The Year of Distance Learning: Examining the Challenges of Remote Education

What was first thought to only last a few weeks has now gone well past its first anniversary. The impromptu trial with distance learning has transformed comfortable bedrooms into classrooms for over a year now, as students have yet to set foot back on campus.

For many graduating seniors from California State University, Dominguez Hills, meeting their class peers and professors will happen for the first time at their modified graduation ceremony. The burden of a global pandemic has left the CSUDH campus vacated for three semesters now, which for some students can be three-quarters of their university adventure.

For those who will continue to the fall semester, the verdict of in-person synchronous class meetings is still unknown.

The Communications Department at CSUDH is just that, a bureau for communicating, and last Spring 2020, all sectors under the department had to transition to communicating across technological platforms.

Students from all backgrounds have had to undoubtedly struggle with the gaps in technology, at-home distractions, and the overall arduous transition away from the deep-rooted understanding of the educational system.

But it wasn’t just students affected by the new changes, professors also had to recreate the way the educated as they adapted to unfamiliar terrain.

Dr. Fernando Severino is an Assistant Professor at CSUDH for the Communications Department. He has a Ph.D. in Mass Communications from the University of Minnesota and Fall of 2021 will be his third-semester teaching for CSUDH. Severino has a different situation than other professors. He has been teaching virtually from Minnesota, unable to move to Southern California until the Summer of 2021 because of COVID-19.

Remote learning has been “as difficult for the faculty as it has the students,” explained Dr. Severino. But he has made adjustments for his students throughout the semester to help aid them through the difficulties.

“I try to make the classes as engaging and appealing as I can for students, so they don’t get bored,” said Dr. Severino. “I take news quizzes with the class at the start of each session. They are quizzes on recent events, and it gets everyone engaged or at least to use the chatbox.”

Breakout rooms during Zoom meetings are another tool utilized by Dr. Severino to “encourage them to have discussions amongst themselves without as much pressure. It’s difficult for some students to learn in this environment.”

Dr. Severino has made other adjustments in favor of his students, as well. “I stopped making attendance mandatory. I understand that people have things going on in their lives, and I record the classes so they can go back and review when they have the time.

“I don’t make students have their cameras on because I know that isn’t how everyone works. I only encourage them to turn them on now and then throughout the class.”

By week 4, students are notorious for turning their cameras off completely, making it difficult for Dr. Severino to feel the classroom’s engagement. Still, he says, “we are not creating something new. We have to create a new way to be creative.”

In a time filled with stress and uncertainty, Dr. Severino has spared no grace when it comes to his students.

Anne Okula is a 28-year-old transfer student at CSUDH. She received her AA degree in Liberal Arts from Cypress Community College and transferred to CSUDH to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Advertising and Public Relations.

Spring of 2020 was the first semester that Okula attended CSUDH. It began much like any other semester. That was until a month and a half into her first university campus experience, Okula was relocated to an online learning environment that she thankfully was well equipped for.

“I have all the equipment that virtual learning requires, and I quickly learned that I was, in fact, lucky because I witnessed a handful of my fellow classmates struggling without,” said Okula. “But professors were extremely understanding and extended grace throughout the entire semester while still holding us to standards that would benefit us and our learning.”

Dr. Ana de la Serna is an Assistant Professor for Advertising and Public Relations and Journalism at CSUDH. Like most professors at the start of remote learning, Dr. de la Serna had taught online courses before, but was just as new to it as the students were when it came to 100 percent online courses. Dr. de la Serna had to take her leadership role and adapt to uncharted territory as students directed every concern and worry to her.

“I understand that students feel unhappy with online learning,” said Dr. de la Serna. “I see it at home when my son is doing online classes and gets very frustrated. However, as much as we wish we had time to transition and prepare, the situation did not allow us to do that.”

It was just as challenging to handle the sudden change for Dr. de la Serna as it has been for students, but she changed her techniques to accommodate the situation and benefit her students as much as possible in such a bizarre time.

“The most important change I made was to reimagine myself as an instructor,” said de la Serna. “Although I had taught online courses before, the situation we are in is completely different. We didn’t choose to go online because it was more convenient; we went online because there was no choice. Therefore, I went back to the essence of my profession. What do I want students to gain from my course? Practices that worked before were no longer effective. During the Summer of 2020, I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about online teaching. I completed several courses, but I also observed what people find engaging when they go online. I looked at everything, from Coursera and YouTube to Twitter and TikTok.”

Much like Okula is Akshaya Sridharan, a 25-year-old senior at CSUDH, also studying Advertising and Public Relations.

“I felt really lost and very stressed due to my inability to stay organized,” said Sridharan.

“I had to completely change the way I handled my assignments, prepared for tests, kept up with homework, and reached out to fellow students, but I’m grateful I was able to adjust and figure things out. It took me all semester, but at least I was prepared for Fall 2020.”

The negative feelings that COVID-19 has harbored for students are not unnoticed by professors. “I have tried to keep in mind that the situation is difficult for everyone and that we are all trying to do our best during an uncertain time,” said Dr. de la Serna.

“I have worked with students individually so that they can be successful in my courses,” she explained. “To me, a student is successful if they have learned, not so much of they get a certain grade.”

Within virtual learning, Okula has found an important learning lesson.

“Remote learning has taught me good and bad things about myself,” Okula said. “I learned that I am 100 percent not an auditory learner, and I’ve learned a lot about my lack in self-confidence when it comes to completing school assignments.”

Another lesson is that anxiety is a common denominator among students and the virtual learning environment.

“It came from the anxiety of not having quick and direct feedback but rather having to wait days or weeks for teacher input,” said Okula. “To that end, wondering if I have done something correctly can keep me from spending too much time and stress on work that should otherwise be fun and exciting.”

But remote learning is not entirely made up of headaches, hindrances, and hassles.

“Remote learning has taught me how to manage my schedule, stay self-motivated, use my time wisely, and network on social media more than before,” said Sridharan. “I really appreciate it; although, I miss learning in-person and having that concrete connection.”

The CSUDH Communications Department is a composition of skilled professors, passing along their expertise to students who hope to be the world’s great communicators one day. But some skills need to be learned with an exact method, a function that has proven problematic on a virtual platform. The Communications Department prepares students to be strong public speakers, which can be easily lost in translation when speaking to a computer screen alone in your bedroom.

The same goes for students on the receiving end of the presentations. It is confusing to listen to a black square speak to you through a Zoom meeting and not analyze the speaker’s body language to learn from mistakes. Experiences beyond your comfort zone are valuable lessons taught in a Communications course, but the limitations and rationalizations induced by remote learning will only impede those skills.

The adjustment to remote learning has varied for both students when asked if their semesters following the introduction to virtual learning in Spring 2020 had gotten any easier.

“It definitely has. I think students and professors both had to take a lot of time and consideration into changing their educational methods in order to adapt to the new situation we’re all in,” said Sridharan. “I, myself, had to change quite a bit to stay successful and continue learning.”

“No, this semester has been much harder,” Okula said. “Maybe it’s because I returned to work full-time after a year of being quarantined, or because the excitement of the University experience has dwindled, but I’m mentally and physically tired.”

Dr. de la Serna continues to adopt new strategies to connect with her students via a virtual format and alleviate the stressors as much as possible.

“Some things I am doing believe in an active, collaborative, and experiential learning. Therefore, I apply the fundamentals of these methods to my online learning courses,” Dr. de la Serna explained.

“I try to keep a close eye on students who might miss deadlines and reach out if they are not doing well in class; respond to emails as soon as I can. I try to include different types of assignments so that people who learn in different ways can access the content, and I think of the things that I found most helpful from my professors and avoid things I didn’t know from as a student.”

The temporary transition to virtual learning has played a significant role in slowing the spread of coronavirus. The teamwork amongst the CSUDH faculty, staff and administration, and the moxie and cooperation on behalf of the students, during the last year of remote learning has unquestionably shown everyone’s dedication to CSUDH and the Communications Department.

The pandemic has given Communications students a lot to talk about. It has provided a year of news-worthy content and practice for CSUDH students to report, write, and create media for their future careers, no matter what environment they’re in.