*Please note that this is an opinion piece, the views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Murdoch Guild.
Online learning has steadily been on the rise in recent years, providing a choice of convenience and flexibility for students, but making the switch from in-person classes to remote learning has drawbacks in more ways than one.
Before we get on board with moving to online classes, we should consider how in-person classes benefit students in ways remote do not.
Here are three reasons why I believe we should keep university classes on campus.
1. Better Learning outcomes
With the demands of work and life going on, why make studying harder than it has to be? When studies are moved online, student engagement decreases.
In 2023, the Centre for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) found that exclusively online students discussed grades, assignments, and ideas with tutors less than students who did not study exclusively online.
I know that when I’m in tutorials, the class discussions I engage with are incredibly enriching – they bring depth to the topics I am learning about in a way that assigned readings cannot. For me, this is where I absorb information most easily.
This becomes especially important on the days when our motivation is MIA, and watching lecture recordings becomes a real challenge. It is so easy for our phones or even the plain existence of the fridge in the kitchen to draw our attention away from the lecture playing in front of us. This is where in-person lectures save the day! Coming into a room filled with other students gives us far greater social accountability to pay attention and take notes than the online equivalent ever could.
The results from the CCCSE survey speak for themselves: when it comes to exam time, half of exclusively online students find completing examinations somewhat or extremely challenging compared to 38% of non-exclusively online students.
We can already see that studying in person provides students with better learning outcomes than studying online. Don’t we want the best outcomes for the degrees we’ve chosen to pursue?
2. Better Employment Prospects
Think of what happens in your average in-person tutorial. Do you simply sit and listen to the tutor? Do you quietly do the class tasks and submit them by yourself?
I presume your weekly tutorials are more vibrant than that! Chatter fills the air as your table puts its heads together to work on a task (or assignment) your tutor has issued. Collaborating with peers certainly makes classes interesting, if not engaging!
Not only is it more engaging, however. Working together in person allows us to develop and strengthen our soft skills (think of teamwork, communication, conflict resolution, flexibility and leadership). All these skills enhance your candidacy for future employment, contributing to personal success in the future workplace.
This aspect of face-to-face studying is harder to replicate in the online environment as studying remotely reduces the opportunities for us to grow our soft skill set – because the ways we interact online inherently differ from that in person.
The results of the 2022 QILT Student Experience Survey tracked students’ skills development from 2019-2022, including that of 2020 (the year of COVID and thus the year of online learning):
· In 2020, there was a notable decrease in the rates of students’ development in the ability to work effectively with others, as well as a decline in the rates of students’ development in communication skills.
· In the years since 2020, the students’ development rates of these skills have slowly increased but are yet to match that of pre-COVID rates, which is unsurprising as online learning continues to increase.
While undertaking university studies online can be convenient for some, it is not always the best option. Participating in on-campus classes provides fantastic learning moments for students beyond the course content, by enabling students to easily expand their soft skills sets. This is all the more important when students will be heading out into the workforce after graduation and need to have the necessary interpersonal skills for successful employment. Plus, classes are more fun when shared with others!
3. Improved Student Life
For most of us, our main priority at university is to get a degree, but this does mean that other aspects of university life have no value. Beyond the academic and career benefits of attending classes in person, coming to study on campus is a great way to foster student life!
Whether it’s having lunch with mates at the Tav then joining forces for a last-minute study session or playing a weekly social sport with newfound friends, the social benefits you gain from partaking in student life on-campus is great for boosting student wellbeing and supporting positive academic outcomes.
Take Murdoch University as an example of what being on campus offers:
· A variety of shared and bookable private study spaces
· The Guild’s Weekly Murdoch Markets
· Free wellbeing activities throughout the week at the Den
· A selection of 17 food and drink outlets
· A range of free group fitness classes
· Various social sports to participate in
Aren’t all those offerings great?
Engaging with these during the semester is worthwhile when stress levels may be building. It can be very easy to get caught up in the pressure of assessment deadlines, but having access to these amenities as you go to campus for your face-to-face classes encourages us to socialise with our peers and momentarily step away from the stresses of studying, which is an effective way to protect student health and wellbeing.
Student life is a major aspect of university life that clearly extends past learning course content. However, access to social campus activities is extremely difficult to replicate in the online study environment, reducing the number of ways remote students can protect their wellbeing during their studies.
In addition to face-to-face students benefiting from on-campus amenities, they also have a greater sense of belonging to their university through lived experience on campus. When your entire degree comes through a screen, it is (not impossible, but) much harder to feel connected to the university community you are a part of.
Because of this, choosing to study your degree in-person clearly has strong benefits for your wellbeing compared to studying remotely.
Despite the growing trend of online learning, it is important to remember that the ease of enrolling in flexible online classes does not always advantage students.
Instead, online students sacrifice their learning and employment outcomes and reduce their opportunities to maintain wellbeing by being away from campus during their degrees. So before jumping on board the online learning train, remember why it’s not such a bad idea to head to campus for class – let’s keep university on campus!
Sources
1. CCCSE (Centre for Community College Student Engagement). 2023. The online student: Impact of course modality on student engagement. https://cccse.org/sites/default/files/documents/onlinestudent.
2. Hollister, Brooke, Praveen Nair, Sloan Hill-Lindsay, and Leanne Chukoskie. 2022. “Engagement in Online Learning: Student Attitudes and Behaviour During COVID-19.” Frontiers in Education 7: 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.851019.
3. QILT (Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching). 2022. 2022 Student Experience Survey Key Findings. https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2022-ses-key-findings.pdf?sfvrsn=97d3cfb9_0.
4. Lee-Whiting, Blake, and Thomas Bergeron. 2022. “Students Returning to Campus Want the ‘University Experience’ Missed During COVID-19”. The Conversation, August 22, 2022. https://theconversation.com/students-returning-to-campus-want-the-university-experience-missed-during-covid-19-186507
