Arizona State University students across all campuses are finishing the last few weeks of the fall semester, only to have to return to mostly remote learning again in the spring of 2021.
On March 16, ASU President Michael Crow announced that classes for the spring 2020 semester would be taught remotely until COVID-19 resolved. Yet, nearly all classes for the fall semester were taught through ASU Sync, with classes moving fully remote after Thanksgiving.
According to the American Psychological Association, students at both primary and secondary education institutions are suffering from Zoom fatigue, an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and burnout from the overuse of online communication platforms.
ASU is no exception. Zoom fatigue on campus is extremely prevalent, especially for the hands-on majors on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus.
“Remote learning has severely affected me as a nursing student,” said Anna White, a sophomore in the Edson College of Nursing on the downtown Campus. “A lot of our curriculum should involve being in a lab and getting that real, hands-on experience.”
White said that remote learning had made it very difficult for students in the clinical nursing program.
“Nursing students who ideally would be going to in-person clinicals at real hospitals in the valley are just filling out paperwork about case studies,” said White. “In the future, I personally wouldn’t want a nurse who didn’t actually go through clinicals and just did online school.”
Students in the STEM field on the downtown Phoenix campus are strongly feeling the impact of remote learning on their lab-based curriculum.
“Hands-on learning by actually doing labs and experiments is something that helps me fully grasp concepts and remember them to apply to lecture material,” said Jenna Kumasaka, a junior kinesiology major on the downtown Phoenix campus.
Kumasaka said her labs aren’t helpful anymore and most consist of “looking at the data from someone who actually did the experiment in the past.”
“It’s really hard when we can do real labs, especially when there’s a lab final component to a course,” Kumasaka said. “Now I just have all this data that I brush over until the final.”
STEM majors on the downtown Phoenix campus aren’t the only students struggling with remote learning – journalism students have run into obstacles, too.
“It’s been hard navigating online interviews and not being able to report in the field,” said Lauren Kobley, a freshman majoring in journalism and a reporter for the State Press. “I am lucky enough to not to have had that tough of a time, but there are still obstacles.”
Joseph Vacca, a sophomore journalism major, has also found the ability to overcome the obstacles put up by the pandemic.
“Given the circumstances, I’ve still been able to remain successful,” said Vacca. “I’m just working with what I have.”
Despite the differences in these students’ majors and obstacles they’ve run into this semester, there are a few common themes across all four students. Many believe the university should adjust tuition if the university were to go fully remote.
“As someone who pays out-of-state tuition on top of the cost of an apartment, it seems unfair to pay the full amount for roughly half of the experience we would normally be getting,” said Kumasaka.
White and Vacca both agreed that tuition should be lowered if ASU were to move the spring semester fully remote because of the “lack of resources” and “wanting their money’s worth.”
A similar fear in all of these students is a lack of breaks from school and the possibility of ASU getting rid of spring break in 2021.
“I know personally I am already feeling a burn out from school and I think I can partially attribute that to not really having a fall break,” said Kobley. “So I’d have a really hard time if they took away spring break.”
White said that she “understands why ASU would want to get rid of spring break,” but it would affect her mental health to not have time to rest.
“Remote learning or not, students need a break to relieve stress,” said Vacca. “I know almost all of us students are feeling the effects of not having a fall break.”
ASU’s rival school, the University of Arizona, announced on Oct. 14 that the university would not be giving students a spring break. Rather, they would give students five “reading days” spread across the semester in hopes of reducing travel.
ASU has yet to make a statement on whether or not the university will also cancel spring break.
“Taking away spring break would be incredibly detrimental to my mental wellbeing,” said Kumasaka. “Even though I don’t have travel plans, not having spring break would take away a much-needed break that I normally would use to relax.”
Contact the reporter at shalliwe@asu.edu.
