The following is an interview with an anonymous student at Texas State University.

What is your experience with remote learning (if any) prior to COVID-19?

Prior to COVID-19, I was enrolled in at least one remote learning class, per semester. My very first experience was a hybrid class for my educational technology course. I enjoyed the fact that we were able to meet every other week or two in a classroom session to learn new material and generate ideas for discussions on projects we would be working on while away from the face to face classroom environment. Really impactful with that Ed Tech hybrid course was the opportunity to reflect on our assignments when completed, in the classroom setting when returning to the face to face setting. This caused students to learn from their mistakes and that of others. Ideas were generated for future improvements in that communal setting, creating community among learners.

I was also able to participate in two fully online Ed Tech courses and 1 math course prior to COVID-19. The intensity in student learning objectives were definitely different. Greater organization was required, because within the designated weekly modules there were greater expectations, of actual assignments (formative assessments) to showcase new material students were exposed to was understood; reading assignments that students had to then engage in discussions on forum posts, or group work discussions, all of which required greater levels of engagement, that were not required of a once per week face to face course.

At what moment in class did you feel most engaged with what was happening?

With the hybrid Ed Tech course, I was most engaged at the moments of sharing the experiences working on our assignments/projects. We were able to deeply reflect on how we could have improved on our assignments, while looking at our accomplishments and receiving feedback from other classmates of how we could improve. I found that process creative and impactful. Similarly, for fully online classes, the discussion forums were just as impactfully for the same reasons. This process really created community.

At what moment in class were you most distanced from what was happening?

I must note though that the logic math course had limited experiences to learn from students within the course, which left me feeling isolated as a student, and sometimes made the course seem insurmountable. Furthermore, I recognized that spacing between deadline dates for assignments and between forum post made forum post most resourceful. If the deadline for post and assignments were on similar deadlines, students felt overwhelmed and chose completing the assignment, impacting the enrichment experience of discussion posts, leading to a disconnect in learning experiences.

What action from teachers or students did you find most affirming or helpful?

Professors that took time to create that safe community of learning, by having students post pictures and share personal stories of their background, and seeing professors set the examples of sharing their stories were affirming, especially to non-traditional students who may feel like they don’t belong. This was done by my Ed Tech and Dev Ed professors. Similarly, the sharing of ideas for generating assignments with writing prompts in forum posts were other affirming actions by my Dev Ed professor for online courses.

What action from teachers or students did you find most puzzling or confusing?

Students that would post their grievances with an assignment or another classmates post(s) in a forum post, rather than e-mailing the professor privately.

What about the class surprised you the most?

Being one that tries to avoid conflict, I must admit that those conflict moments were also learning experiences. Other classmates were sometimes able to have the student with the grievances see the perspective of others that they probably never considered, strengthening the learning community by building conflict resolution skills required in all organizations.

How did the format of your classes change after moving to remote learning?

(Asynchronous vs. synchronous, discussion forums vs. real time discussion, etc.)
During COVID-19 my face-to-face statistic class changed to a synchronous: Zoom meeting class at the same class periods assigned to the face to face meeting. The professor asked some questions based on his notes that we followed during these zoom meetings when he shared his screen.

How, and how often, do you communicate with your instructors in your remote classes? (Email, phone, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.)

We had classes twice per week, Monday and Wednesday 5-6:30pm. Outside of class, the professor made himself available during his office hours and once requested early by e-mail, other opportunities existed to meet with him also via Zoom.

How, and how often, do you communicate with fellow students in your remote classes? (Email, phone, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.)

I never had opportunities for communicating with other students in this math statistics class. Besides the first day introduce yourself, major, and career plans, no other attempts were made to encourage community among students. There were clearly groups of students that knew each other from other classes, but newer students to the course, like myself felt neglected and not part of the community, especially being a non-traditional student, not having been in a math class for over 15 years. Attempts should be made to make additional resources available to students via Canvas.

How did discussions change before and after remote teaching? What made them work as well (or not)?

There were changes in discussions after the change to remote teaching. The professor had to call on students to solicit answers pre-remote teaching, during remote teaching students were more willing to ask questions. My statistics professor’s traditional style of direct teaching, caused him to sometimes make board visuals obscure and remote teaching causes visuals to be more visible to engage students in asking and answering questions. In addition, students had choices in mediums of asking questions, using chats, turning video off in class to ask question. These factors encouraged further engagement, but professors need to encourage further opportunities for engagement like short pop quizzes, breakout rooms to discuss questions or concepts approaches to solve questions, even google forms for quick student reflections to share or student assessment of topic understanding near a class ending.

What unique challenges did you and/or your fellow students face? (i.e. disabilities, technology, home/work situation, geographic location, etc.) How did your instructor handle these challenges?

I think because I had experience with online courses, I was better able to manage my time, but it was overwhelming doing three online courses at the same time, with the logistics of my own children being introduced to remote learning, not have the discipline, or being exposed to some of the new tools. I also thought about the synchronous format of my statistics class worked well for me, but what about students who had disabilities: visual in particular as we had to follow his notes on his screen he shared. Some students needed to print those notes ahead of time to be able to add to his statistics notes in class and some did not have access to a printer, as they relied on campus printers. Some students at times had internet connection and reliability issues and missed parts of the class, but the professor provided recordings of classes that students could access later. Assignments had to be handwritten and scanned and e-mailed, but resources were not provided for students to ensure all students had options of assignment submission. I believe my professor made some adjustments in test timing to ensure submission time could be factored and he model the day before test what students could do to submit test papers on the test day.

Anything else you’d like to address?

I would like to remind professors of the importance of creating learning communities that would encourage student engagement, persistence, motivation and ultimate academic success in both undergraduate and graduate students. Also, of utmost importance is professors getting to know their students and making their material culturally relevant based on their student body, being aware of their student demographics, and traditional versus nontraditional students.