Few relationships in everyone's life are as important and influential as a teacher and student. At different points in life, a person may assume both roles, or teach or be taught by many different people. Personal relationships with teachers are extremely important for children, adolescents, and young adults, and the specific nature of the classroom environment has shaped many generations over the centuries.
However, everything changed when the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic hit in 2020.
Schools have become entirely internet-based endeavors, as the very social interactions that formed the basis of formal education have become impossible and the entire (developed) world has been forced to move online. Although online classes have been around for some time, the pandemic has forced rapid and disruptive developments in the medium to ensure that students' education is not disrupted any more than it has been previously.
The sudden need for online schooling has revealed many clear advantages to this new form of education. Class times are more flexible, working students can more easily balance their schedules, students with disabilities have access to education, and parents can spend more time with their children. their child. At the same time, it has become clear that online schooling has serious deficiencies in many areas.
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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, students and teachers alike have complained about the inherent and even mild inhumanity associated with all-online education. For instructors, bustling classrooms that were once filled with fresh, ambitious young people eager to learn have become walls of faces, each staring blankly at their own screen, paying some sort of attention. I'm trying desperately. For students, the opportunity to build a relationship with their favorite teacher is lost, with student-teacher interactions reduced to emails, comments on assignment submissions, Canvas messages, and perhaps the occasional Zoom call or two with her. Now limited to times. Meanwhile, test security has become embarrassingly difficult to enforce for all but the most rigorous professors. Academic misconduct is on the riseand many students find themselves struggling to keep to a school schedule while dealing with all the distractions that come with learning from home.
The upshot of all this is that many educators and students alike have expressed a strong aversion to continuing to rely on online university courses, especially in the wake of COVID-19. significantly reduced prevalence and severity In the last two years. Of course, the coronavirus still exists, but it's long since ceased to be anything close to a pandemic, and it's long past time to roll back coronavirus-era precautions like mass online school.
In primary and secondary public education, online classes have almost ended and are only used sparingly, if at all. Even in higher education, many schools have returned to the pre-COVID-19 status quo, offering online options for students who need them and using traditional in-person instruction for most of the remaining time. But things are different in the San Diego Community College District. Many courses are not offered in-person, so not taking online classes is not an option for many students. It's not at all unusual for students at Miramar University, Mesa University, and City College to do the majority of their classes online. This is unacceptable.
As the post-COVID-19 world continues to take shape, it is long past time for the San Diego Community College District to return to primarily in-person higher education. Students and faculty alike must speak out and show both university and district leaders that this change must happen without delay.
The pandemic has necessitated online schooling, and while there are few signs of hope in the rapid evolution of its teaching methods, students must be able to return to in-person instruction as the United States and the world continue to rapidly emerge from the pandemic. Not if they want. Online classes should absolutely remain an option for those who need them, but they cannot remain the only option.