The Landscape
The concept of receiving an education from an institution that one is geographically distant from is not new. In various ways distance learning has been in operation since1858 (Willis, 1994, Anderson, 1998, Sumner, 2000). Certainly, distance education has evolved over the years, from correspondence courses that mainly utilized the postal service for delivery to online education being delivered through the worldwide web. The worldwide web has greatly expanding the presence of distance learning. One of the main factors that makes online education attractive is the portability and ability to be accessed from all over the world. Online education as a platform for learning has allowed students that are working full-time, active military/deployed or have other responsibilities that prevent them from attending in class sessions to matriculate through their chosen curriculum (Willis, 1994). This type of instruction is very different from the largely unplanned, emergency induced remote instruction implemented this year to ensure students’ progress towards a degree. Therefore, it is important that crisis education delivery be separated from intentionally structured and thoroughly planned online education.
The planning of typical online instruction is what separates it from emergency online instruction. Normally, for courses to be delivered (online or in person) during a typical fall semester, the previous months are spent organizing which courses will be taught, deciding which classroom has the appropriate equipment and seating capacity, and managing what time the course should be offered (Anderson, 1998). If a class is to be taught online, a team of online education development specialists (e.g., course strategy, content, outcomes and assessment) come together to build the course.
In contrast, during the COVID-19 pandemic, most institutions of higher education who had already been in session for 4-6 weeks changed course. Without the benefit of advanced planning, foresight or fundraising, colleges converted all face-to-face courses to remote instruction through various online delivery systems. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Babson Survey Research Group (Allen, 2017), 33 percent of college students were taking at least one course online. Currently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 100 percent of college students are taking 100 percent of their courses online. This modified method of course delivery was a colossal undertaking and accomplished in an unprecedented time frame, little more than a week. Universities and institutions of higher learning are to be applauded for following through on their commitment to offering and delivering the courses that they began in January despite a world-wide health crisis of incredible proportions.
Even with the hard work and effort put into moving courses into a remote format, problems arose. While not entirely new, instructors were left to grapple with all the issues, social determinants and educational disparities that determine how well students learn. COVID-19 forced instructors to teach under extreme circumstances. As a result, our educational ecosystem has been put into further disarray, highlighting how inequitable and exclusive higher education is. Institutions of higher education are not accomplishing the lofty goals to which they aspire. For centuries, the United States has been unwilling to face the truth about the systemic institutionalized inequities that are perpetuated generation after generation of American students.
Education has never occurred in a vacuum and its reach is only as far as the unmitigated societal determinants that act as barriers to students (e.g. homelessness, poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, poor healthcare, unchecked mental illness, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and immigrant status). Higher education has long been touted as the key to the middle class and a requirement to become upwardly mobile in American society. The consistent exclusion, persistent undermining and continuous marginalization of persons that want to become upwardly mobile in the United States has led to the current economic and educational crises the country faces. Equity in the US education system has been unattained throughout its history. COVID-19 brought to light some of the pronounced inequalities manifested during remote teaching; these inequalities intensified the existing reality of higher education in the US. These conditions have left instructors in a difficult position. As they endeavor to teach their courses remotely and actively engage students with the material, they are struggling to comprehend and equitably accommodate many of their students’ unfortunate circumstances.