Student Experiences in Distance Learning

Some college students are facing difficulties with distance learning after the COVID-19 pandemic forced many universities to transition to a virtual learning format.

Fresno State went online in mid-March 2020 and has extended the format into the spring 2021 semester. Some students fear that their academics are suffering from this.

“It’s a lot harder to understand concepts that I would normally learn as I did them physically and I feel like I do a lot more work than in a normal semester,” said Victoria Sarkisian, a Fresno State chemistry student. A lot of her major involves hands-on experience she can’t receive online.

For other students, the format is working well, and they are optimistic about the situation. “For the safety of students, this is the best thing to do is be online,” said Catherine Camargo.

Camargo is currently completing her prerequisites for the nursing program and feels that she is getting the same quality of instruction virtually as she did in person.

“They’re still giving me the education that would have been provided to the best of their abilities. I don’t feel like I am being cheated out of anything,” she said.