College Students Can't Handle Transition to Online

Now maybe my first mistake was going to Reddit, but I've seen numerous posts from college students crying about having to do their courses online and that it's too hard for them. This includes r/byu. They are praying that their professors give them a pass/fail instead of a letter grade.



I have two middle school kids that have also had to transition to do all of their courses online. Week 1 was a challenge for sure. But they adapted and didn't cry. No pass/fail classes for them. At first the teachers were assigning A LOT of online HW because they were afraid that if they didn't assign enough that it wouldn't count as a school day. Parents and teachers did complain, not to get an easy pass/fail system, but to get a managable workload and everyone at our charter school worked together and has adapted nicely.



Now I don't know the situation of each and every college student and some of them may really be having issues that are greater than what I and my kids are going through. Sure, college level math is going to be harder than middle school math. But man, these reddit college students really live up to the snowflake name. Buck up, adapt, and be grateful that we have the Internet and that you can continue your education.



Do any of you have any experiences as a parent, teacher, or student going to all online coursework?

I teach at a community college. My classes will be moved from the classroom to on the internet. We will meet through Zoom. Really not much different but the students will have to stay engaged and not get distracted doing other things. It depends on what the teacher is doing. I also have true online classes. If you would like to zoom with me, I could meet you or anyone else. I am not doing much this spring break.

I did several online BYU classes and in some cases the classes were pretty easy. In others it was much more difficult to grasp difficult concepts. The lag time between being able to ask a question and get a response is a serious hindrance to learning for STEM classes. Considering BYU is already a much more academically challenging university than other universities it doesn't surprise me at all that students will be struggling.



Also, I have all the respect in the world for you, and I believe many college age students are snowflakes, but to compare middle school kids who spend months learning basic algebra to one of the most rigorous universities in the world is not a good look.

Last night my oldest son told me of a student in one of his classes who, in the middle of the class, got up and went to the bathroom - neglecting to mute the video or audio. The guy didn't close the door and the class heard everything and then the student didn't wash his hands. I guess THAT guy didn't handle the transition well.

hawkwing wrote:

I did several online BYU classes and in some cases the classes were pretty easy. In others it was much more difficult to grasp difficult concepts. The lag time between being able to ask a question and get a response is a serious hindrance to learning for STEM classes. Considering BYU is already a much more academically challenging university than other universities it doesn't surprise me at all that students will be struggling.



Also, I have all the respect in the world for you, and I believe many college age students are snowflakes, but to compare middle school kids who spend months learning basic algebra to one of the most rigorous universities in the world is not a good look.

Yeah, but if these kids belong at one of the most acedmically challenging universities in the nation then they should be smarter than your average kid and should be up for the challenge. You're right that they aren't learning basic algebra. But they had a 3.9 GPA and 30 ACT coming out of high school. Cry me a river. It's their attitude that needs to change. If they're going to be successful in the workplace then they will need to learn to adapt.



Maybe I'm being too harsh and don't have enough empathy. My wife accuses me of that all the time!

We have 9 interns from BYU working in the office at any given time, a few of them post-grad students.



They all pretty much lost their minds the first few days, but now have settled into things and all seem to prefer it (with the exception of post-grad students who are still struggling to work out how to still make lab and research projects happen).



I also have 4 kids at home who had to lurch into the same transition.



The only difference I really saw? (besides the fact that elementary kids need a bit more hand-holding to install and learn how to use the apps/solutions) -- my elementary kids don't have access to social media to air the woe-is-me frustration to the world like the college kids do.



I think the BYU kids I know have handled it as well as they could, but social media rewards the snarky complaint, gripe, or airings of grievances, so even those who handle it well feel the need to demonstrate a bit.

During grad school we had several courses that we COULD do from home if we wished, online was available and the lectures were recorded. Labs were mandatory.



in the end a lot of us preferred the online version in PJs.