PANDEMIC-INDUCED ONLINE CLASSES DRAIN STUDENTS

Gianna Matassa

Doodles by Cameron Fisher

In the second semester of learning during a pandemic, COVID-19 has forced all colleges to transition to an allonline format. While many students had hoped to return to the fall semester as either hybrid classes or fully in-person, this was deemed dangerous due to the spreading of the virus. Unfortunately, the new online format leaves students more stressed and mentally drained than ever before.

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the entire world into a quarantine frenzy to keep everyone safe from one another. People have been stuck at home with very little freedom since March 2020. For college students who are used to their freedom, this is a social nightmare. Many students left home to establish themselves and their independence, but that is no longer possible since the pandemic has caused this entire semester to be online for most people.

Colleges face many challenges with this semester being online. Some of those challenges are financial; many universities have lost millions of dollars due to not having students on campus, while students have saved thousands of dollars staying home. Another challenge includes the pressure to give students the education they need without being on campus. While it is understandable that colleges keep students home due to the typical college life of dorms and partying, this has also been detrimental to students’ mental health.

Picture this, students sitting at home all day staring at the same four walls, bored with technology, having a short attention span and all while trying to balance their online classes at the same time. For extroverts, this is mentally and emotionally draining by not being able to interact with other students or living with their best friends/roommates. According to Chardon State College, “One in four young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have a diagnosable mental illness.” If that was the case prior to COVID-19, imagine how much worse it has gotten for students stuck at home.

Many mental health struggles students face during this difficult time are attributed to the fact that many students feel they are experiencing more work at home compared to being in person at school. But they can also be attributed to technical difficulties with either Zoom or other sites they may use being so detrimental and can affect their grades, and students have often found that it is harder to get into contact with professors since switching to an online format.

According to an article by Inside Higher Ed, “Fifty-six percent of college students surveyed also said they believed the education offered this fall will be less valuable than what colleges offered last fall.”

Students face the temptation to cheat and use the internet for exams and papers more so than ever before which can make their college education less valuable. There is also fear that students face that besides all the busy work given by professors, will this education be substantial enough for when they graduate college and have to go out into the real world? While many careers, grad schools, etc. post-college will most likely be understanding of the scenario, that doesn’t stop students from having anxiety about what if.

According to an article written by Inside Higher Ed, “ . . . most Americans (59 percent) believe that in-person education and training is more highly valued by employers than online training.”

Despite employers not knowing for sure if you did your college online or went back for hybrid/in-person, students still fear that what they learn during this time won’t be enough for life after college. Students also fear when applying to graduate school or medical school how it will look with having classes as pass/fail on their transcript. While some schools may be picky about this detail, an example of a school that won’t be is Harvard medical school.

As stated on their website, “So that no applicants are disadvantaged as a result of this unprecedented event, HMS will accept pass/fail grading for spring, summer, and fall coursework during 2020.”

College students during this COVIDinduced semester find that their mental health and sanity are at risk due to being stuck at home for their courses and while this is the safest option, it is still challenging for students to adapt. Professors and colleges need to be more understanding of students’ mental health during this time and the fact that students are facing more work and stress than ever before. There needs to be action taken to allow mental health days to be a plausible excuse to miss class and for pass/fail to be available for all classes not only one (based on American University’s policy). If nothing is changed, then students will be doomed for however long until they return to campus once again.