In late 2019, a novel coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19, was discovered in Wuhan, China. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020 (CDC), which according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary is “an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population” (2020). Due to the highly contagious aspect of the virus, social distancing guidelines were put in place to mitigate the spread of the virus. As a result of these guidelines businesses and institutions surrounding the globe were forced to close or take to online alternatives. This forced the educational field into Emergency Remote Teaching or ERT. The priority of universities at this period of time was to get their students home for obvious health concerns. Next, the goal was to create an adequate learning environment for the remainder of the semester; the solution was google meets and zoom. This style of virtual classes gave students and professors alike, some sense of being in a classroom environment. However, after that semester, the focus has now become an effective online education.
In moving forward, it is easy to forget that remote learning has an extensive history from before the pandemic. A small subsection of the college-educated population has taken classes entirely online even. Online schooling has been experimented with since the birth of the modern internet, but one of the most major leaps in practice was with the Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, in the early 2010s (Askeroth, 2019, p. 3). These courses exposed a poignant social failing in that they did not create dialogues between student peers and professors due to their large nature. This fact alongside the existence of pre-recorded video lecture classes stand in the face of modern developments. They also prove how integral getting the social element of a remote class right is because, for the past two decades, remote learning has banged its head against the same wall, regardless of what computer technology level is implemented.
The engineering studies education has influenced the way we view the world greatly. It is something to be very proud of, especially taking on the responsibilities of the big picture, engineering-technological issues. Consequently, this type of curriculum also shapes our understanding of issues. We all know that technologies are value-laden and especially very political, but too often we find people viewing issues that involve technology as solely technological issues. We know better than that; we know to question the appearance of the issue and to dig deeper into the problem to find its root cause. That is what we have encountered when analyzing online education. Many times, we jump to conclusions that we should fix a technological problem with a technological solution. This is not the case, we have a socio-technical issue at hand that requires a socio-technical fix, yet we are lacking socially on this issue. We have seen this with zoom; people have tried to change the format of breakout rooms and functions of zoom. Additionally, there are services that allow you to view the screen of the students in the class to, essentially, virtually babysit them and make sure they are paying attention or not cheating. Instead of cutting down the vine strangling the tree, these “solutions” are just cutting off the dead branches and complaining about the vine. We are no longer in a state of ERT, we should have shifted to better online education but we are lacking. Kopp et al. (2019) defined a series of assumptions that plague higher education institutions which cover a wide variety of attitudes such as issues with cost, implementation speed, and lack of belief in the adaptability of people who take part in education (Adedoyin). It is interesting to note, the human resistance to change is the driving force behind our inability to improve online learning. This is a perfect example of the necessity to divorce our minds from traditional classroom thought. We are getting in our own way by being so resistant to change; the solution for online education will not only benefit us now, but it will reshape our understanding and approach to traditional in-person education if we return.
In the current state of online education, we came to the agreement that online classes make us feel dehumanized; like we are just a name on a screen. The loss of identity due to online is crippling and students have this sense of “fake it till you make it,” meaning that they will be doing in-person classes in no time, why treat online education as real classes. Joshi et al. sides with this general thought, “instructional achievement of online learning is debatable because it causes absence of face-to-face relationship among learners, learners, and instructors” (2020). Humans crave social interaction, there is no other way around it. When we keep ourselves from interacting with others it becomes detrimental to our mental health. We are not the only ones to see this trend. When we contacted Dr. Addy from Lafayette’s Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (CITLS), she directed us to several studies she found useful. McDaniel, Suffern, Joo, and Alamuddin highlighted the social impact the transition to online learning had on its students. “Students who participated in the present study also underlined the negative impact the emergency shift had on the social aspect of their learning experience, which had repercussions on both the academic and socioemotional levels” (McDaniel, Suffern, Joo, and Alamuddin, 2020). In a way, it was comforting to see that it was not only us who have felt the lack of social satisfaction due to online learning.
A study was performed by Blankstein, Frederick, and Wolff-Eisenberg on the spring 2020 semester and the effects COVID-19 had on students. The students polled came from twenty-one institutions across the United States, Lafayette College being one of them. Students were asked which departments they would like to hear more from, and 15,667 responses were recorded. In perhaps one of the more concerning graphics found in our research, almost fifty percent of polled students do not feel connected to other students, as seen below in Figure 1. This is saddening. Schooling is meant for learning but we know that learning is highly social and is better developed with social connections.
Figure 1. Students were asked to please read each of the following statements and tell us the extent to which they agree or disagree. Percent of respondents that selected each response.
It is not only the stifling of trivial conversations we lack. We are missing the ability to ask a quick clarifying question to our neighbors about a number or name that was mentioned by the professor. Students are unsure of when to interject to ask these questions, especially when they seem to be trivial ones. If a student were to chat or message a peer about the clarification it can, in turn, direct the confused student down a rabbit-hole of distraction. Many professors prior to the pandemic held a “no cellphone policy” because of the innate distracting nature of cell phones. Now in order to get back on track, the student must dance with the temptation of even more distracting technology. Past this, the online classroom is lacking the social interactions that used to occur before and after learning was in session. These are much more valuable than most are willing to admit. These interactions bring comfort to the students and the professors, oftentimes relaxing the entire classroom prior to the lesson beginning. The comfort brought from social interactions open the students’ minds to learning and make them more receptive to the goal of the lessons. These quick social interactions before and after class can fuel our day offering a recharge when we feel low. Debra Umberson and Jennifer Karas Montez, sociology researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, described the effects a lack of social interactions may have on the mind and body in a 2010 report in The Journal of Health and Social Behavior. “Lack of social interactions also damages mental health. The emotional support provided by social connections helps to reduce the damaging effects of stress and can foster ‘a sense of meaning and purpose in life,’” stated Umberson and Montez. We know that isolation can negatively affect mental health, it is not surprising to note this can negatively affect a student’s studies. As per the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, “Mental health problems can affect a student’s energy level, concentration, dependability, mental ability, and optimism, hindering performance. Research suggests that depression is associated with lower grade point averages and that co-occurring depression and anxiety can increase this association.” In being trivialized this way, we frequently lose our motivation to try to succeed in our studies. Due to the nature of remote learning, we must find ways to incorporate social interactions into the classroom to make up for what we are now lacking. As seen below in Figure 2, it is not surprising that 2 of the top 3 were mental health services and academic counseling. We understand that a student’s mental health can be indicative of success and this data supports that. The combination of anxiety over grades and classes, academic counseling, and mental health are intertwined.
Figure 2. Students were asked would they like to hear more from any of the following offices or departments at this college or university about current services and resources? Please select all that apply. Percent of respondents that selected each office or department.
This is significant to learning due to the socio-emotional impact counseling services can have on students. We propose reallocating funds to improve the college’s availability of counseling services. Currently, students lacking social interaction need someone to talk to and may not know where to turn because the nature of an online learning environment has them feeling disconnected to their peers. This is up to Lafayette College to adjust. Making student’s mental health a priority during these stressful times is not controversial; it is empathetic. Students need to know that the college they chose to attend has their back when things are tough. Bolstering the counseling service will gain the respect of students, regardless if they need to use the service. After supporting the service, the college needs to broadcast the availability and how to get in contact with counseling services when they need to or even if it is just a quick chat. Once these changes are made students will have a better chance of being successful in their studies.
The lack of in-person classes has taken more than we have anticipated. The innate competitive drive of the physical classroom has become scarce, and the lack of many facets of the social classroom experience that we took for granted are now absent. While true knowledge and understanding are acquired through entertaining curiosity with research and practice, it would be a lie to say that outcomes do not drive motivation. In fact, Kimoto finds when researching Outcome Driven Learning (ODL) that “ODL enables students to attain a higher level of service-learning where objectives are co-determined with organizational partners who strive to create meaningful outcomes.” This is the idea of a student in calculus versus the other students in calculus. Subtle things like seeing a classmate’s grade on an assignment or walking out of the classroom and asking your neighbor how they did are lost as we now load into and exit our zoom classes with the touch of a button. The individual standard that we all implicitly felt that we needed to hold ourselves to is almost impossible to develop in this lonely endeavor. Yes, we all want to do well, but we have lost the competition based community that fosters academic excellence.
Traditional learning hinges on the fact that students learn as a group, and online learning, while in a ‘classroom’ setting, often feels like an individual battle. This is substantial because for the past nine months the world has been isolated from the human connection we all desire. Now we have to fight an uphill battle, in which our opponent is a two-headed beast of loneliness and isolation. This is the kind of social situation that students face, and it is a result of the forced restructuring of society by COVID-19. No one was mentally ready for this, and our behavior in response is quite evident of that. In order to get ourselves back on track motivationally, we need to understand what motivates us. Maksoud suggests, “Motivation is an essential factor for behavior change; therefore, understanding motivation is extremely important in the field of education, as it could offer a predictive as well as a prescriptive view of behavior (2018). Motivation is seen as the essential drive that stimulates and sustains learning, it is important to understand the factors that impact it. According to Lee, motivation is particularly “crucial to learning and performance in technology-mediated environments” (2000). It is incredible to note that Lee was able to recognize the importance of motivation in technology-mediated environments, twenty years prior to when we actually lived through the lack of motivation. Motivation has many slightly different variants of its definition. Students noted that talking with other students was integral not only for gaining content knowledge, but also for gaining valuable institutional know-how (McDaniel, Suffern, Joo, and Alamuddin, 2020).
What was missing . . . was talking to your classmates. That’s missing, having conversations with your classmates, running questions back with them and exchanging ideas. [The courses in the spring] had message boards, but a lot of people didn’t really utilize the message boards.
Student response from Ithaka S+R Remote Learning Survey
Moving forward, the social aspects of education are the driving factors. This can be seen as the means of motivation, a sense of mental relief of being in a social scenario, or the feeling of personal accomplishment. Our idea of building a more socially-centered educational model will allow for better education online, OR physically in the classroom. We believe that focusing on conversation, building relationships, and developing these “soft” skills will place our education system in a better state than we have ever seen. We suggest reshaping the design of the classroom to place the emphasis on social interactions with each other. We have modeled this as the “Ideal Online Classroom.” Breakout rooms are the effective and necessary first step. The current use of breakout rooms are not being utilized to their full potential. Often, breakout rooms are used for a maximum of five minutes to briefly discuss something. We have seen that on the instructor’s end the breakout rooms are not to their standard; there are functions that instructors wish they had that are not available. However, breakout rooms need to be slightly more privatized learning spaces where students can interact with each other and engage in peer teaching and learning. Professors should initiate the class lesson, guide the students through certain topics and methods, then send the students to small breakout rooms of 3-4 students to practice problems, develop thoughts, or have engaging discussions. During this the instructor should pop in and out of breakout rooms to answer questions or build conversation; the instructor is already able to join individual breakout rooms. After some time of practice, the class should reconvene to further discuss and go over solutions. Then the process continues until class ends; individual topic, breakout room practice, reconvene, and clarify. As a method of motivation, instructors should call this homework and say if it is not finished in class, it is to be finished prior to the next class.
To accommodate for the time absorbing nature of our Ideal Online Classroom, the necessary time in the learning space must be longer. In our thinking, classroom time would be roughly double than it was in person prior to the pandemic. The compromise with the students would be less time spent on material outside of the classroom. Ideally, work outside of class time would be in preparation for the next class to make the flow of the lesson easier. Because of the awkwardness of online learning, it may take students some extra time to become comfortable in the new classroom environment and this additional time in the virtual classroom will allow for that. Professors may lecture for the general introduction to the new material but then the learning must become social. We are aware that students may not always discuss the material in these rooms but the stimulation of conversation will allow for a better mental state to receive the new material. The constant switch between large class lectures and the introduction of the material to small group work and discussions will create a learning flow we never imagined.
The next step for our Ideal Online Classroom is to engage in active learning techniques developed through different interaction types. We want students to observe, communicate, reflect, and practice when working in the classroom. When students work like this in the classroom they are “actively working with concepts and people” (UC Davis, 2020). This type of active learning environment can be fostered through student-instructor interaction, student-student interaction, and student-content interaction. Many of the active learning techniques we are discussing are adapted from a 2020 UC Davis report on how to effectively engage students during the pandemic. Student-instructor interaction is based on generating feedback for the students and having an ongoing dialogue to build familiarity with the students. This can be effectively communicated through announcements of summarization of the previous weeks or announcements in preparation for the upcoming lessons. We found that announcements in preparation for the weeks to come create an understanding for the students of the goals of the upcoming lessons. When students know the “why” of something they are doing, they are more motivated to complete the work. Student-student interactions consist of group work and group conversations. This is entirely in line with our Ideal Online Classroom model. These group work based methods focus on collaborative brainstorming that involves each individual student. When group work ends the students are more likely to participate in the larger classroom discussions. UC Davis’s report also noted that “when working with smaller groups, it helps to emphasize individual accountability, positive interdependence, and positive interaction in grading the group’s work” (Kirschner, Strijbos, Kreijns, & Beers, 2004). Finally, student-content interactions are based on the students’ involvement with the material in non-traditional ways. These can be considered as watching videos, leading peer-instructed classes, or understanding assessment material like quizzes. We believe that having students engage in these will promote a more productive learning environment that promotes growth and process-based understanding.
Designing an online learning environment that is on par with the in-person learning environment we are all familiar with requires similar methods executed in ways we have not anticipated. We are developing a social learning environment that does not currently exist. This online learning environment lacks the typical social cues we use in-person to analyze and understand a situation. Socially, our goal is to reimplement those social cues to online learning. Our method for the most effective way to do this is through more conversation and face-to-face interaction via breakout rooms. When communicating through text only we lose many of the social cues we experience from an in-person conversation. If two people had a conversation over text and then those same two people had the same conversation in person but blindfolded, the time in-person hearing each other’s voices would prove to be a more effective conversation. This is due to the fact that a conversation involving our voices allows for us to use the pitch, tone, hesitance, and tempo of the conversation to understand the situation better. This is best exemplified by an MIT doctoral thesis in which Judith Donath attempts to develop social cues for an online community. She states that “online environments must provide the means to communicate social cues and information: the participants must be able to perceive the social patterns of activity and affiliation and the community must be able to evolve a fluid and subtle cultural vocabulary” (1996). Although at first glance it may not seem as though we are developing an online community, that is exactly what we are doing. Our Ideal Online Classroom is an online community that fosters the necessary social cues and interactions.