Last updated on May, 2021
This story is part of a collaboration between Central Connecticut State University and University of Central Lancashire.
George Attwood was living the American dream at the start of 2020. A student from the University of Central Lancashire in England, Attwood was enjoying his year abroad with his new friends and was eager to savor his final months in the U.S. There was nothing that could spoil Attwood’s adventure, or so he thought.
On March 12, Central Connecticut State University, where Attwood was attending school, closed its campus. A week later, Attwood returned home to Staffordshire, England to complete the remainder of his spring semester remotely, like other CCSU students — except for him, there was a five-hour time difference to battle.
“Having to go to class during dinner time was not my cup of tea, no pun intended,” Attwood said in an interview on Facetime.
“I’m glad I was able to finish all my classes from CCSU with online learning. That way I still got credit for all the work I did while in the States, but it wasn’t easy,” he added. “I think more students felt pressure from having to be in college while at home with their parents watching over them than if they were on-campus alone.”
Many college students released a sigh of relief as their spring semester trapped in quarantine finally came to a close. But their sense of peace will be brief as coronavirus will plays a yet-to-be-determined influence on their university’s decision to continue with online learning or return to the classroom in the fall.
While some students don’t see the decision as important, others are left debating whether to take a year off, transfer closer to home or attend a less-expensive school.
“If I’m honest I am in a state of limbo,” Attwood stated. “I am genuinely considering a gap year. This is because I am entering my final year and I don’t want to do remote learning in what would be such an important year.”
Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, e-learning became the primary method of teaching during the 2020 spring semester for many, if not all, colleges and universities. But after the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to gradually reduce lockdown, UCLan, and other U.K. universities, are looking to create plans for a “safe” return to their main campuses in the fall.
According to Universities U.K., the voice of 137 higher education institutions in the nation, “Universities are already preparing for a range of scenarios – including periods of online and blended study in the academic year 2020-21.”
UCLan has yet to release information regarding plans for the fall term, but some students are already feeling “skeptical” on how safe their campus can be.
“At the moment, I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t return to sitting in real classrooms in September,” UCLan student Benjamin Rooth stated during a phone interview.
As concerns for COVID-19 began to increase in March, Rooth started taking his own safety precautions by leaving campus and returning to his home in Sheffield, England. By the time UCLan closed its Preston campus, he had already begun quarantining himself.
Rooth has since kept his health and safety as his main concern during quarantine and plans to continue to do so after the lockdown ends, even if COVID-19 cases decline.
“The university needs to keep requirements in place, no matter if the virus seems to have come to a halt. I wouldn’t return to my university if those guidelines weren’t being met or if I felt that I wasn’t safe when in my lectures and around campus,” Rooth said. “We need to remain careful because we don’t know if a second wave will hit or not.”
So far, a few U.K. universities have announced they will continue with some format of online learning for the fall term, as it will be one of the low-risk options available for the upcoming term. Cambridge University was the first to announce that all student lectures will be taught online until summer 2021.
American students are left asking the same question as their U.K. counterparts as they face sim the fall semester. The decision to reopen varies based on each institution but some have already started planning their next moves.
“I don’t believe that we are going back to “normal” as we’ve known it. A new normal is going to have to be established in order to prepare for a potential second wave of the virus, even if it’s not on campus,” said Cheyenne Bermudez, who is entering her senior year at CCSU. Much like Attwood, she will be entering her senior year of college under less than ideal circumstances.
While she prepares for her final few semesters at CCSU, Bermudez thinks about all the opportunities she may miss due to COVID-19. Already, she missed the chance to do a summer internship course for criminology students at CCSU. While “that part sucked,” she is more upset about potentially not being able to live on campus in the fall.
“I’ve lived on campus since my freshman year and I was hoping to finish out my senior year on campus as well. Ideally, I hope that I am able to live in the residence halls again because I miss the on-campus experience,” Bermudez said. “Yet, I don’t realistically believe that the university will risk potentially endangering students by opening up the residence halls without confirmation from the state or federal government.”
On May 29, CCSU announced plans to reopen its main campus, as well as some of its residence halls, in the fall, but with some changes.
One change is adoption of “HyFlex,” a learning method in which faculty and staff may teach with the option for students to attend lessons in the classroom or online. The “live” classes will be recorded for students to playback lessons after class for future use.
CCSU’s plan remains indefinite as the university must adhere state of Connecticut guidelines that are still evolving.
According to CCSU President Dr. Zulma R. Toro, a number of conditions must be met before phasing back onto campus, including a decrease in coronavirus cases within the state, adequate safety supplies and health guidelines, as well as four plans filed with the Connecticut Department of Public Health and other concerns.
Along with this, the Center of Disease Control and Prevention has assigned risk levels to potential plans that American colleges and universities will execute and urges them to consider low-risk options as much as possible.
Though this eases the concerns of students like Bermudez, who believes this can be done, other CCSU students, such as sophomore Madeline Christensen, are left echoing identical thoughts to UCLan’s Rooth: is it enough?
“Obviously I’m concerned about everyone getting sick, but besides putting up posters and asking us to wear masks, I don’t know what the school can really do to guarantee everyone’s safety before there is a vaccine,” Christensen, a psychology student, said.
Meanwhile, American college students still are not sold on online classes as an alternative.
According to a survey by Top Hat, 78 percent of American higher education students found the online class experience to be unengaging; of those students, 75 percent believe online instruction is worse than in- person learning and 39 percent didn’t enjoy or see value in real-time online learning.
Top Hat found a majority of students reported missing the human connection of being in a physical classroom as well as the structure and stability that many of them relied on while on campus.
Some students told Top Hat they feel so strongly about the past semester that 26 percent are undecided on returning to their universities in the coming semester, with 7 percent citing their displeasure with online learning as the main reason.
The uncertainty as they wait for higher institutions to make decisions is causing anxiety for students on both sides of the Atlantic. Whether the choice is to continue with online learning or practice social distancing in the classroom, students will not be entirely pleased in either scenario.
“We’re damned if we do and damned if you don’t,” Attwood admitted.