Covid-19
This research is about the negative effects of COVID-19, how it has impacted community colleges, and what community colleges have done to stabilize their student learning and provide safety measures. What has been going on in the background is a serious case because many students aren’t aware of the things community colleges have done for them and often don’t wonder where all the benefits they receive come from.
Like many institutions, community colleges have a fund for long-term financial crises called Emergency aid programs which helps students in their times of need. During covid, this has been proved effective. Covid has been the worst pandemic for colleges; with increased student enrollment, strategizing fund distribution has not been easy. COVID-19 has forced students of lower-income families to make significant compromises to achieve a postsecondary degree. Most of the time, this results in a lack of sleep, and there is various research that proves how lack of sleep affects not only students’ overall health growth but also their learning process.
Community colleges are affordable, which means more enrollment from lower-income students; when COVID-19 hit, colleges forced students into online courses. Before COVID-19, community colleges had little to no investment in online classes; online learning requires a lot of pre-planning and many resources for students and teachers. Experienced teachers are also needed; although this could help, it can’t help in some cases. For example, many teachers had experience in teaching online courses before COVID-19, but inexperienced students led to significant grade point drops, “Shift to virtual instruction resulted in 6.7 percentage point decrease in course completion” (Castleman et al., 1); this also increased students withdrawal form courses; note that withdrawal on community colleges are not unlimited and this eventually backfires causing the student to finish the course or drop while it affects their grade point average(GPA).
Although one can blame students for not putting in enough work to increase their grade points during online courses, the reason isn’t that simple. Most students during COVID-19 became adults who had responsibilities; this included having to take their relatives to hospitals often due to covid cases or Mental trauma from having to quarantine(complete isolation); students also suffered from a lack of Technologies related stuff; Most students required better Wi-Fi or a personal laptop to do their work in peace; this is due to the fact that most students had siblings and one computer at home wasn’t enough for all to share. Community colleges provided technology services to students in need, and 1 in 10 students at community colleges reported receiving financial assistance. Community colleges across the country also offer computer access to students in their campus library; many students stay after school and take tests or use the computer for their work; a library is a quiet place where students can focus in peace.
With the sudden shift to Online learning, Evidence shows an increase in students’ depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues increasing during COVID. Reports also show delayed graduations, affecting many lower-income students with internships and jobs. The numbers are much higher than before COVID. Insecurities cause many mental health issues. For example, a better-fed student will most likely get a higher grade on an exam than a student who isn’t. For a long time, food insecurity has been a thing, but Covid has made it much worse than before, but community colleges are countering this problem.
“Long Beach City College in California in 2019 provided hot breakfast for about 1,800 students across ten separate events” (Madeline St. Amour, 1). “San Antonio College, part of the Alamo Colleges District in Texas, provided nearly 89,000 pounds of food for 633 students (getting food for a total of 3,455 individuals” (Madeline St. Amour, 1). “Calhoun Community College in Alabama disbursed 26 emergency grants from March through September 2020, more than twice the amount they usually disbursed before the COVID-19 pandemic.” (Madeline St. Amour, 1).
Some students are also insecure about their financial situation due to job loss. Students are less likely to give attention to their classes at home because they aren’t used to it and are often lazy; students often tend to oversleep upon learning that they don’t have to go to class in person and attend an online course. “Research to date on the efficacy of online versus in-person learning suggests that students tend to do far worse in online classes.” (Bird et al., 4). Not having to go to work might be a good opportunity for students. Research suggests that having lost jobs, students tend to have more free time; this allows for more time on their courses; this also helps students learn more about the world since the pandemic has everyone stuck at home. For example, many people of the younger generation and elderly are on TikTok; they are learning a lot by just watching short videos; were it not for covid, no one would have the time to do so.
Overall, the pandemic has had many adverse effects on student learning and grade and some positive effects. Community colleges are doing what they can, and students are doing what they can. With the way Covid is looking, one can only hope for the world to be normalized again; or it probably won’t. All we can do is what’s best for us currently. All we can do is help by providing what we can to people in need. Many community colleges have fundraisers to help students because government emergency funds aren’t enough sometimes.
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