Disengagement in a third term of online classes

The college first went online in the summer of 2020. Fall 2020 marked a second term online. Some students experienced success during this two terms. Other students found that online education did not well fit their own learning style and learning needs. Spring 2021 would mark a third term online. My own presumption was that by now the students who were enrolling had experience with and success in online learning. I was already aware of students who were opting out of enrolling at this time and waiting for residential instruction to resume before returning. Thus my thinking was that my spring students would be experienced online learners, veterans of prior terms if you will. 

As a result I have been surprised by the level of disengagement I am seeing in my courses this spring. Students simply not submitting work, or submitting only a fraction of the work being assigned. I was puzzled, this was not their first term on line for many of my students. 

As I spoke with other instructors I learned that they were also seeing disengagement with their coursework to varying extents. Low rates of assignment submissions, non-attendance for Zoom class sessions, not responding to messages and inquiries.

While I still do not know what is happening, there is the possibility that students are hitting some sort of "pandemic wall," essentially some sort of online burnout effect after months of online, socially distanced education. I have also seen this being referred to elsewhere as "pandemic fatigue."

I wanted to put some numbers behind what I felt I was seeing, so I looked at submission rates for my own students. I have 114 students in four online courses at present: an exercise sport science walking class with submissions happening via the Strava app, an ethnobotany course submitting in Schoology, a statistics course submitting in Canvas, and a hybrid online/residential blend physical science course submitting in Canvas. The physical science course is online except for lab which is done residentially.

Submissions include homework assignments of all types, quizzes, and tests. For context, the last term in which statistics had a full residential term, fall 2019, the submission rate was 81%. This term that rate is 52%. This is unusually low for the course. 

ESS has a high submission perhaps in part because that represents daily walks that are the core of the class. Students use the Strava app to track walks. In general the students are out getting their walks in.

The other more academic courses are performing far worse. Note that physical science and statistics are both on Instructure Canvas while ethnobotany is using Schoology. The submission rate difference between the two platforms is a statistical tie, suggesting that the disengagement is not a result of the use of the new-for-our-students Canvas platform.

The physical science class has the advantage of meeting once a week, during which time students will bring their technology with them. We have sat together as I take them through how to use their laptop or mobile device to get the work done. This may explain the small boost in performance seen in that course, but the average submission rate is still a low 65%.

In the above chart high rates of submission are above 80% where the submission rate is assignments submitted divided by assignments due to date. There are a few students with 100% of the work due to date submitted. They are not many. Moderate is a submission rate between 60% and 80%. Low submission rates are anything from just above zero up to 60%. None are students who have submitted no assignments, taken no quizzes, no tests, nothing. 

There are students in three of my courses who have made no submissions as seen above. I have been in contact with them and some respond, others do not. The responses have been generally split. Some students tell me that they will start getting work submitted. And they have been telling me this over the past nine weeks. Other students have responded to request to be withdrawn from the course, and some have been withdrawn. Those who were withdrawn already are not included in the above charts.

In ethnobotany and statistics, only about half of the students have 60% or more of their assignments submitted. The other half have less than 60% of their assignments submitted. That represents a lot of missing work, and in the ninth week may be too much back work for the weaker students to overcome by term end. 

The situation is better in physical science, but again, just that once a week meeting makes a huge difference in connecting with the student, helping them to feel less alone, less isolated. Too, for some students, getting work done at home is challenging if not almost impossible. Being on campus even once a week helps provide them with the opportunity to get assignments done. 

Whether my students are hitting a pandemic wall or experiencing pandemic burnout, I cannot say. If the above trends continue, significant numbers of students will fail to succeed this term. I am working diligently now on providing both academic and emotional support for my students to the best of my abilities. I try to make all feedback as positive and encouraging as possible.