Do You Know What Your Online Students are Like and What They Want?

Dr. Anna F. Porcaro, Executive Director of Online and Adult Learning, Wichita State University

We recently finished up a survey of our students who took an online course within the last five years. We do this regularly to ensure that we are still understanding our students’ needs. What we found was that our students continue to follow similar trends for how the rest of the nation is doing in online learning. I wanted to share with you some highlights and some lessons we can all learn from this:

1) They are getting younger

2) They are becoming more diverse, but with a giant caveat –students who do not have consistent access to technology are not able to take online classes

3) They want online classes, especially because of experiences they had during COVID

Younger Students

First off, most administrators and faculty may consider online learners as all adult learners, but we are seeing, along with others, that “traditional age” students (18-24) are taking more and more online classes. Below I address some of their motivations. This does not mean that adult students are taking less online classes, we are just seeing that they are being joined in the online classroom by their younger peers. This means that for schools like ours where traditional and adult students mix in the in-person classroom, the online classroom is starting to have the same experience.

More Diverse

Secondly, we are seeing a demographic shift from mostly white female students to increasing numbers of non-white students.

Females still make up many of the students in our online classes, but their percentages are decreasing with each passing year. One thing has clearly come to light because of COVID: our students who are economically disadvantaged have self-selected out of taking online courses. A blunter way to put that is that we have made it so that they cannot take that type of class. This is because they may not have a reliable high-speed internet connection, or they only connect to the internet via a mobile device. There have been recent reports that 10% of students only have access to mobile devices only. Although technology has come along way, we are still not able to teach an entire semester only on a mobile device.

Want options to fit their lives

Lastly, what we are seeing is something that I talk to faculty, staff, and administration about all the time: students want options. They want to be able to take an online class, but they do not want to be forced into it. Their lives are busy, even those who come to college right out of high school, and they are trying to fit in full-time school while many of them are working to be able to afford the rising costs of higher education. This may be a hard vision to realize for departments where faculty are thin and a required course can only be taught online or in person, but not both in the same term. It may be even harder for those schools that are reluctant to change and feel that students need to conform to the “way they do it.” In this time when small schools are merging and/or closing, it is not the time to ignore what the students say they want. They have choices and they are voting with their feet – sometimes choosing not to learn anywhere because we cannot offer them what they want, when they want.

"One thing that weall must rememberis that much ofwhat passed foronline learningduring COVID wasa poor substitute"

It may be worth noting that we did not survey them about “ hyflex” environments because we are not really engaging in them at my institution, but it is clear from their responses that they want to approach their learning digitally in some fashion, whether that is completely online for some or all their courses, or through more online learning materials.

One thing that we all must remember is that much of what passed for online learning during COVID was a poor substitute. Students recognize this and they are asking for high-quality courses that are not just thrown together at the last minute and they want to know clearly what is expected from them upfront. They also are begging for faculty to interact with them regularly, whether that is clear and regular communication and reasonable response times for grading, providing feedback, and responding to emails or messages.

Today’s students who lived through COVID have learned better about what they need to be successful in online classes, and they are able to articulate what they see we need to improve upon when we ask them. Remember: many of your first-year students spent 1+ years learning online in high school, they know by experience what does not work for them in distance learning. Post COVID, we should all be doing better because we certainly know better. Online is not a fad. It is here to stay, and students expect it to receive the same attention as face-to face courses have for centuries. My last recommendation to you is this: If you have not yet surveyed your students about their online students, you may find some very important information from them about how your online classrooms are faring.