It is fair to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every area of our lives. From working life to our personal lives, it has been a challenging period for all. This has also been true for many sectors, where even a brief look at the latest business news will confirm the obstacles COVID has put in the way of many industries. Education is one such industry and COVID has seen a few noticeable changes to the college study experience as a result.
But what are the major ones?
Online courses/classes become more widespread
Perhaps THE biggest impact of COVID on the whole college studying experience has been the rise in online learning. COVID-19 has seen people looking at getting a college education wary of enrolling to study and live on busy campuses. As a result, online courses have proved a real lifeline to enable these people to get the education they need.
Wilkes University campus is a great illustration of how the top providers in US education have some great digital courses to follow. At Wilkes for example, you not only get the best learning in a safe format but also have access to top-class support. Even students already enrolled to study on campus have begun to take virtual classes more and more. This is most commonly seen as a precaution to guard against COVID spreading in lecture rooms or a solution to enabling learning to continue should a COVID case be detected on campus.
Less social time for students
Another impact of COVID on the college study experience has been in terms of students’ social lives. College campuses are normally lively, vibrant places with lots going on. Students would normally be meeting up in large numbers to party, study together or simply hang out at different societies. COVID had a major impact on this over the last year and put a dampener on students’ ability to socialize in person. Online resources came to the rescue once more as tech, particularly video calls, helped people to stay in touch.
COVID impacted on international study
The global nature of the COVID pandemic has meant that traveling internationally to study has pretty much been off the agenda. That has meant that students at US colleges who would normally study abroad as part of their course have not been able to travel. Travel restrictions have also impacted students coming into US colleges from abroad. The number of Chinese and Indian students coming into US campuses has dropped and this has affected the cultural diversity of some institutions.
COVID-19 has changed college study
While consequences to things like socializing or international study should blow over soon, it seems that some changes to the college study experience from COVID might stick around longer. Online courses and classes hit the mark here. In light of this, expect to see studying online become more and more popular as we move into a post-COVID era.