The Trouble With Remote Learning

Jennifer Peña/Assistant Opinion Director

As summer A makes way for summer B, students are once again receiving email reminders about SPOT surveys. For me, this means it’s time to really think about the most memorable parts of the past semester. For summer A, what stands out is how my professors handled remote learning.

As someone who’s had a mix of in-person, hybrid and online classes in recent semesters, I’ve had plenty of time to think about my own learning styles. I generally don’t mind the self-reliance that has come with online classes, even before everything became remote. 

Still, something occurred to me lately: not all classes switched to remote learning in the same way. A phenomenon that has come to my peers’ and my attention has been dependence on LinkedIn Learning instead of virtual lectures through Zoom, Microsoft Teams or other platforms. 

As Panthers, we have access to these virtual LinkedIn Learning lessons without having to sign up for a course. Do I learn from them? Usually, yes. But could I have watched them on my own using my FIU student access? Yes again. That’s why I can’t help but feel a bit cheated when a course that was supposed to include lectures relies heavily on LinkedIn Learning lessons instead.  

A remote learning problem for me and several of my peers is that some classes that were meant to be in-person or hybrid have become largely hands-off for the respective professors. With that said, my hope is that more professors would recognize that students still want to learn as much as possible from them. 

As I mentioned before, I don’t mind taking charge of my own learning. However, professor involvement is deemed necessary enough for us to be scheduled to meet once or twice a week in in-person and hybrid classes. When I enroll in one of these courses that’s mandatory for my degree program, I expect to learn from my professors themselves, which is usually the case—but isn’t always. 

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect virtual lectures, if it makes sense for the type of course. Otherwise, I’m left wondering why it was supposed to have lectures in the first place. What would we have done during class meetings if FIU hadn’t transitioned to remote learning?

I already feel that I missed out on important parts of my communications degree program because I couldn’t be on campus, and I’m not the only one. I’ve had to find ways to make production projects work at home, and I lost opportunities to learn how to use equipment that would normally be available to students on campus.

Several of my recent professors haveput in the effort to teach students as much as they could within the confines of Zoom lectures and shared screens. I can only hope that these efforts will be treated as the standard (again, when it makes sense for the nature of the course) to help students feel like they haven’t been left to their own devices.

Featured image by Wall Boat on Flickr.

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