Written by Ilya Kogan
Since the arrival of COVID-19, many people were forced to shift their daily routines into a more remote friendly setting. Not only has COVID-19 impacted businesses, but it has also impacted the local community, including the students of FRCC Westminster. With the mandatory shutdowns, educational institutions scrambled to find an optimal way to continue to educate their students. These institutions turned to Zoom and Discord to connect students to professors. With these changes come a new set of benefits and drawbacks.
For most students, one of the benefits of remote education was that it was flexible with their schedules. Many students have part time jobs which can sometimes make the commute difficult. These recent changes have helped students save a lot of time. The biggest drawback noticed was the lack of social interaction amongst students. Due to these remote classes, it made it hard for students to build relationships with each other making a lot of them feel isolated.
“I like remote classes, but it was hard for me to make friends. I could see the benefits of it, but I prefer going to class in person,” stated one FRCC student. “It’s just easier to network that way and make friends with other people. I also felt like the classes were a bit harder. The lack of office hours made it feel like I had to do a lot of self-learning to understand the topics.”
“With remote classes you could get a lot more work done, but I can also see how a lot of students miss out on the social aspect of going to college,” stated another FRCC student.
This last year and a half have been very difficult for many people, with COVID-19 forcing schools to shift to remote learning and the many changes that have taken place. These college students have been faced with never-before-seen challenges. While there are benefits to remote learning, many students are forced to face the drawbacks as well. Although schools are finally beginning to open their doors for in person classes, it is difficult to imagine remote classes becoming obsolete. With the direction the future of education is heading in, it will most likely consist of a combination of both.
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