Zoom open, camera on, microphone muted, snack in hand, brain off. We went through this mental checklist every highschool weekday of 2020-21 as our school lives were forcibly uprooted and placed into the uncharted territory of remote learning. I believe that I speak for most people when I say that I abhorred every minute of online classes.

Happily, I fully returned to the physical classroom in the fall of 2022 in the hopes of better teacher-peer engagement and material tangibility. However, as I sat in a 100-student lecture hall filling in my final Gradescope bubble sheets, I realized the problems in remote education existed further below the surface. 

The deep crevice in online learning simply reflects the pre-existing weaknesses in our current educational system’s model. So what is absent?

George Greenbury, a long-time global educator, emphasized in his pre-pandemic TEDxFulbrightGlasgow talk that the problem with education, both remote and physical, is namely the lack of “hands-on engagement and interpersonal uniqueness” that students experience. Online learning has brought the absence of it to the forefront of our educational awareness, but its roots lie in the physical model.

This explained my frustrations even in the aftermath of the pandemic: No changes had or have been enacted to increase teaching and learning efficiency for students.

As many continue to choose online education, awaiting its improvement, the physical education system is being left behind, and the deeper issues are unaddressed. Instead of eradicating problems in education at their root, focus has been placed on adding better emojis to Zoom chats.

One of the highly-touted merits of remote learning is its supposed flexibility and affordability to students, especially those working part- or full-time. 

But, “balancing education with work, family, and household obligations” still remains one of the greatest concerns in online learning. Surging student populations are working part-time to pay college loans or support a struggling family. As a result, students turn to the inherently-flawed solution of online learning, due to its seemingly relative simplicity.

Another supposed benefit of remote education is the option of reclusivity. Some benefited from the quiet and focused surroundings of home. Still, for most, it gnawed away at an essential part of being human: face-to-face interactions and the motivation to be a community member. 

Although many argue that the absence of classroom rules and hectic schedules could force students to learn to set their own goals and identify issues before they occur to maintain stress and efficiency, the reality is that these time management skills are very hard to develop on the fly. Without the skills to multitask, set goals and be disciplined, distractions and an inattentive mindset can become the biggest obstacles.

Even in students who do not have ADHD, diminishing attention spans are becoming more problematic. As seen both online and in person, the lack of discussion and interaction in the classroom does not address, but plays into, the attention deficit. Change shouldn’t be implemented on a superficial level but rather through restructuring the modern educational model upon which remote learning is heavily based.

As a result of these oversights, negative effects of remote education are furthered in its impact in high-poverty areas. Prolonged usage of remote education has led to the rewidening of previously  promising decreases in educational achievement gaps. Instead of promoting the inclusivity and diversity of educational opportunities, it leaves the burden of dealing with those imbalances to the deficient in-person education models. 

Physical classrooms primarily work off the need for student-teacher interactions, connectivity with classmates and creating a learning environment. The increasing number of students who chose to return to remote learning indicates that, despite the reopening of in-person classes, they return to online education due to the need for adaptation in the physical classroom mindset. Therefore, there needs to be a return to focusing on the effectiveness with students in mind, not only efficiency from the institution’s perspective.

As inclusivity and awareness of mental health increase with post-pandemic understanding, solutions such as smaller classroom sizes or better outreach can minimize students’ sense of isolation. The negative impacts of online learning will also be addressed by refocusing improvements on student-oriented environments. Students’ mental health is dependent on balancing workload with everyday needs.

In an effort to increase diversity in higher education, Northeastern continues to evolve and include online learning as a degree option. But as one aspect of education adapts, at what point do the issues ingrained within modern education actually get solved?

Developing the physical and online education models is beneficial in and of itself, but it must be done with the focus of solving the core problems of discussion, interaction and true communication of knowledge. 

Instead of enhancing the superficial, we must perfect the foundational.

Ana Veliche is a second-year mathematics and biochemistry double major. She can be reached at [email protected].