How's College For Students During The Coronavirus? Students Explain Why They Miss In-Person Classes

As colleges grapple with safety questions and reopening campuses amid the coronavirus pandemic, a survey from online exam-prep provider OneClass showed that students are unhappy with e-learning alternatives and resent paying full tuition for them.

Though many schools refunded room-and-board fees, the factors involving tuition are more complicated. Planning for the fall semester may require both on-campus and online instruction, further muddling an already unsettling situation.

“We need to do the planning so whatever comes we’re ready, so parents have a level of confidence students will be safe,” Boston University President Robert Brown told the Wall Street Journal.

Ted Mitchell, President of the American Council on Education, told the Journal that it may take several years to find a new normal and predicted the number of students on campus would fall 15%, representing a $23 billion revenue hit.

Current students are unhappy with the way colleges and universities have handled the situation. OneClass recently asked 1,287 students from 45 colleges and universities whether they felt they were receiving a quality e-learning experience after classrooms shuttered. More than three quarters (75.5%) said no.

OneClass noted in its blog that many schools and professors were unprepared for e-learning. Classes were hastily forced online without sufficient planning after universities made the quick decision to shut down.

While some students gave their professors credit under difficult circumstances, many complained about at-home distractions, mustering motivation in the health and economic crisis, and even time zones playing havoc with their ability to attend online classes.

"The current response is triage. We are adapting to maintain as much of the familiar learning and community engagement as we can in the short term," said Davidson College Professor Kristen Eshleman.

One Virginia Tech student said since many classes had been converted to online courses without posted lectures or sessions conducted over conferencing software. "Most of the time, I’m teaching myself."

Another added: “In some classes, the content and help is amazing. But in others it feels like we are completely on our own.”

“This was not the education I bought into, and my academic performance is greatly suffering,” said a third Virginia Tech student.

Like the millions of workers who have been forced to work remotely, students face similar psychological strains from being stuck in the same surroundings.

“I’m experiencing little motivation because we come home to get away from the work, but now we have to do the work solely from our home,” a Penn State student complained.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison student said it appears professors are cutting the length of lectures.

There are also technical issues at play. A New York University student said professors’ internet connections keep cutting out, sometimes for as long as 20 minutes. The student said the audio can be sketchy, as well. “I’m not getting the same experience.”

Prior to the coronavirus, the rising cost of a college education had been a growing talking point, with many graduates saddled with crippling debt. Missing out on the benefits of in-person classes is yet another burden for students.

“I’m not going to college for a mediocre online education,” a University of California, San Diego student said. “I could’ve easily done that for way cheaper at another college. I’m supposed to be prepared for further education, experience, and the job industry, and I don’t feel like I will be ready for that at all with this kind of education.”

Another UCSD student complained: “Two out of my four professors aren’t even doing online classes. They post one 5-minute video for the two classes a week that each were originally an hour and 15 minutes. How is this an acceptable alternative to the education I was supposed to receive?”

A student at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development noted that it’s impossible for professors to teach acting online. “It sucks that I’m paying tuition and really can't be getting half the education I’m paying for.”

Similar comments were echoed by a student at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“[I’m] paying the same tuition for a worse standard of education,” said the student. “It is far more difficult to learn online. Also, we are losing all of the campus resources we have and social environment that we come to college for. Fat rip off.”

On-campus classes may not resume until 2021, a factor that could force some high school seniors to take a gap year. Rich Cooper, an independent college counselor and youth mentor, told ABC News that he advises taking a gap year because students wouldn't get the value of their tuition and because of the lingering uncertainty of the coronavirus.

"Part of this pandemic is that we have no control, and much of that is true,” Cooper said. "But we do have some control, and that's over what we're going to choose. How do we make choices that are better for ourselves? These choices are in the gap year."