Student Union
- By Zohra Moradi
Students Criticize Online Learning as Inadequate
Online learning has been grossly inadequate during the 2020-'21 COVID-19 shutdown, according to college and university students interviewed by VOA Student Union.
Domestic and international students at U.S. colleges and universities said the pandemic that shut down many schools in March 2020 disrupted their lives and impacted their academic performance. And online learning, despite being touted by online learning companies, has not lived up to the hype, they say.
Students say they are desperate to return to on-campus learning. They point to living in the dorms, socializing, and establishing relationships with professors and mentors as essential parts of the college experience.
Frozan Tahiry is a rising sophomore from Afghanistan who was accepted as a freshman at Wagner College in New York starting in Fall 2020. But she never made it to campus, instead finishing her freshman class online at home in Kabul.
"In Afghanistan, the electricity outage has been a huge issue that stressed me out. I had to come up with a backup plan in case I lost electricity, like getting solar system generators. And the poor Wi-Fi connection has been another issue. I missed five minutes of class to get on, and throughout the class, the connection was on and off," she said.
"I feel like I have been living in two different worlds but in neither of them properly because of the time zone differences. My day and night were completely shifted. I took my classes at night and slept during the day, so it disturbed my social life," she said.
For her, learning is not all about academics: Interaction with peers is also important.
She doesn't know her classmates because it was not required for students to keep their cameras on during remote learning.
"I couldn't have dinner with my family because I was in class. And I couldn't see them in the morning because when they got up, I was going to bed because I was staying up all night to attend online classes," Tahiry continued.
She said she hopes to come to the U.S. to resume her classes in person during the fall semester 2021.
According to Inside Higher Ed's Student Voice survey, in partnership with College Pulse and supported by education company Kaplan Inc., nearly half all students (47%) rated their educational value as "fair" or "poor."
"When the pandemic started it was very stressful because we had no idea what was going on with COVID and how unsafe we were, so nothing was enjoyable," said Jack Morningstar, a rising senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who moved off campus in March 2020.
"Having access to Zoom and other platforms was helpful to get through this time, but it was still hard," he said.
Even more frustrating was when Morningstar returned to campus in August 2020, and after just a week of classes, the university announced that all undergraduate instruction would move online because of a COVID outbreak. This made national headlines as UNC's 30,000 students — including 1,254 international scholars from 79 countries — were forced to return to remote learning.
Normally a motivated student, Morningstar said he did not pay attention and didn't care as much about his studies.
"It wasn't a very conducive environment for learning," he said, admitting that during online classes he was often on his computer scrolling Facebook.
"I feel more pressure to participate in person because there is more accountability. You are talking in front of many people, whereas online you're staring at your computer screen," he said.
"And I definitely would participate more when classes are in person."
Nawal Khrram faced a similar situation, staying at home in Pakistan, feeling isolated, and studying online for fall semester of freshman year 2020. She arrived at Trinity College in Connecticut in spring 2021.
"I didn't have any social life for the first semester because I was studying online, and I was not aware of the opportunities such as clubs and organizations that students are involved in," Khrram said.
Even when she came to the U.S. and lived on the Trinity campus, she continued class online because the college did not offer her classes in person.
"I really felt the need to talk to my classmates and discuss some of the topics with them. I am a political science major, so my major heavily depends on discussions and debate over political issues," she said.
"Although we had small breakout rooms on Zoom to get engaged in class discussions, it was not the same as traditional in-person classrooms."
Natahsa Nash, a rising junior at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which made online learning difficult. She said she felt isolated in her college dorm room. With in-person classes, on the other hand, she found ways to stay engaged because she was interested in the materials and class discussions.
"Online learning didn't feel the same, even if I left my dorm room and set up my computer outdoors. I felt very disengaged because of the format itself," said Nash.
The most difficult thing was losing her support system.
"I usually get support by going to public places with background noise. I need to be with friends because I get a lot of energy from social activities. So I just felt very low energy and low mood, and it was really hard to find the energy to do homework," she said.
Nash's social life got sidetracked by COVID, but she said she was still able to see some of her friends on campus and grab meals while sitting six feet apart.
She is hopeful the upcoming semester will mark a return to normal.
"People like me who have trouble with online learning would need a few years to figure out all the new strategies," she concluded.
Despite these negative experiences, educators in the U.S. are betting on the future of online learning. According to Business Wire, the e-learning market in the U.S. is expected to grow by $21.64 billion between 2020 and 2024, fueled, in part, by COVID.
But Forbes Magazine predicts that online college education will not overtake traditional learning and will remain "more of a backup than a daily alternative or competitive replacement."
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Tips for first-year international students in the US
Book your flights right away, get a U.S. phone plan, make sure you have linens for your dorm and attend orientation – that’s some of the advice international students have for first-year college students coming from abroad.
U.S. News & World Report compiled helpful tips for students studying in the United States for the first time. (July 2024)
Survey: Social integration, career prep are important to international students
A recent survey of international students in the United States found that before starting school, they were concerned about personal safety, making friends and feeling homesick.
Inside Higher Ed reports that international students want specialized orientations, peer connections, career preparation and job placement to help make their college experiences successful. (July 2024)
US advisory council ends Nigeria visit, signs student exchange deal
Members of a U.S. presidential advisory council have approved a student exchange deal between an American college and a Nigerian university as part of the council's effort to strengthen collaboration on education, health, entrepreneurship and development between Africa and Africans living abroad.
The council also visited a health facility supported by the United States Agency for International Development in the capital.
Nigerian authorities and visitors chatted with members of the U.S President's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement as they toured a healthcare facility in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, on the last day of the council's three-day visit to Abuja and Lagos.
The facility is one of many supported by the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, to improve the management of childhood illnesses, family planning, immunization and delivery.
The tour was part of the council's effort to promote African diaspora-led investments in technology entrepreneurship, education and healthcare delivery.
"They're doing a phenomenal job there, it really gave us a sense of what the healthcare system is in Nigeria," said Deniece Laurent-Mantey, executive director of the advisory council. "This is our first trip as a council to the continent and we chose Nigeria for a reason — the diaspora in Nigeria is very active, very influential, and they're really a source of strength when it comes to our U.S.-Africa policy. And so for us coming to Nigeria was very intentional."
The council was created by President Joe Biden in September to improve collaboration between Africa and its diaspora in terms of economic and social development.
Akila Udoji, manager of the Primary Healthcare Centre of Karu, said officials in Nigeria were pleased that the council members were able to visit.
"We're happy that they have seen what the money they have given to us to work with has been used to do, because they have been able to assist us in capacity-building, trainings, equipment supply and the makeover of the facility," Udoji said.
Earlier, the council signed a deal for a student exchange program between Spelman College in the southern U.S. city of Atlanta and Nigeria's University of Lagos.
Laurent-Mantey said education exchanges are one of the council's top priorities.
"In Lagos, we had the president of Spelman College — she's also a member of our council — she signed an agreement with the University of Lagos to further education exchange programs in STEM and creative industries between those two universities," Laurent-Mantey said. "And I think for us it's very important, because Spelman College is a historically Black university, and so here we are promoting the importance of collaboration between African Americans and Africans."
In March, the advisory council adopted its first set of recommendations for the U.S. president, including the student exchange initiative, advocating for more U.S. government support for Africa, climate-focused initiatives, and improving U.S. visa access for Africans.
The council met with Nigerian health and foreign affairs officials during the visit before leaving the country on Wednesday.
American Academy of the Arts College announces closure
The American Academy of Art College in Chicago announced it would be closing after 101 years of preparing students for careers in art and illustration.
WTTW news reported that like other art colleges, the academy saw enrollment drop after the pandemic, and officials made the decision to close the college last month. (July 2024)
5 killed, dozens injured in clashes over Bangladesh jobs quota system
At least 5 people were killed and dozens injured in two separate incidents in Bangladesh as violence continued Tuesday on university campuses in the nation's capital and elsewhere over a government jobs quota system, local media reports said quoting officials.
At least three of the dead were students and one was a pedestrian, the media reports said. Another man who died in Dhaka remained unidentified.
The deaths were reported Tuesday after overnight violence at a public university near Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. The violence involved members of a pro-government student body and other students, when police fired tear gas and charged the protesters with batons during the clashes, which spread at Jahangir Nagar University in Savar, outside Dhaka, according to students and authorities.
Protesters have been demanding an end to a quota reserved for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971, which allows them to take up 30% of governmental jobs.
They argue that quota appointments are discriminatory and should be merit-based. Some said the current system benefits groups supporting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Some Cabinet ministers criticized the protesters, saying they played on students' emotions.
The Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily newspaper reported that one person died in Dhaka and three others, including a pedestrian, were killed after they suffered injuries during violence in Chattogram, a southeastern district, on Tuesday.
Prothom Alo and other media reports also said that a 22-year-old protester died in the northern district of Rangpur.
Details of the casualties could not be confirmed immediately.
While job opportunities have expanded in Bangladesh's private sector, many find government jobs stable and lucrative. Each year, some 3,000 such jobs open up to nearly 400,000 graduates.
Hasina said Tuesday that war veterans — commonly known as "freedom fighters" — should receive the highest respect for their sacrifice in 1971 regardless of their current political ideologies.
"Abandoning the dream of their own life, leaving behind their families, parents and everything, they joined the war with whatever they had," she said during an event at her office in Dhaka.
Protesters gathered in front of the university's official residence of the vice chancellor early Tuesday when violence broke out. Demonstrators accused the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a student wing of Hasina's ruling Awami League party, of attacking their "peaceful protests." According to local media reports, police and the ruling party-backed student wing attacked the protesters.
But Abdullahil Kafi, a senior police official, told the country's leading English-language newspaper Daily Star that they fired tear gas and "blank rounds" as protesters attacked the police. He said up to 15 police officers were injured.
More than 50 people were treated at Enam Medical College Hospital near Jahangir Nagar University as the violence continued for hours, said Ali Bin Solaiman, a medical officer of the hospital. He said at least 30 of them suffered pellet wounds.
On Monday, violence also spread at Dhaka University, the country's leading public university, as clashes gripped the campus in the capital. More than 100 students were injured in the clashes, police said.
On Tuesday, protesters blocked railways and some highways across the country, and in Dhaka, they halted traffic in many areas as they vowed to continue demonstrating until the demands were met.
Local media said police forces were spread across the capital to safeguard the peace.
Swapon, a protester and student at Dhaka University who gave only his first name, said they want the "rational reformation of the quota scheme." He said that after studying for six years, if he can't find a job, "it will cause me and my family to suffer."
Protesters say they are apolitical, but leaders of the ruling parties accused the opposition of using the demonstrations for political gains.
A ruling party-backed student activist, who refused to give his name, told The Associated Press that the protesters with the help of "goons" of the opposition's Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami party vandalized their rooms at the student dormitories near the Curzon Hall of Dhaka University.
The family-of-the-veterans quota system was halted following a court order after mass student protests in 2018. But last month, Bangladesh's High Court nulled the decision to reinstate the system once more, angering scores of students and triggering protests.
Last week, the Supreme Court suspended the High Court's order for four weeks and the chief justice asked protesting students to return to their classes, saying the court would issue a decision in four weeks.
However, the protests have continued daily, halting traffic in Dhaka.
The quota system also reserves government jobs for women, disabled people and ethnic minority groups, but students have protested against only the veterans system.
Hasina maintained power in an election in January that was again boycotted by the country's main opposition party and its allies due to Hasina's refusal to step down and hand over power to a caretaker government to oversee the election.
Her party favors keeping the quota for the families of the 1971 war heroes after her Awami League party, under the leadership of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the independence war with the help of India. Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975.
