We will never go back to a preponderance of live classroom lecture classes.

Careers were shattered. Faculty, including tenured ones, lost their jobs, adjuncts were decimated, academic programs were abolished and some institutions even closed. Many administrators and staff cracked under the pressure and chose early retirement. Nobody foresaw such grim consequences.

Students had their lives and learning experiences completely discombobulated. Many of their classes were presented via distance learning by professors who were learning how to do it. The fact that some learning did indeed transpire is stunning.

The beginning

Fall of 2019 started with pleasant reports of steady and actually growing enrollments. Hispanics, many first in their families to attend college, increased their numbers on many campuses. Problems? Yes, but they were the normal ones – for which solutions had been fashioned over the decades.

Freshmen students always face adjustments. They have to adjust to adult living conditions while absorbing enormous amounts of new knowledge. The transition is often accompanied by many problems, including homesickness, depression, inability to fit in, and financial instability, all of which lead many Freshmen to wonder if they really are college material.

Colleges were ready, experienced and with procedures and trained staff in place to help fledgling new students succeed. So, most students adapted, learned and forged ahead.

The Bombshell

Covid disrupted the Spring semester. Everybody was frightened. Then as enrollment shrunk precipitously, financial problems erupted. To cope, colleges turned to off-campus online teaching. Many first-year students found it difficult to learn remotely primarily because of limited access to technology resources and inexperience. As could be  expected, most colleges were ill-prepared for the changes thrust upon them. 

ACT Study

ACT research found that a full two-thirds of first-year students struggled with online learning.  One-third of first-year students reported frequent troubles with unreliable computer connections. Twenty-one percent stated they had unpredictable or no access at all to the internet.

ACT CEO Janet Godwin noted succinctly, “That academic year was perhaps the most challenging year in the lives of American college students, particularly students from low-income families and first-generation college students, who were more likely to have limited access to technology and the internet compared to their counterparts.”

That is poignant for Hispanics since many are found in those two categories. Other studies note a student's first year is a “critical predictor of student persistence.” Dropout rates are produced and fueled during that period. Although they meant well, more than 1,300 U.S. institutions that rushed to teach online in spring 2020 created “more disruption, more confusion and less success than usual for students.”

Student reaction

When asked to rate how easy or challenging their coursework had been, 52 percent of students responded “somewhat challenging” and 14 percent responded “very challenging.” Students also cited decreased motivation, difficulty retaining information and trouble understanding concepts without actual “hands-on” classroom experiences as their biggest hurdles. In short, distance learning did not duplicate good classroom experiences. It didn’t even come close.

Students voiced other concerns. Many felt online learning during the pandemic had a negative impact on their academic success. A full seventy-six percent believed and feared that such a negative effect would have long-term consequences on their education. That’s a significantly high percentage.

Three factors inhibiting success

For those trying to improve learning, the report identified three factors that created difficult challenges for students:

1. A lack of access to technology and the internet.

2. Limited learning resources (such as instructor feedback, structured course materials, opportunities for collaboration and the lack of person to person interactions).

3. Very limited prior experience with online learning.

Reactions

It is surprising that so many students -- and faculty -- succeeded in inventing and implementing a new system, adapting college mores and personal predilections to a new and foreign learning platform.

It wasn’t easy, many glitches popped up, but academia adapted to the new system under stressful conditions.

Emily Bouck West, from ​​Higher Learning Advocates, which lobbies for broadband affordability for students, was pleased that student broadband access was by and large successful.

“It's great that we have more data about the challenges that so many students are experiencing when trying to access and complete their coursework online. Broadband connectivity challenges existed certainly before the pandemic but were absolutely exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’ve had very little data about how students are affected.”

Access to broadband and technology is essential and will be even more so in the future. But the divisive digital divide, invariably based on wealth, “remains a persistent barrier.” This problem is particularly evident among many Hispanic communities. To be blunt, they suffer from limited access to technology and the internet compared to their more privileged peers. A stunning 49 percent of first-generation college students and 46 percent of students from low-income families were found to have limited access to technology.

Specifically, 25 percent of low-income students and 18 percent of first-generation students had limited access to both technology and the internet, whereas only 11 percent of their counterparts who didn’t identify as first generation or low income had issues with both. Those differences are startling.

Bottom Line

Online distance classes are now part and parcel of higher education. That’s the world Covid created. Henceforth, most students at virtually every college will have at least part of their education presented online. Colleges and indeed high schools have to develop new technology programs to prepare students to succeed in college. Lacking access to technology and the internet hinders students. They must arrive experienced and comfortable with these learning tools.

So, who is going to pay for yet more technology in our high schools and colleges?  There is no clear path. Some funding is available from the federal government via STEM programs. But STEM was not created to support basic technology and certainly not in high schools.

Further, America is not in an education-funding mode. It’s going to be tough. •