A Shift to Online Learning
The following article was featured in the May 2020 edition of The Campus.
By Jaquelin Bautista and Jada Gordon
“We are mandated to move to distance learning for the rest of the semester.”
-Vince Boudreau, President of City College of New York
On March 11, in light of COVID-19 becoming more of a threat to New York City, President Vince Boudreau transitioned The City College of New York (CCNY) to online learning. Although this news was imminent with email alerts discussing the increasing severity of COVID-19 dating back to March 6, it was a crushing blow to students, teachers, and faculty. A barrage of updates stating that events will be canceled, and graduation postponed was another sad reminder that COVID-19 is not only killing people but drastically changing public life and how we interact.
Every day seems like the world is getting smaller. Especially when each day comes with a new set of restrictions and bans on interaction. Safety, however, remains essential through drastic changes. Students are losing valuable education and moments that come with the college experience, however, professors are tasked with the objective of reconstructing their syllabi to match the new distance learning and adapt to the new normal of how classes are going to be held. So how are professors during City College’s distance learning?
For Brandon Judell, a lecturer of Theater and Speech for seventeen years, he experienced minor technical difficulties “For one class, it took 15 minutes and my running from one computer in one room to another in my bedroom. Finally, I was heard, and the dulcet tones of my students came through.” As a lecturer, he teaches four classes and three of them back to back, so between teaching, grading, and preparing lesson plans, the technical issues may pose a threat to the learning process.
“To be honest, I knew it was going to happen; it was just a matter of the time and then it was just okay, how are we going to do this?” says Marisol Diaz, an Adjunct Lecturer at City College and an educator for seventeen years. The questions that followed President Boudreau’s announcement was imminent. For students and professors whose main mode of education was in-person learning, this transition is a difficult one. It has been handled with a series of instructional and helpful alerts via email. There was a recalibration period from March 12 to 18, where teachers could fix their syllabi to fit the status of how classes were going to be run. Additionally, the school offered free computers and help wherever there would be potential problems for any student.
Distance learning is in full effect, but with that comes a positive aspect, students get to learn and professors get to educate. Distance learning, however, is not the same as learning in the classroom. “How do we keep the students engaged?” asks Professor Diaz, whose transition felt like, “entering a world of newness.” She explained, “It’s truly not normal times. There’s a pandemic out there and somehow the students have to try and find something normal to hold onto.” This sentiment is an obstacle that occurs more when doing distance learning. In class, a way to keep students engaged is by presenting interesting content and delivering that content in a specific way. With distance learning, keeping students engaged might pose more of a problem. “I wondered if online instruction would work in my classes. Since I felt I had a personal connection with about 95% of the students, I suspected I could keep that connection alive, but I have no idea how I would have coped if I had never met the students beforehand,” says Professor Judell.
What could affect keeping students engaged in the wave of recent Zoom hackings called “Zoom Bombings,” where Zoom meetings were interrupted by random people who put content onto the meeting. These situations affect students and teachers trying to stay engaged in classes and robs students of class time. Professor Diaz states,
The only thing you can do is have security precautions in place. The powers that be have their job at fixing those problems and all we can do is report them and ask for help. We follow their recommendations and move forward. If we begin to get stuck on those kinds of things we don’t move forward. It’s not our job. We do our job and trust that others are doing theirs and that is how we will get through this, Zoom, Blackboard, or any other online teaching/online meeting tool.
For improvements to procedures in distance learning, Professor Judell says, “Students should expect to keep their cameras on. Some of my students have trouble with bandwidth. I feel CCNY is doing its darndest to answer all of our technical questions. In a month or two, we will all sadly become whizzes at this.” Distance learning has its difficulties, but it is what the professor and the student makes of it. “To be honest, CCNY has done the best that they can do with the situation at hand. Their first priority was the health of the students and faculty, and then the continuation of the education of the students.” says Professor Diaz.
While professors are trying to rework their classes, students are facing a major transition from the classroom to their homes. As one of the few CUNY schools with a campus, students have enjoyed the luxury of engaging with peers, friends, professors, advisors, and counselors on campus. Today, students find themselves attending classes, club meetings, and more through their screens.
Nabiha Mazhar, a Communications and Arts Major, who had only once taken a hybrid course at CCNY, one which still allowed her to have an in-class experience once a week, found that the hybrid course could not compare to the online transition evoked by COVID-19. “My greatest challenge would be the organization of my classes. Knowing what is due and when. Having to pinpoint and set specific due dates on my own.” states Mazhar. She also shares how the channels of communication are flooded with information which makes it difficult to receive every message from each of her classes. Some students, however, face challenges that are intensified by the quarantine.
A poll conducted on the Campus Magazine Instagram (@CCNYCAMPUS) gave insight on how students managed the transition. Out of 60 votes, 12% had taken online classes before, while 86% had expressed feeling unprepared for the online transition. CCNY had an extensive communication effort with students and staff to ease the transition. CCNY rapidly developed solutions for students, but no one could prepare students for the mental and emotional burden students would battle. This same poll found that 95% of voters experienced mental, emotional, or academic challenges.
Neel Sawhney is one of the several counselors at the CCNY AccessAbility Center/Student Disability Services (AAC/SDS). Sawhney is a social work intern as part of an internship program at the Columbia University School of Social Work. Since January of 2019, Sawhney has worked with the AAC/SDS to provided services and engage with the community. Studies on online transitions during viral outbreaks, including H1N1 and the Influenza Pandemic “share that social distancing and distance learning can exacerbate already-present academic difficulties. Students who learn best when physically present in the classroom can experience new barriers to learning and engagement due to the new distance learning structure.” states Sawhney.
Students now face the challenge of organizing their work and play within the walls of their homes. Sawhney explains that while students may have taken advantage of on-campus resources to establish a workplace, “For students who live in spaces that do not allow for a separation of work/personal spaces, it can be difficult to avoid distractions and dedicate time specifically for completing assignments.” Learning and working from home can lead students to experience additional stress, which can “create tension or strengthen family or partner relationships [at home]. My recommendation for all CCNY students is to continue to explore their feelings related to COVID-19 and the transition to distance learning, and to discuss them with people whom you feel comfortable sharing with.” expressed Sawhney.
While every student is having a unique experience adapting to the transition, Sawhney explains that, “The biggest concerns [she] understand[s] are coordination of accommodations for students and faculty.” For students who require academic accommodations, needs that are able to transition online are being made, “such as the use of our dedicated testing room, these have been adjusted to fit with the new at-home testing dynamic.” Mazhar emphasizes that students need assistance “for various things such as registering for classes next semester, academic advising, club registration, housing, etc.” Yet her efforts to get help did not receive responses. While CCNY is doing its best to meet the needs of all students, all departments are feeling the stresses of new challenges prompted by the online transition and are making improvements with each day.
Nonetheless, students, professors, and all staff should be taking the proper steps to establish healthy living practices. By setting up a schedule and alarms to keep daily routine individuals can ease some of the challenges the temporary lifestyle presents. Sawhney shares some fun online activities including “making at-home tasks into group projects (i.e. cooking), creating a daily regiment/routine (setting an alarm), and limiting exposure to COVID-19 related news (taking time to enjoy a book or TV show), and my favorite: online concerts and discussion forums to promote community.” If any student is experiencing issues, it is recommended that they speak to a counselor.
To contact the AAC/SDS office reach out to disabilityservicese@ccny.cuny.edu.
