IBL News | New York
Executing online teaching well continues to be a challenge for many schools.
A new survey shows that online class experiences provided by colleges that have shut down due to the pandemic are being contested by students.
According to a survey by edtech vendor Top Hat, 78% of students called their online class experience as “unengaging”. A similar share, of 75%, have reported missing the face-to-face interactions with others on campus.
Around 50%of students said they were feeling “anxious,” and worried about passing their classes this semester.
“As the Fall 2020 semester looms on the horizon, colleges and universities are facing an unprecedented level of pressure to provide students with a significant return on investment in their education,” said Nick Stein, Chief Marketing Officer for Top Hat, in a statement. “Based on the results from this survey, students are expecting a more engaging, interactive, and human experience; getting this right will be critical to the future of higher education,” he added.
Top Hat’s survey –done among 3,089 higher education students in North America– found that 26% of students are re-evaluating their intentions of returning to school. Nearly 70% consider the online instruction they’re receiving right now to be worse than what they got in person; half said they were spending less time on their coursework.
The research recommends that schools should focus on enhancing the interactive experience, promoting social experiences with other students, and examining what and how learning materials are being used.
“The sudden transition to remote teaching in the past few months due to the COVID-19 crisis pushed educators to piece together solutions to deliver their courses online. In many cases, the result was a disjointed experience that required professors to navigate various technology tools and platforms to bring their courses to life in a new learning environment. Although no small feat, many students developed a poor impression of the educational value they received and more than a quarter are now re-evaluating their intentions to return to school in the Fall semester,” states the report.
• Top Hat’s infographic with the findings of the survey.
