how did your students handle the switch to online education?

[clean]

I had my usual 3 classes this fall.  2 are usually online, and I dont know that there is much to report. However, I was going over the final grades for a class that is usually fully face to face. it was 80% online, meaning that we had to meet face to face at least five times (we met 6).

The grades so far (the final exam is pending) are much worse.  First it seems that 1/3 of the class has dropped already or stopped attending.  That is a particularly high number given that this is a required class for the major. 
I had 2 webex meetings a week.  I never had more than 1/3 of the class attend.  In the end, I was down to only 3 students attending with regularity.  I did record the lectures for later view, but seldom did anyone email to ask questions about the topics I talked about. 
On a tangent, even when people attended the webex, they left their cameras off, so I could not see that they were participating. I would call on them to answer questions and there would be a long pause. I dont know if that means that they were distracted, that there is a longer delay on Webex than there would be on a phone call, or that they were not really paying attention. 

Last year, in an attempt to increase their understanding I began assigning the textbook's online material (mostly I had them work the questions at the back of the book, and I gave them bonus points if they did some of the other work that was available in the book).   I then totaled the scores and divided everyone's score by the 3rd highest grade.  There are grades in the teens and many less 60%. 

I gave 19! online quizzes. The top 10 counted (and again, I divided by the high score, after dropping the NINE lowest grades).  Many didnt even take 10 of the quizzes!! 

Anyway, are you seeing similar inability/unwillingness to even attempt the work assigned as your university moves to online classes as an attempt to deal with the pandemic?

[spork]

I had my usual 3 classes this fall.  2 are usually online, and I dont know that there is much to report. However, I was going over the final grades for a class that is usually fully face to face. it was 80% online, meaning that we had to meet face to face at least five times (we met 6).

The grades so far (the final exam is pending) are much worse.  First it seems that 1/3 of the class has dropped already or stopped attending.  That is a particularly high number given that this is a required class for the major. 
I had 2 webex meetings a week.  I never had more than 1/3 of the class attend.  In the end, I was down to only 3 students attending with regularity.  I did record the lectures for later view, but seldom did anyone email to ask questions about the topics I talked about. 
On a tangent, even when people attended the webex, they left their cameras off, so I could not see that they were participating. I would call on them to answer questions and there would be a long pause. I dont know if that means that they were distracted, that there is a longer delay on Webex than there would be on a phone call, or that they were not really paying attention. 

Last year, in an attempt to increase their understanding I began assigning the textbook's online material (mostly I had them work the questions at the back of the book, and I gave them bonus points if they did some of the other work that was available in the book).   I then totaled the scores and divided everyone's score by the 3rd highest grade.  There are grades in the teens and many less 60%. 

I gave 19! online quizzes. The top 10 counted (and again, I divided by the high score, after dropping the NINE lowest grades).  Many didnt even take 10 of the quizzes!! 

Anyway, are you seeing similar inability/unwillingness to even attempt the work assigned as your university moves to online classes as an attempt to deal with the pandemic?

I haven't done a formal analysis of grades yet, but my impression, based on the spring semester's switch to online instruction, and teaching online courses to undergraduates this semester, is that a very large proportion of them simply are not willing to exert the effort needed to succeed in an online course. This is what you get when a university emphasizes the college "experience" over the "education" in its marketing and operations. Don't know if that's the case with your employer, but it certainly is with mine.

[spork]

Recommending to moderators that this discussion be moved.

[Puget]

I have a direct comparison because I had some discussion/activity sections in person and some on zoom (everyone had lectures asynchronously online-- I essentially flipped the course). We still have one exam and the final project to go, but currently the in person students are averaging half a letter grade higher than the zoom students.

It's not so much the the median is lower for the zoom students, as that there is a cluster of students doing very poorly in those sections, who just seem completely disconnected, are not doing the work, and have poor attendance (and when they are logged in general have cameras off and don't contribute to discussion). Some have home life or mental health problems we know about, but most have not responded to repeated attempts from me or the TAs to meet and help get them back on track, so we really don't know why they are struggling. Some undoubtably would be struggling in a normal semester too, whereas for others online learning is not a good fit or their home situation is causing problems.

Of course, it isn't an experiment-- students self-selected for the most part being on campus vs. not (except the Chinese students who were bared from returning to the US so had no choice). I do suspect that there is some self-selection effect, in that the most engaged, strongest students were the ones most eager to be back on campus despite the requirements for masking, testing, social distancing etc.

[nonsensical]

My students have been doing okay, but I only taught small upper-level seminars this semester, which could account for the difference from what some other posters are saying. A few students seem like they're either struggling or not taking the class particularly seriously, but I don't know that that number would be different if COVID wasn't happening. I'm curious to see what will happen when I start teaching an online lecture course; my guess is that students may be less engaged in those types of courses, especially via Zoom.

Also, would this thread be better in the teaching sub-forum? Could it be moved?

[marshwiggle]

The real important comparison is not between in-person and synchronous virtual; it's between in-person and asynchronous virtual. There are very few advantages of synchronous virtual over face-to-face, but lots of disadvantages. On the other hand, asynchronous virtual has some distinct advantages over face-to-face, as well as some disadvantages. So some students will probably like it better than face-to-face, while probably almost no-one would pick synchronous virtual over face-to-face if they had any real choice.

[Parasaurolophus]

I get the impression that my students prefer it, but from what I can see it's doing them no favours academically. From what I gather, most of them are working more-or-less full-time now that their classes are asynchronous. Synchronous discussion sessions (which are supplementary, not mandatory) have been bleeding attendance all semester, and I'm down to about six blank screens in each one. Prompts, prods, and questions no longer garner any responses whatsoever.

I was just starting to figure out how to get this student population to contribute in class when the pandemic shunted us online. In the last nine months, I have clearly not come anywhere near mastering the skill of fostering quality discussion online. At least, not with this student population. I should probably take some time to rethink things, but I'm sorely tempted to just give up on that front.

[kiana]

The ones who would be failing before still are.

The ones who would be acing before still are.

The intermediate ones tend to be doing pretty badly because they relied on absorption of material from lecture and don't do it on their own.

[mahagonny]

Anyway, are you seeing similar inability/unwillingness to even attempt the work assigned as your university moves to online classes as an attempt to deal with the pandemic?

Yup. Sometimes, but overall, they've been pretty good about it. We're all having an adventure together and there is some feeling of bonding in the face of unexpected vicissitude. But, really, while I appreciate your asking, there's only one endgame: are my student evaluations up to the required number? Because our chair and his coterie have a crappy attitude toward adjunct faculty, and especially so since we've unionized. Some of them really seem to enjoy picking us off.
Or could it be...there might be a sense  of bonding across the great divide of the segmented faculty workforce, for the same reason? Dead end job versus cool career of new phases, one every five years or so? Who knows...

[writingprof]

The ones who would be failing before still are.

The ones who would be acing before still are.

The intermediate ones tend to be doing pretty badly because they relied on absorption of material from lecture and don't do it on their own.

This has been my experience, too.  What it proves, in my opinion, is that the college-is-for-sorting crowd has the strongest argument.  It hardly matters what we ask of our students.*  Some will do it, some won't, and society is provided with information about who's who.

*To be clear, my field requires no real knowledge or expertise; science majors must presumably learn an actual thing or two.

[fourhats]

I'm teaching virtual synchronous, and it's gone really well. The students appreciated the effort put into it, and all have been taking it seriously. We'd all be happier to be in person, but several have told me that they loved the class and others say that they prefer not to be face to face in a pandemic. I don't teach STEM or big lecture classes, so perhaps that is the difference?

[Morden]

I'm teaching virtual asynchronous. I think we're just giving different people an advantage--people who would have done really well in person might be struggling because a lot of their strategies involve learning from the oral tradition of the classroom; others who maybe wouldn't have shown up a lot in a face to face class (but who were doing the reading) are really shining.

[RatGuy]

All of our "hybrid" classes are synchronous. A class was assigned classroom space based on enrollment -- we ran rooms at 1/4 capacity, and if that quarter equaled or was lower than class enrollment, we were allowed to hold in-person sessions (all rooms are equipped with teleconferencing hardware so students can remote attend).

The two sections with fewer than 20 students could meet in class (12 on Monday, 12 on Wed, with some of those students attending both). Students that didn't used Zoom to attend.
The two sections with more than 20 students met synchronously Monday and Wednesday via Zoom.
All 4 classes had similar types of assignments, if not the same material.

In my "in-person" classes, the class averages and medians are similar to Fall 2019 statistics of similar classes. Students who attend both M and W are doing better than others.
The Zoom classes show an inverse bell curve for grades. About 25% of students across both classes have less than 50% attendance. The medians for these classes are significantly lower. Same number of As as Fall 2019.

So it looks like the transition to online hurts poor-performing students the worst: they don't attend, they don't take notes, they don't follow directions. I'll also say that I've had more academic misconduct cases go to the Dean's Office this semester than all of my previous six year combined.

[marshwiggle]

I'm teaching virtual asynchronous. I think we're just giving different people an advantage--people who would have done really well in person might be struggling because a lot of their strategies involve learning from the oral tradition of the classroom; others who maybe wouldn't have shown up a lot in a face to face class (but who were doing the reading) are really shining.

This is kind of what I'd expect. I hope that there is enough evidence of this after covid is past that the students who have benefitted from this aren't forgotten and ignored. The students who thrive under this degree of independence should be supported and encouraged.

[kaysixteen]

Like it or not, colleges probably are going to have to realize something that k12 schools are also going to have to conclude, namely, that for many students (though certainly far from all), the online educational experiences of covid 2020 are going to amount effectively to a wasted year, especially in lower performing schools/ districts, and also lower-quality higher ed institutions, and esp if the student has any learning challenges.   It will not do to ignore or deny this fact, and we will have to deal with it.   Exactly what things need to be done to do that can be discussed, but whatever these things may be, they will take will... and money.