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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- By VOA News
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Read the full story here.
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- By Stella Hsu
Reports of visa checks, deportations worry Chinese STEM students in US
Geopolitical tensions and growing competition in tech between the United States and China appear to be spilling over into academia despite commitments from the world’s two biggest economies to boost people-to-people exchanges.
The United States remains the top choice for Chinese students seeking to study abroad with nearly 300,000 studying in American colleges and universities during the 2022-2023 school year. But reports of some cases that students and professors are facing extra scrutiny while passing through immigration and the deportation of others are raising concerns.
For Chen Xiaojin, a doctoral student studying semiconductor materials at a university in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, it has been six years since she returned to her hometown of Beijing.
At first, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that kept her from going home. But over the past two years, she has been deterred by accounts of Chinese students majoring in science and engineering being required to reapply for their visas upon returning to China.
She also says she is worried by reports over the past six months of Chinese students being deported, even at nearby Dulles Airport.
"My current research is relatively sensitive, and my boss [adviser] is getting funds from the U.S. Department of Defense, making it even more sensitive,” she told VOA. "I am afraid that I won't be able to return after I go back [to China]."
Chen says that if she did return to China, she would have to apply for a new visa.
In a report late last month, Bloomberg said it had found at least 20 Chinese students and scholars with valid visas who were deported at U.S. Customs since November and barred from reentry. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency does not release relevant data.
Immigration attorney Dan Berger represented one Chinese student who was deported late last year. He tells VOA Mandarin that the student studied biological sciences at Yale University and was about to complete her doctorate.
She visited her family in China and got a new visa but was deported by customs at Dulles Airport and barred from reentering the country for five years. Berger said he did not see anything suspicious in the transcript of the conversation between the student and the customs officer.
"We have seen what seems like a pattern over the last six months of Chinese PhD students being turned around…. more than I've seen in quite a while," he said.
Matthew Brazil, a fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said neither country seems willing to explain the situation. However, he believes that in most cases, the United States must have valid reasons for blocking visa holders from entering the country.
In some cases, the student’s background may not match what is written on the visa application. In other cases, customs agents may also find something that the State Department missed, and once they see it, they are responsible for taking action.
"I wish the Chinese side would be specific about their students who were refused entry,” he said. “The fact that both sides are mum on details and that the Chinese side is engaged with the usual angry rhetoric means that each has security concerns. And that says to me that there was good reason for the U.S. to stop these particular applicants."
Brazil also sees a connection between the entry denials and export control regulations issued by the United States in October 2022 that restrict China's ability to obtain advanced computing chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and manufacture advanced semiconductors.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is one of the law enforcement agencies authorized to investigate violations of export control regulations, he said.
"Beijing's intelligence agencies are known to focus attention on PRC [People's Republic of China] students and scientists headed abroad who study or work on dual-use technologies controlled under the Export Administration Act — compelling Chinese students and scientists to report on what they've learned when they return to China on holiday,” he said. “This has been true for decades."
Bill Drexel, a fellow for the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said the U.S. government did find some cases where students tried to steal strategic technology for China.
"I think it would both not be surprising that they found some really questionable or incriminating evidence for some students,” he said. “It would also not be surprising if, in their hunt for really solid evidence, they also may have made some mistakes on other students.”
Drexel adds that “it’s just kind of an unfortunate fact of the time that we live in and the tactics that the CCP uses when it comes to these measures."
In a post on X in early May, U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns tried to dispel concerns about visas and entry to the United States for students and scholars. In the post, he said "99.9% of Chinese students holding visas encounter no issues upon entering the United States.”
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Monday, Burns said it is China that is making it impossible to promote people-to-people ties. Burns told the Journal that students attending events sponsored by the United States in China have been interrogated and intimidated.
He also said that since U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s leader Xi Jinping held their summit in San Francisco last year, China’s Ministry of State Security and other agencies had interfered with Chinese citizens’ participation at some 61 events.
At a regular briefing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning dismissed those accusations, saying that they did not “reflect reality" and that went against key understandings reached by both countries’ presidents in San Francisco.
“The United States, under the pretext of 'national security,' unjustifiably harasses, interrogates, and deports Chinese students in the U.S., causing them significant harm and creating a severe chilling effect,” Mao said. “The image of the United States in the minds of the Chinese people fundamentally depends on the actions of the United States itself.”
Drexel said he believes Burns’ comments about visas and students' willingness to study in the U.S. still ring true.
“On balance, it's still the case that American universities are overwhelmingly warm towards Chinese students and want them in large numbers," he said.
However, Berger, the immigration lawyer, is concerned about the chilling effect recent cases involving Chinese students could have.
"In general, we are being more careful about advising Chinese graduate students in STEM fields about traveling and letting them know that there is some small risk,” he said.
Even though the risk is small, it does seem to be real at the moment, he said.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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