Students outside the library at Columbia University in New York, Sept. 1.
Photo: Debra L. Rothenberg/Zuma PressEditor’s note: This week’s Future View asks whether pandemic-related measures in higher education have lowered colleges’ standards. Next week we’ll ask, “Will you take the vaccine as soon as it’s available to you? Why or why not?” Students should click here to submit opinions of fewer than 250 words before Dec. 22. The best responses will be published that night.
Lockdowns Open the American Mind
While the pandemic certainly forced higher education to evolve, those changes haven’t degraded standards—the degradation was already happening, even before Allan Bloom published “Closing of the American Mind” in 1987. Any further dumbing down that’s occurred as a result of Zoom classes was a continuation of that trend—not what started it.
Take the pass-fail grading systems that many schools adopted last spring. I don’t know of any school that continued using such systems when classes resumed in the fall (that hadn’t already been using them before the pandemic hit). And the use of pass-fail at the beginning of the pandemic was certainly justified, given the uncertainty of the time and difficulties some students had accessing academic resources remotely.
While remote instruction has many pedagogical faults, it has opened up some possibilities for improving higher education. Many of my professors took advantage of remote instruction to invite experts as guest speakers. And the ability to rewatch recorded lectures has surely helped many students gain a better grasp on course material.
Naturally, some students keep their cameras off on Zoom so they can attend class in their pajamas. But students were wearing sweatpants in the classroom long before Covid.
— Kevin Petersen, Columbia University, economics
It’s a Kindness
If higher education has been dumbed down, it would certainly be news to millions of college students across the country who have been working diligently to apply themselves under great mental, emotional and physical strain.
Many colleges implemented new pass-fail guidelines in the spring to account for the entirely unexpected nature of the shift to remote learning. This fall students had a better, albeit imperfect, idea of what was expected and lenient grading policies were generally scrapped.
In terms of academic rigor, professors at my school continue to challenge students to think critically and engage with course materials despite the abnormal circumstances. I don’t deny that there have been significant changes in terms of how professors conduct their courses, but for the most part what I have seen is greater understanding and grace, not reduced expectations or intellectual laziness. For those who returned to school in person, as I did, there was an added level of anxiety from being hundreds of miles away from family during this difficult time. Professors, who are dealing with the same concerns, have simply recognized the immense difficulty of the moment and said to students, “How can I support you?” I wouldn’t be surprised if many students look back and see this as the most formative year of their education.
— Brett Bauman, Wheaton College (Ill.), international relations and Spanish
An Easy A-Minus
Some—but not all—of my classes have become an “easy A.” In one, attendance wasn’t only optional, it was unnecessary—since the start of the semester, I’ve neither attended in person nor watched a recorded lecture afterward. I devoted a maximum of five hours to it. That includes exams, lectures and papers. My final grade in the class was an A-minus.
Courses like this are rare at my school, which prides itself on being the No. 1 school in the country for entrepreneurship, but the overall quality of all my classes has taken a nosedive. Even as a resident assistant working a part-time job and overloading with five courses (instead of the recommended four), I’ve found myself hardly doing anything most days. Whole weeks have gone by where I’ve hardly broken a sweat.
My curriculum before the pandemic was rigorous but manageable. Now it feels as though Babson is filling the time with whatever passes as an education until the pandemic is over, so they can get back to the “real” classes.
— Nicholas Leone, Babson College, business
Hard Times Call for Softer Standards
This semester, Vanderbilt University merged in-person and remote learning in an attempt to give students something approaching the traditional college experience. The administration hoped to tighten up academic standards again after they were significantly loosened in the spring.
But Vanderbilt’s efforts did little to restore normalcy. Students like me were forced to spend 12 to 16 hours staring at screens every day. The heightened stress and emotional weight of the pandemic made meeting rigorous academic standards difficult to meet.
Results of a 2,300-student survey conducted by the Vanderbilt Student Government are startling: 69.5% of students reported mental-health issues and 94.5% preferred pass-fail grading this semester. Vanderbilt ignored pleas for pass-fail grading, likely fearing it would “dumb down” classes.
Insisting on traditional academic standards during nontraditional times sets students up for failure. Many of us feel like we’re about to break. Relaxing standards a little would actually allow us to meet our academic goals during this otherwise crazy time. More, it would demonstrate the university’s dual commitment to quality education and student well-being—neither of which can exist without the other.
— Danny Nguyen, Vanderbilt University, molecular and cellular biology
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December 16, 2020 at 06:22AM
https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-remote-learning-an-easy-a-11608074549
Is Remote Learning an ‘Easy A’? - The Wall Street Journal
https://news.google.com/search?q=easy&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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