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Friday, May 1, 2020

Residential versus Online - The College Experience Matters

Will the Coronavirus Forever Alter the College Experience?
The answer so far appears to be no. But some online education tools are likely to stick around.
“Among college-bound high school seniors, fewer than a quarter said in December that they were open to taking even some of their college courses online, Eduventures reported; by the end of March, after some had experienced virtual instruction from their shutdown high schools, fewer than one in 10 polled by niche.com said they would consider online college classes.
Sentiments like these suggest there’s little likelihood that students will desert their real-world campuses for cyberspace en masse. In fact, if there’s a silver lining in this situation for residential colleges and universities, it’s that students no longer take for granted the everyday realities of campus life: low-tech face-to-face classes, cultural diversions, libraries, athletics, extracurricular activities, in-person office hours and social interaction with their classmates.
“The beauty of a residential education has never been more apparent to people,” said Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan University.”. 

Related:
Coronavirus Pushes Colleges to the Breaking Point, Forcing ‘Hard Choices’ About Education