Remote Learning Presents Challenges in Students and Faculty Feeling Connected

By Ashish Tripathi
Staff Writer

Students and faculty are struggling to feel connected and engaged with remote learning nearly a year after its rapid implementation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the virtual classroom has provided some students the opportunity to resume their education during the pandemic, early research efforts studying the effects of remote learning indicate that students prefer in-person interactions with their peers and professors. The virtual learning environment has been shown to lack the same networking opportunities available when classes are in-person.

Students are not the only ones experiencing the difficulties of connecting with their peers virtually. Sharena Sigmon, an English and writing tutor with the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC), has observed how a virtual learning platform has hindered her ability to feel connected to her students.

“We’re not really able to connect to how students are feeling emotionally, and that affects how we [as tutors] are able to teach our students and how students are able to receive the teaching,” said Sigmon. "Students are affected by their personal lives and we are not able to gauge how much this is affecting our students."

Dr. Julie Dockery, an Associate Professor of English at CCC, fosters engagement and connection with her students by making sure they know they have her support. 

“There is a lot of pressure on my students right now, many being enrolled in remote courses in the online environment they otherwise wouldn’t have signed up for,” said Dockery. “The pressure can result in consequences that affect them academically or in any way that can interfere with them being engaged in the content of the course.”

Dockery encourages all students to communicate with their professors when things are not going well for them.