With plans to open 80% of campus, students that desire to continue online instruction will have fewer options. (Image courtesy of Unsplash)
By: Alex Avila, Staff Reporter
Students should be able to return to campus if they decide to, but shouldn’t they also have the option to continue their education online and from their homes? University students are expected to return to campus at some point with the vaccination mandate, but this decision does not consider how students’ lives have changed since the pandemic.
According to CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham, the current plan is to have a minimum of 80% face-to-face on-campus instruction, close to the normal amount of in-person engagement on campus before the pandemic. A decision that only leaves about 20% of courses online, an amount that is not enough and leaves no space for alternatives.
What if you got a job because of the pandemic, now forced to quit because it doesn’t fit in your college schedule? Many people’s lives were affected, whether they had to adjust to relying on technology to work, attend school from home, or outright lose their jobs. Quitting a job is not an option for students right now.
For example, online classes are beneficial for students taking care of family members. This is not considered when universities are pushing for the majority of students to be back into classrooms. Some will be happy to return to campus but others will prefer online learning.
Surveys like ‘The Digital Learning Pulse‘ by Bay View Analytics, a research firm expert on education, show that 73% of students would like to take online courses in the future. The study included responses from 1,413 students registered at a U.S. higher education institution for both the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters.
More campuses should’ve asked students (which CSUDH did not) to determine whether or not they will be willing to return to campus full-time, take a hybrid modality (i.e., some in-person classes and others online), or take only online courses.
Approaching two years of remote learning, some students just prefer it over learning in person. Allowing them to have more opportunities to take their classes online should be an option. This way no students are left behind and have the same opportunities as those who choose to return to campus.
