Ross E. O'Hara: Online-learning advice for college students

From The New England Journal of Higher Education, a service of The New England Board of Higher Education (nebhe.org)

BOSTON

The majority of college students were largely disappointed by remote learning this past spring, with many reporting a strong preference for in-person instruction. Bearing in mind the low expectations that many students carried into online courses this fall, what advice can we give to help them succeed in this final month? As colleges across New England and the country continue to announce spring plans that include online courses, what can we share to prepare students for success in 2021?

While the internet is saturated with “hacks” for online learning, I want to connect you with the best experts I know: Students.

Since March, the Persistence Plus mobile nudging support platform has asked more than 25,000 students from both two- and four-year institutions about their experiences with remote learning. Specifically, we gathered their advice about how to excel in this format, and I saw four key themes emerge. I have also paired their insights with science-based exercises that can be shared with students to bolster their motivation and improve their performance in online courses.

1. Set a schedule. The most frequently offered advice was the need to set a regular schedule—especially in asynchronous courses—and stick to it. Several students mentioned examining the syllabus for major assignments and noting due dates in advance, working ahead on those assignments to the extent possible and regularly checking email and the course website. Here’s some of what they said:

• “Make a schedule for classes, study time, completion of assignments, breaks, etc., and build enough discipline to stick to the schedule.”

• “Make a schedule for time to study. Prioritize due dates on assignments and exams. It is not as difficult as you may think. Discipline and focus is key.”

• “Work as far ahead as possible, get assignments done as soon as you get them so you don’t have to worry about it, and set a scheduled time each day to work on school.”

• “Write everything down and log into your classes and email to check for new reminders and announcements every day.”

One way that students can go beyond just setting a schedule is with “if-then” plans. We all naturally underestimate how long it takes to complete projects (known as the planning fallacy). To counteract this optimism, students can make very specific plans for when and where they will work on assignments (for example, “I will read Chapter 1 at the dining room table after my daughter goes to sleep on Wednesday night.”) The more specific they are, the more likely they are to follow through.

Yet the best-laid schemes of mice and men oft go awry. Students should also develop contingency plans for common obstacles (such as “If my daughter doesn’t fall asleep by 9 p.m., then I will read Chapter 1 before she wakes up the next morning.”) No one can foresee the future, but anticipating the most likely problems and pre-designing solutions will help students stay on track. You can facilitate students’ if-then plans by prompting them to complete the exercise via an email, a poll within your institution’s learning management system, or even providing space in the syllabus to craft if-then plans for each big assignment.

2. Create a study space. Students noted how important it is to have a quiet, peaceful (but not too relaxing!) area for schoolwork. The goal of such a space is to create focus without inducing grogginess. They suggested:

• “Find a place where you can be composed and stay focused with your priorities.”

• “If you can, set aside someplace that is specially for school work so that you can focus when doing work and then relax when you go to bed (if you only have space in your bedroom then just make sure not to do work on your bed, work only on your desk).”

• “Find a place in your home to go that is designated to your studies.”

• “Don’t attend virtual classes in bed! Try working at a table or desk for effective productivity. Working in your bed allows you to be too comfortable and can cause you to fall asleep or lose focus.”

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, this area is most likely within students’ homes. But as we all know, our homes are often crowded with partners, children, parents and roommates. One advantage of a dedicated space is that it sends a signal that this person is studying and shouldn’t be interrupted. Moreover, a regular study space takes advantage of state-dependent memory. When you learn something, cues from the environment become associated with it: the feel of your chair, the smell of the room, the taste of your coffee, even your mood at that moment. If students put themselves into those same circumstances when they need to recall that information (i.e. for the exam), they’ll be more likely to remember.

3. Ask for help. We heard over and over that students must reach out for help, especially from their professors, if they get stuck. If you’re a professor but you might be difficult to reach (you’re dealing with plenty of crises too!) build a system that makes it easy for students to connect with other faculty, former students, campus tutors, tech support and each other. Students advised:

• “Don’t be afraid to email professors and/or classmates/peers for understanding of the coursework and/or additional assistance.”

• “Professors make it very easy, they work with you and they provide all the resources you need to be successful. Don’t forget to ask questions.”

• “Make group messages with your peers so you can keep each other on track, and ask each other questions.”

• “Don’t be afraid to reach out to classmates and ask for help. Everyone is going through it together and supporting each other through it is what makes it work.”

Asking for help makes some students feel nervous or embarrassed. One way to circumvent those feelings is to use simple role reversal. Instead of asking someone else for advice, students can imagine that one of their classmates came to them with the same issue. Students can then consider what they would advise their peer to do, or whom they would point them to for help. This role-playing can make students less anxious by approaching their own problem from a neutral perspective, make them feel more empowered, and help them generate potential solutions that they may not otherwise see.

4. Be accountable. Finally, students noted that success in online courses requires a lot of self-discipline and accountability. The physical and emotional distance between students and their professors can make it all the easier to skip assignments or not participate in class. They noted:

• “It’s all about being on top of your work and holding yourself accountable. If you can handle online college classes, you can handle college.”

• “Don’t put off projects and homework just because the deadline isn’t for a little while, you will forget and have to rush to finish it so just do it or start it (and do a good amount of the work) as soon as it is assigned.”

• “Study just like you would if you were taking the class in a classroom. No matter where you are learning from, the same level of effort and focus is expected.”

It is challenging to maintain focus on learning online, while also working (or looking for work), raising children and dealing with life’s other responsibilities. One practice that may help students concentrate is to engage in 5-10 minutes of expressive writing before working on school. Ask students to privately jot down everything in their life that is worrying or stressing them out, and write specifically about how each one makes them feel. Rather than suppressing or ignoring their emotions, releasing them on paper lessens their impact and will allow students to better focus on learning or performing. They can even crumple up that piece of paper and toss it in a recycling bin, symbolically discarding those intrusive thoughts so they can get down to business.

Despite our general comfort level with technology, most of us are still unacquainted with experiencing most of our lives online, and things won’t be that much better as we continue remote learning into 2021. While students study algebra, or 20th Century European history or computer coding, remember that they’re still adapting to a whole new way of learning, and that’s not easy. So please pass along advice from our college experts to your students and their instructors so they may be better prepared for any eventual roadblock.

Ross E. O’Hara is director of behavioral science and education at Persistence Plus LLC, which is based in Boston.

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Angel B. Perez: Race, class and 'uncomfortable learning'

Colleges and universities have a significant role to play in shaping the future of race and class relations in America. As exhibited in this year’s presidential election, race and class continue to divide us. Black Lives Matter movements, campus protests and police shootings are just a few examples of the proliferation of intolerance. It seems like we understand each other less each day. Higher education has a moral imperative to become the training ground for issues that students will face throughout their lives. Given the increasing diversity of higher education, there has never been a greater opportunity to address race and class.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 20.5 million students are expected to attend college this year. These students will be entering a postsecondary landscape unlike any other; 14.5% of students in college are Black and 16.5% Hispanic. While low-income students still enroll at lower rates, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that 46% of America’s traditional college-age people who are low-income are now enrolled in college. Colleges are beginning to reflect America’s diversity and this presents an opportunity for cultivating understanding.

Universities are microcosms of the world we inhabit. However, campus interactions can be more intense than those outside academia. For many, stepping through the doors of higher education could be the first time they are confronted with engaging difference. Low-income students will now be eating, working, living and playing with wealthy students. Students who grew up in predominantly white communities will now live in residence halls with students from all over the globe. While it’s an incredible opportunity for exchange, it’s also easy for misunderstandings to lead to conflict.

The first thing higher education must do is help students understand that life in college is challenging. What’s often lost in conversations about safe spaces and trigger points is the acknowledgement that college is where students go to leave their comfort zones. Being uncomfortable actually helps them grow. In fact, former Williams College Prof.  Robert Gaudino, a political scientist and experiential educationalist, dedicated most of his career to helping students engage “uncomfortable learning.” He believed that putting students in uncomfortable situations and forced to confront their own beliefs, values and “habits of mind” was the key to their growth and success.

Confronting race and class in college is hard, but the results can be transformative. Recently, I hired a young African-American student as a research assistant. She told me about a powerful experience she had in college when called the “N” word by a white peer. Her outrage was evident, but given the small size of our institution, she ironically ended up in a class about race with this student. Through intentional class discussions and heated debates, the two have now reconciled and are friends. The young man acknowledged his own ignorance and has been transformed by the experience. While their journey was unpleasant, both students were forced to deal with the implications. The structure that college provided them created a space for them to turn anger, and bias into learning and mutual understanding.

Administration plays a significant role in setting the stage for dialogue. In fact, much of their work impacts issues of race and class each day. They can use the admissions and financial aid process to socially engineer a campus that represents the diversity of the nation. They can create orientation programs that cultivate cross-cultural interactions and engage students in conversations that challenge beliefs. The way colleges construct everything from their residential life policies to extracurricular activities, can have an impact on how students engage difference.

I recall my own experience as a first-generation low-income student who was placed in a dorm room with a wealthy, white male (the first I had ever met). We spent a year engaged in interactions about our differences. We both made so many assumptions about each other, (often wrongly so), but we learned so much because of the way the college provided a platform and support for us to do so.

Faculty also play a pivotal role in campus conversations. Addressing issues of race and class are often delegated to sociologists, anthropologists and historians, but campuswide change happens when all faculty see race and class as an opportunity for pedagogical engagement. Race and class are omnipresent and its realities don’t go away when a student walks through a classroom door. The willingness of faculty to incorporate these issues into curriculum and navigate conversations when they arise could also change how students engage difference.

Last semester, I taught a course with a mix of students of color and majority students, as well as low-income and wealthy students. One day, they were visibly upset about the fact that some students had written “Trump 2016” in chalk around campus. This created a lot of emotion for students of color and confusion for majority students. I immediately went “off script,” and moderated a difficult conversation. I passed over the day’s planned course content, but the issue was important. There was no solution, but the greatest gift of the conversation was when students on both sides of the argument admitted they had never thought of the issue from the other’s perspective.

As the demographics of the U.S. change, that of those who walk through the doors of higher education also shifts, and we have a moral imperative to socially construct the platform for students to learn how to engage difference. The 20.5 million students in higher education will impact our future. In his book The Uses of the University, Clark Kerr, former president of the University of California, reminds us that “as society goes, so goes the university.” He believed the university has a responsibility to meet the urgent demands of society. The deliberate creation of platforms that support students through cultivation of spaces and interactions about difference can shape our nation’s future. This is no small task, but society has spoken. It’s now higher education’s turn to respond.

Angel B. Perez is vice president of enrollment and student success at Trinity College.

Chris Powell: Due process under attack in Connecticut

Liberalism in Connecticut used to stand for due process of law, but not anymore.

Increasingly liberalism in Connecticut stands instead for mere political correctness, as signified by two liberal causes advancing through the General Assembly.

The first is legislation to require colleges to expel male students who can’t prove themselves innocent of non-criminal accusations of sexual assault made by female students -- can’t prove that their sexual relations were entirely consensual. This is being called "affirmative consent." Under "affirmative consent" such innocence is unlikely to be proved without sworn and notarized receipts from the sexual partner or comprehensive video-recording.

The legislation arises from the difficulty in proving sexual assault in the college environment, clouded as it is by youthful recklessness, drug and alcohol intoxication, and childish jealousy. In such an environment there are many rapes but little proof, usually only contradictory assertions that can’t be verified. As a result police seldom can document and prosecutors prove criminal charges in court.

Hence the clamor from the women’s side to discard requirements for proof and settle for guilt by accusation. If men can’t be criminally convicted in court with due process of law and proof beyond reasonable doubt, at least they can be thrown out of college with a record that will impair them for the rest of their lives.

Of course some men may deserve this, but others may not, as there are always false or exaggerated accusations. Further, without due process the public’s understanding of justice will be greatly diminished.

If the "affirmative consent" legislation is enacted, it will warn men that they have no defense against sexual-assault accusations on campus and that they engage in sex there at great peril. This is exactly what women on campus should be told -- that many men, even seemingly nice ones, are actually predators, especially during their college years, and that all men must be regarded with great caution before establishing an intimate relationship.

The law is about to discard due process on campus because women students have been told all this, have been warned about their vulnerability, but refuse to heed the warning, their refusal having been encouraged by irresponsible complaints that to warn them constitutes "blaming the victim."

So now due process is to be blamed instead.

Discarded on campus, due process will be more at risk elsewhere, as Connecticut’s liberals also are striving to discard it amid accusations of domestic abuse or violence. Their legislation in that respect would authorize police, before any hearing in court, to confiscate guns owned by anyone against whom a court issues a temporary restraining order. That is, there would be punishment before not just trial and conviction but even before a hearing.

Advocates of the legislation cite the 2014 murder of a woman in Oxford by her husband, who was the subject of a court order to stay away from her and to surrender his guns. He disobeyed the order, but the pending legislation would not have made any difference.

For men resolved to harm their wives or girlfriends will not be deterred by mere court orders. They will be deterred only by swift prosecution and police protection for those they threaten.

But swift prosecution and police protection would cost money, and even the advocates of punishment before conviction in domestic abuse cases don’t want to spend it. By discarding due process instead, they can strike their PC poses for free.

Insisting on due process always puts one at risk of getting called names -- "misogynist" may be the one hurled here -- but even Connecticut liberals once had the courage to quote the late Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter’s remark that "the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people."

Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer,  in Manchester, Conn.