After the pandemic - What did and didn't work and what to expect now?

Most educators have already concluded that, with limited options, higher education pivoted fairly effectively in the face of the pandemic. Most would also say that students suffered regardless of how hard campuses tried to do their best.

The "Student Voice" survey identified a number of areas where students believe that they were impaired in achieving the level of success they had hoped over the last year. The specific areas that presented challenges were:

• On-line courses take more time
• It's hard to stay focused during remote lectures
• Most professors want help
• Academic dishonesty is trackable
• Feshmen need special attention

The second set of recommendations for how to improve student success included:

• Support on-time graduation goals
• Anticipate new and more intense student needs
• Prepare for a support-packed new year

The research of both Student Voice and Blackboard found that the widest gaps in expectation were among at-risk students. With hopes of a return to normal in-person courses, some of the challenges of the last year may be self-correcting. However, there are lessons to be learned for both in-person and virtual learning. Three areas that impact all students, and possibility at-risk students to an even greater degree, are; continuity (flow) of learning, preferred areas of study, and changing views of the ultimate purpose of higher education. All three of these tie back to a common factor - human contact and the realization of its importance in learning and in choice of lifestyle and work.

A specific area in which many students seek human contact is in residence halls. Variations in enrollment, type of institution, policies, and incentives has resulted in some campuses having too many students requesting to live on campus and others striving to attract them. HBCUs have experienced increased enrollment in the face of perceptions of racism on predominantly white campuses with institutions such as Clark Atlanta having too many students wanting to live on campus. Other institutions say they are facing the accommodation of two first-year classes in one, counting those that would have entered for 2020-21 who delayed and are now coming to campus with the class beginning for 2021-22.

Campuses need to prepare to address the fundamental difference in what students will encounter when they return to partial or full in-person learning, with part of that adjustment including different approaches that institutions will take. Some institutions will require vaccination and other CDC recommended measures while other institutions will have a measured response that has been mandated by state actions. Some suggest that there may be even a reverse culture shock as students return to learning environments that they left behind over a year ago. To be sure, students look forward to returning to in-person learning but actually being back there will require an adjustment for all.