Dis-engagement, Mis-engagement

Over a couple of past posts here and here, we discussed issues of adaptation to a “new normal” in classroom behavior. Nationally, there is much talk about newly-detected disengagement of students in the learning environment of universities. The issues are not only present at Georgetown, but appear to be a more global phenomenon, certainly prevalent in other US universities.

Since those posts, I’ve had more opportunities to speak both to students and faculty.

Undergraduates repeatedly emphasize the importance of the COVID pandemic in their lives. They note that they had not experienced such a shock to their individual lives before the 2020 event. (Note: they have no personal memories of the experience of September 11, 2001; they were young children during the 2008-2009 Great Recession). The relative importance of the pandemic disruption appears much larger to these students than to our faculty colleagues, on the whole.

They have vivid memories of taking online courses in high school or at Georgetown. Most experienced this in isolation of their fellow students. They appreciated the liberalized pass-fail rules, flexibility of completing assignments on time, support of missed classes, and understanding of lack of engagement in class. Some students, often despite pleas by faculty, routinely terminated their video feed during classes. They noticed their classmates eye movements and felt many others were involved in other online tasks. They reported that disengagement, while not desired, was a common feature of the remote learning environment.

These same students report real difficulties in returning to in-class experiences after the online semesters during the height of the pandemic. The rules of the game seemed quite different, sometimes in ways that they had forgotten. In contrast to zoom classes, showing up to class becomes more important because few classes are recorded for later viewing. The instructor is right in front of them; they can tell when the instructor is looking at them. Students are in close proximity, in contrast to the two-dimensional pixeled image of both the instructor and fellow classmates. In some sense, the other students were much more real than was true on Zoom.

In short, they felt somewhat ill-prepared to adopt the in-person student role. They felt they needed to return to experiences that were far away in their educational experience. There were stresses of getting used to the “culture” of the in-person class.

On the faculty side, when some of our colleagues perceived a change in the student behavior, they find it helpful to become much more explicit about how classes will be run. Some of our colleagues, especially in first-year classes, have reviewed the basic features of the student role for an in-person class — taking notes on the content of the class is a useful tool to capture key points and stimulate memories; there are no stupid questions; ask them in class because other students probably have the same question; you will learn much from listening carefully to other students’ questions/comments. When you’re doing the reading, force yourself to form questions about the reading; don’t read just to finish the assignment; read for comprehension (taking notes or adding comments on the reading helps).

At the beginning of the semester, CNDLS sent out a useful set of guidance. One reference they recommended, from the Chronicle, had practical suggestions, like forming small groups of students (2-3) to work together early in the class (as a way to break down barriers between students). It suggested allowing students opportunities to share their expertise early in the class, doing something to build community; getting to know one another through short greetings between adjacent students. It argued that faculty should do something to stimulate curiosity in the topic, proffering a fascinating unanswered question. It suggested that faculty speak about themselves or describe their research passions as a way of humanizing the role of instructor.

In short, we’ve all been changed both by the trauma of the pandemic and by an abrupt change of medium of instruction while the universities were closed down. For faculty, returning to in-class practices used in fall, 2019, might seem straightforward. For students, maybe not so. There seems to be more value at this moment in discussing how best to learn in the class. It seems logical that this be a dialogue between faculty and students, class by class, respecting each other’s perspective on this thing we call the in-person classroom.