From COVID to Helene: The impact of virtual classes on education

UNC Asheville students and faculty say the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause ripple effects in their education system. After Hurricane Helene, they said they are concerned to find themselves back in virtual classes.

“I almost didn’t graduate high school. Just not having that sense of community around me was very challenging,” Kari Porter, UNCA sophomore said, recalling the challenges she faced in her senior year during lockdown.

Porter said she worries about being back in virtual classes, especially since she is a music major and relies heavily on in-person instruction and access to instruments and resources on campus.

“I’m a very kinetic learner. Trying to figure out how I can learn music independently, or for any sort of arts degree, is going to be a lot harder when a lot of our resources are available on campus. But, they are planning to open up Lipinsky for music students, so that will definitely help,” Porter said.

Porter said she is more optimistic about online school this time around due to the amount of support she saw from UNCA faculty and staff, who she said are working hard to ensure this transition is as smooth as possible.

“It’s disorienting to have your life uprooted from normalcy. I think we’re all going to feel weird for a bit. With all of the work professors are doing to ensure that it’ll be a smooth transition, they’ve all been very accommodating and compassionate. It makes everything a lot easier to face,” Porter said.

Looking back at what lasting effects COVID schooling had on students, educators say they still see several ripple effects. UNCA Lecturer Ellen Perry said she sees a difference in students’ ability to focus, especially during lectures.

“Attention spans seem to be shorter, and more students have trouble focusing and understanding directions,” Perry said. “Convincing students that deadlines, follow-through, and accountability matter in and beyond the classroom, especially in professional workplaces, has become harder.”

Anne Harris, a licensed principal, executive skill functions coach and tutor said with the introduction of new platforms such as Edpuzzle or Khan Academy, teachers can now make virtual assignments and lessons. As a result, students continue to do most of their schooling on these platforms despite being back in a physical classroom.

“It’s kind of a big bummer right now in education for students,” Harris said. “The teachers that have come out of COVID and learned to use those programs, it’s easy every year to just hit the reset button. Everything’s already there, and it takes a long time to set up hands-on activities and to pay for them.”

According to Harris, this is not the only way money influences this new wave of education. She said online schooling changed the way many educators make a living, as they find it more beneficial to work for private practices or tutor like she did.

“I don’t think any other period of time in education have we had more of an outward movement of teachers from the classroom,” she said. “They found ways to make more money by doing less work. A lot of them designed online classes that they still sell, and so they’re making more money doing that passively than they would if they were working in public schools,” Harris said.