A November survey of more than 7,000 Ohio State students conducted by the Undergraduate Student Government showed 57 percent of student respondents felt they didn’t understand the material for the courses in which they were enrolled and 58 percent of student respondents felt unmotivated to complete coursework. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Stephen Billingsley felt like he understood the material while his instructors were lecturing in his online classes, but outside of class was a different story.
When it came time for homework, quizzes and exams, the second-year in computer and information science discovered he wasn’t able to retain class information as he had before and, despite studying for hours each day, he ended up failing his calculus midterm.
“It really discouraged me because I try to take pride in the quality of my work, especially when it comes to school,” Billingsley said. “After that, it was like my morale completely dropped. If I’m gonna put all this work into studying for all these classes just for me to fail the class, it’s kind of counterintuitive.”
Billingsley wasn’t alone. A November survey of more than 7,000 Ohio State students conducted by the Undergraduate Student Government showed 57 percent of student respondents felt they didn’t understand the material for the courses in which they were enrolled and 58 percent of student respondents felt unmotivated to complete coursework.
Half of survey respondents reported earning lower grades than they expected; 46 percent went as far as to indicate they felt their academic goals were not as important as in the past.
The survey was sent out to all students by Ohio State Academic Advising and taken near the end of a semester conducted largely through remote instruction, for which only about two-thirds of respondents indicated they felt prepared. The survey found 41 percent of respondents ranked face-to-face classes as their preferred method of instruction over live online classes, asynchronous online classes and hybrid courses.
Malka Steinberg, a second-year in Spanish and linguistics, is one of the students who strongly prefers in-person instruction. She said she considered taking fall semester off entirely, but got excited to return to campus when she learned three of her classes would be hybrid — she wasn’t expecting two of them to meet in person only a quarter of the time.
“I really really value face-to-face conversations with people, like, I have two humanities majors,” Steinberg said. “I love to just talk to people and so not having that in class made classes really boring for me and it felt very monotonous.”
Steinberg said she loves to learn, but attending most of her classes from her dorm room didn’t give her the separation that an environment solely for learning, such as a classroom, would have.
“It just felt harder. Everything. Everything just feels harder now,” Steinberg said.
Nearly 40 percent of survey respondents stated having “no dedicated study space” made it difficult to attend virtual classes. Steinberg said sitting next to her bed and her phone all day while completing schoolwork made it difficult to pay attention, and having the additional option to use notes on most of her quizzes and exams didn’t add much incentive.
“I think the reason I hated [online learning] the most was just that there was so little accountability. And I like to be held accountable,” Steinberg said. “We weren’t forced or mandated to actually learn most of the material and we didn’t get presented as much material, I think, as when we had in-person (classes).”
Steinberg said she eventually decided it wasn’t worth the turmoil to spend another semester mostly online. She is not taking any classes spring semester and found non-university housing in Columbus so she can continue to work and participate in the club women’s handball team, of which she is the president and co-founded her freshman year.
The university encourages students who are struggling with their coursework to reach out to their instructors for additional help and support, university spokesperson Ben Johnson said in an email. He said it was reassuring 73 percent of respondents to the survey felt their instructors were supportive and empathetic.
“We know this year has been challenging for our students, as it has for so many in Ohio and beyond, and we look forward to safely returning to a much more robust campus life as soon as possible,” Johnson said. Student organizations can resume limited in-person events and activities as early as Friday.
While physical isolation has prevailed for the past 11 months, Steinberg’s feeling that virtual classes — when not working for an individual student — aren’t worth the time and tuition is not isolated. Billingsley said as he starts to take harder courses for his major, the possibility of not making it through those classes because of the virtual format is making him question if a break is his best course of action.
“For those difficult classes, I know for a fact that I’m not going to feel comfortable jeopardizing my GPA,” Billingsley said. “If I’m not totally sure that I can succeed in the class virtually … I’d rather just spare myself from that by waiting if that’s what it took.”
Billingsley, Steinberg and many of the survey respondents shared more in common than struggling to pay attention during and retain knowledge from virtual classes.
Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents felt “out of touch” with the Ohio State community, with less than one-third indicating they interacted with peers during class time and only one-fifth interacting outside class time.
This is especially apparent for Billingsley, who changed from the Newark regional campus to the Columbus campus after last spring semester. He said he’s only been to campus in a student capacity three times since then — two of those were for COVID-19 testing and the third was to drop off a book at Thompson Library.
“That was a super bummer because I was so excited I’m finally gonna get to go to main campus and then I haven’t been able to do anything on campus,” Billingsley said.
Steinberg also said she felt disconnected and frustrated with only being able to hang out with her roommates and a few others. She said it was a nice reprieve when the women’s club handball team was allowed to hold a few outdoor practices, but when they were told they couldn’t meet in person again near the end of the semester, that nice feeling was replaced by another — anger at her peers.
“‘How are you so irresponsible and then just rude to the ones of us who are trying hard to follow guidelines?’” Steinberg said.
The start of Ohio State’s fall semester saw a student positivity rate that surpassed 6 percent at one point. COVID-19 prevalence decreased mid-semester, holding steadily at or below 1 percent for the entire month of October before seeing spikes up to about 2.8 percent in November following many large gatherings during Ohio State football games.
Although Steinberg said these large gatherings angered her, seeing them also made her long for pre-pandemic student life, a feeling she summarized with one word: “jealousy.”
