,
by
Chris Quintana
Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog,
4/19/2020 8:00:34 PM
College students threatened to revolt if universities put another semester of classes online to avoid spreading the coronavirus – but that's increasingly what campus leaders are considering doing. For Ryan Sessoms, a marketing student at the University of North Florida, the transition to online classes has been rocky. The thought of paying the same amount of tuition for another semester of lackluster classes is a nonstarter. It’s harder to find the motivation to complete his assignments, he said, when not surrounded by his peers. “Fall is my last semester as well,” said Sessoms, 24. “All my hard work I have
Reply 1 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/19/2020 8:25:49 PM (No. 384912)
Poor widdle kiddos...
8 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
dirtyjersey 4/19/2020 8:25:51 PM (No. 384913)
This is the great reckoning that has been waiting to happen. If you can have 20 in an online class, why not 200? Why have a campus?
25 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
john56 4/19/2020 8:54:54 PM (No. 384936)
Being the parents of an incoming college freshman in Fall 2020, I can tell you (at least among private colleges), it is a buyers market. Don't take the first-second-or-maybe-third-financial aid offer they make. From what I hear, the number of kids planning to take off a year before starting college is about four times that of normal. The Class of 2024 may be the smallest college class in a long time and there are a lot of private colleges wondering how they're gonna stay open in the future. The downside for us (as parents/students) is whether the current state of pandemic will be in vogue in the fall, but if it is, the cost of college will be far down our list of concerns in the Pandemic Great Depression.
15 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
GO3 4/19/2020 9:13:47 PM (No. 384946)
You have a campus for STEM. Online is ok for basic concepts, but brick and mortar is necessary for labs and practical application.
15 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
seamusm 4/19/2020 9:43:49 PM (No. 384964)
Don't know about STE but 'M'ath has been proven an online failure - at least as has been taught to date. Half the students won't 'show up' online and half of those who do - fail. Even apart from the STEM world many students are simply unsuited to online learning and many teachers aren't very good at it either. There isn't a substitute for brick and mortar schools but there has got to be effective less expensive alternatives.
9 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
snakeoil 4/19/2020 9:58:57 PM (No. 384975)
One of the big problems with online stuff is cheating. It's a joke.
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Urgent Fury 4/19/2020 10:08:05 PM (No. 384983)
Online frat parties aren't as much fun, either.
9 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
cor-vet 4/19/2020 10:57:07 PM (No. 385001)
It's not that they're tired of on-line classes. It's that it's really hard to PARTEEEE when your doing your college online.
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
texaspast 4/19/2020 11:48:56 PM (No. 385024)
There is a difference between 'online' and 'remote' teaching. Half way through the semester the courses I teach went to 'remote' teaching. Unlike other profs who do whatever they do at home on the internet, I still go to my classroom to teach. I am on camera, in front of the whiteboard, and do a traditional lecture. I take attendance. I know which students are watching, and I call on them to answer a question or whatever. Some students have connectivity problems for live streaming, so it is recorded and they can watch it later if necessary. The majority of the points on my tests are for essay questions - stuff I discussed in my lecture that is often NOT in the book (why have a lecture over material that's in the book?) I was totally skeptical when we started doing this, but I have been surprised. I actually have better attendance in my live video classes than I had in some in-person classes. I agree that courses that are 100% online are a waste. I have been teaching 25 years (after making a living doing what I now teach for 18 years - and still do occasionally), and have always refused to do an 'online' class. That, to me, is just a correspondence course with a screen. If it isn't in the book, it isn't in the course. Remote teaching, however, has real possibilities. For me to say that is a BIG DEAL. Dang near heretical. By the way, somewhere in the video lecture I give 'the word of the day' - the student has to list all the words of the day since the last test - one point subtracted for every word missed. Keeps them coming to 'class'.
14 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
texaspast 4/19/2020 11:56:08 PM (No. 385026)
Oh, and when I say I lecture in my classroom, ain't nobody there but me and the camera. A little weird, but I'm getting used to it. And I don't use Powerpoint - just my whiteboard and a dry erase marker. I learned long ago that using Power Point does one of two things: either they only copy down what's on the PP slide and don't listen to what I'm saying, or they zone out completely (like I do during most PP presentations).
7 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
smcchk 4/20/2020 12:45:48 AM (No. 385045)
With college tuitions increasing yearly, something was going to have to give. This might change colleges forever. If it brings tuition down, that will be great. Not sure what colleges will do with all the dorm palaces the kids insist on nowadays.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
watashiyo 4/20/2020 1:45:03 AM (No. 385066)
I'm still trying to process and figure this one out,.....an online Culinary Arts program. Am I missing something?
3 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
ladydawgfan 4/20/2020 2:06:06 AM (No. 385072)
I'm trying to figure out an online or remote Architecture curriculum. How on earth would the students do their projects and how would the end of semester crits happen?? I had several classes that required physical projects in order to pass the class. And the Architecture licensing board requires these classes for the program to be accredited.
Other classes like Anatomy and Physiology require physical access to actual human cadavers for practical instruction. How on earth would they accomplish THAT online???
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 4/20/2020 7:42:47 AM (No. 385156)
Start cutting the professor and administrator's salaries and they'll open up.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
walcb 4/20/2020 8:23:41 AM (No. 385197)
Brick and mortar universities are not going to fare well. Who can afford to spend $17,000 a year to send their kid to party for 4 years after they have seen what can be done on line. Colleges need to fully declare they are only minor league training camps for the NFL and NBA.
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
ROLFNader 4/20/2020 9:31:50 AM (No. 385287)
So much of the teaching is done by students, anyway. I have a friend who is a tenured prof at a well known 'prestigious and respected' university in the Midwest. He takes a sabbatical every other year to 'write' a paper or even a dry , boring book that no one would ever buy-except a student's parents, in most cases. Some of these sabbaticals are lengthy- as in yearlong.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/20/2020 11:02:28 AM (No. 385445)
First of all, Ryan me boy, you are not going to find a job in marketing no matter when you finish school so - no rush. Look at it this way, you are saving loads of money not buying beer and your parents are feeding you, as they will for the next few years as you play X-Box in your basement. One question, how are you going to revolt online, punch your computer screen?
0 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/20/2020 11:28:17 AM (No. 385490)
Maybe it's evil but the thought of hundreds of $2-300K per year professors suddenly becoming unemployed evokes a certain perverse pleasure. Sports scholarships will be curtailed so most classes will not be saddled with jocks who are there working to get into the NFL or NBA, not graduating or graduating and becoming car salesmen. LGBTQ, Diversity and Transsexual importance will dwindle. Lots of positives in this dilemma.
1 person likes this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
BigGeorgeTX 4/20/2020 1:02:18 PM (No. 385645)
Doggone it, this wasn't what they expected their college experience to be like. No keggers, debauchery and actually having to do work without any means of cheating.
0 people like this.
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