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After enduring a year of a very different modality of learning, Jamaican tertiary students are lamenting the possibility that they may have to undergo yet another year of online learning.

The concerns come as the Government has indicated that only
65 per cent of the population is expected to be COVID-19 vaccinated by 2022.

Friday, March 13, 2020 is a day that will live on in the lives of many Jamaican students for years to come.

On this day, school administrators across the island took the decision to close their doors to face-to-face learning, many of which have yet to reopen.

Speaking with Our Today on Thursday (March 11), a number of tertiary level students shared the sentiment that the chief issue they have continued to experience since transitioning to online learning is that neither teaching styles nor course content have been designed to fit the online learning
modality.

The result of this has been a disconnect between students and their course syllabi.

One University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona student, Tiffany Dyer, said that “most students, we not learning. We just show up to class [and] if we hear we hear and if we don’t, we don’t”.

Another student, Brittany Forsythe expressed a similar sentiment when speaking of her own experiences of online learning.

“Before they used to say that you read for your degree, but I think it has been intensified now being in the online setting,” Forsythe said.

“I don’t believe that we are getting the full experience of the content and the
course that we would have gotten in the face-to-face environment because the course was just not designed to be virtual.”

Forsythe continued, lamenting: “Some of the assignments and features of the course, they don’t fit in to the virtual space, yet lecturers keep trying to fit them in.”

Issues in relation to course content in a virtual classroom is not the only issue tertiary students have been facing, however.

According to Deandra White, a science and technology student at UWI, her online learning experience has been impacted by lack of motivation for school and classes all around.

“I am not as motivated (about school) as I was before. Knowing the classes are recorded, I am not eager to go to class, and, knowing the exams are online, I don’t see the need to study as hard as before,” she admitted.

Though different students had varied responses to how the transition to online learning has impacted their learning, all of those who spoke with Our Today were in agreement that being thrust into virtual classrooms
has negatively impacted their social development.

Chevel Grant, a social sciences student at UWI, put into words the feelings of many students best, when she said: “The pre-COVID era saw many students like myself enjoying going to classes because it wasn’t just about learning, it was also about socialising with classmates.”

Grant added: “After the pandemic hit, my social development skills took a hit because school moved online so the need to interact went unsatisfied.”

Kemar Henriques also recounted a similar hit his social skills took as a result of the transition to online learning, stating that “being in an online school environment significantly reduces your social skills in a sense that after a while you start to lose the will to go outside and enjoy being away from your devices”.

Said Henriques: “Interacting with new people helps to build character and find out who you really are and being in an online environment hinders this process.”

STILL MUCH TO BE APPRECIATED

Despite this, the views of the students weren’t all negative. Some students said that, even amid the new challenges brought on by the move to virtual learning, there is still much to be appreciative of.

“I can now be in a class and, because it’s online, I can just click to another tab and have access to information.”

Shanoi Henry

According to Shanoi Henry, while aware of the challenges many students face with online learning, he is particularly grateful for the “added value” online learning affords his education as he now has greater access to information.

“I can now be in a class and, because it’s online, I can just click to another tab and have access to information,” Henry said.

“This allows me to add greater value to the discussions happening within classes. I can now introduce new points, I can now challenge points, I can now fact check.”

While the future of online learning currently hangs in the balance, students are asking where the possibility of a continuation of virtual learning exists, necessary stakeholders will be mindful of creating course syllabi that is specifically designed for virtual classrooms.

UWI students campus may be waiting in vain for a resumption of face-to-face learning after the COVID-19 pandemic, as the institution has hinted in it may never return to what it once was.

See related article below:

UWI to pivot towards blended learning model despite renewed demand for face-to-face classes