So many of the community college campuses are like ghost towns now because of the pandemic. There's been a profound increase in online classes. On the other hand, the elite college campuses look crowded like they did three years ago.
There will be consequences, yes?
Here at Fresno State, I've never seen worse student disengagement. It didn't help that at the beginning of Spring 2022 semester, we weren't quite sure what was going to happen, so I really had no choice to be as liberal as possible, not requiring in-person attendance in class and making available all the online videos of me teaching each class in all my courses.
ReplyDeleteFresno State is notable for sports, disgusting activities with sheep (try googling "Fresno State sheep incident" to see what our students are into), and having the reputation among local high-school students of being "the place you go when you can't get into anywhere else," as one of our physics graduates reminded us. With the caliber of students we attract, what did you think was going to happen?
Of my general-ed, astronomy class for students not majoring in science, typically 5-6 out of 27 students registered were coming to class, with 4-5 of them glued to their laptops. Then one day, only one student showed up for class. I taught the class normally, trying not to acknowledge only one student was there.
What really pissed me off was that I'd put substantial time and effort into that class. I therefore later in the day emailed everyone in the class, to announce that for the rest of the semester, the class would be all online. It's been a simple matter to post the class videos I made during the pandemic, when were were required to run all classes entirely online, and to send email to all students each Monday to remind them which class videos to watch that week. All homework and exams have been via email, as during the height of the pandemic, too.
I then did likewise for the physics for engineers class, when only 4 out of 45 students showed up, after 6 showed up in the previous class. Whether any learning whatsoever takes place and worse, whether any of it will stick, remains to be seen.
To answer the specific question: There will be consequences, of course. The rich at the rich universities will get an in-person and therefore better education, and this will help them get richer, and the poor will get even poorer. Something about my students' conduct in the past semester that is particularly painful to me is that it's hard for me not to think they at least partly deserve it.
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