Elijon King

Professor Pastore

ENGL 11000

10/31/2021

I have chosen to write about if social media negatively or positively affects college students’ ability to learn. Knowing the answer to this question would be very beneficial right now because many people are logging into virtual classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue will have no right or wrong answer because everyone learns in different ways. 

Before writing this essay I had very little knowledge of how online classes affect college students, but my general opinion is the fewer people attending school online the better. The main reason for my stance on the topic is because the majority of people learn better while attending school in person (in my opinion). Even so, I believe there are multiple reasons an online school can be beneficial to someone. One of them is because of how convenient it is. It is way faster to log in to a class via zoom than to drive and attend classes in person. Another reason I think online schools could possibly be beneficial to someone is that most online schools are cheaper. Most of the time, college students are taking on an extreme amount of debt just to receive a bachelor’s degree. Generally, online schools are very affordable, while also providing an adequate education. And finally, the third reason I believe online school can be beneficial to someone is that students can choose a wider variety of topics. There are no seats to fill because there is no physical classroom. This means that there is no class size limit, allowing a diverse range of students to enroll in the course of their choice. The effects of online classes and social media can be beneficial in my opinion, but this essay will reveal if social media is beneficial or detrimental to a college student’s ability to learn.

After researching the issue of how online classes affect students’ ability to learn, I have discovered various sources’ views on the topic. The first article I want to discuss “Virtual Classrooms: How Online College Courses Affect Student Success” tells about how college students are affected by online and physical classes, and how successful they ended up becoming. This is made clear when the article stated the following “In this paper, we estimate the effects of taking a college course online, instead of in a traditional in-person classroom setting, on student achievement and progress in college. We examine both mean effects and how online courses change the distribution of student outcomes. (Bettinger, Eric P). Later in the essay, they summarize that college students who enrolled in classes online, usually turn out to be less financially stable. I found this information alarming. In my first opinion, I believed that online school could potentially benefit college students, but, statistics do not lie. However, after further analyzing this source I have discovered that online classes are generally a detriment to college students. The author later states “Taking a course online reduces student achievement in that course, as measured by grades, by about one-third of a standard deviation. Taking a course online also reduces student grades in future courses by one-eighth of a standard deviation” (Bettinger, Eric P) These statistics are very alarming. This made me think about how online classes have a negative effect on college students. It is fair to say that based on the information in this source, online classes are a huge detriment that negatively affects a college student’s ability to learn. 

The second article I analyzed “Learning to Teach Online” discusses ways to boost student participation while virtual, as well as how to provide a more entertaining way of learning while online. This article contradicts a lot of the information provided in the last article. The information in this composition is provided by Marisol Clark-Ibáñez and Linda Scott. Because this article is not based on statistics, the data in this article may differ from the data in the previous article. One student explained: “ I am typically a fan of sitting in a classroom where I can see my professor and take notes on a lecture, however, this experience online really impressed me… It was a positive journey. I probably did more reading than had I been in a class setting where I tend to depend.” (Marisol Clark-Ibáñez, Linda Scott). This student’s opinion on the matter supports my statement from earlier. I believed that students may become more self-disciplined if they learn online, which turned out to be true to some extent. 

I found this information somewhat concerning and somewhat contradictory to the article titled “Virtual Classrooms: How Online College Courses Affect Student Success”. While writing my first opinion on the issue, I hadn’t realized that so few college students were positively affected by learning through social media. But as I said before, statistics do not lie. It is critical to understand this information because it is crucial for properly tailoring an online course to the needs of a student. As stated before, I was surprised due to the sheer amount of students that are negatively impacted by social media’s ability to teach. It is difficult for me to believe that this amount of college students are negatively impacted by social media. I am astonished that having so much information at your fingertips obstructs college students’ ability to learn. After my evaluation of this article, I believe it is wise to only attend online classes when you truly cannot make it to school physically. 

The third article I want to touch on deals with how students perceive online classes. This article will give us an idea of why students continue to enroll in online classes. This is important to know because understanding why college students enroll in virtual classes will help teachers cater to their needs, which will directly boost the quality of the academic side of online classes. A student in a rich learning environment will have an easier time learning, even if it is online. All the information provided by the article titled “Perceptions of College Students toward Online Classes: Implications for Teaching Online” was collected via an electronic survey tool. After analyzing a chart provided by the article, approximately seventy-eight percent of the respondents decided to take online classes due to the flexibility of time. However, contradicting my earlier opinion, only a mere thirteen percent of students took online classes because they were easier. 

This composition conveys some interesting and unexpected information. Based on the research of the previous articles, I agree that generally most students are negatively affected by online classes, leading me to believe that most students would not choose online classes because they are easier. Stating that students prefer online classes over in-person classes because they are more efficient would be contradictory to the statistics. In my initial opinion, I only considered a few factors as to why college students would choose online classes over in-person classes. However, after analyzing these articles, there are a lot more than a few reasons as to why people would choose online classes. On the chart provided by the article “Perceptions of College Students toward Online Classes: Implications for Teaching Online”, seventy-eight percent of students choose online classes due to the flexibility of time, and thirty-eight percent of students choose online classes due to the distance involved to attend an on-campus class. While on the contrary, only thirteen percent of college students choose online classes because they are easier. These statistics support the statement from the first article “Taking a course online reduces student achievement in that course, as measured by grades, by about one-third of a standard deviation.”  (Bettinger, Eric P). Based on this statement, and the information provided by my third source, students rather sacrifice class flexibility over grades. This directly affects their grades, as shown before. 

Even though these students rather sacrifice their grades over class flexibility, it is still concerning that students are receiving such an inferior education online, compared to its in-person counterpart. In an online journal published by Brookings, the author (Stephanie Riegg Cellini) researches the topic of how college students are adapting to online school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As she stated, “The results are generally consistent with past research: Online coursework generally yields worse student performance than in-person coursework.” (Cellini) In addition to that, she later goes on to explain that students are being negatively affected by online learning due to the rapid switch from physical to virtual. This leads me to believe that online classes are not harder than in-person ones, but rather college students are unable to adapt to online classes after doing physical ones their whole life. But after further research, I was proven wrong again. Stephanie eventually explains that students at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point had trouble paying attention during their virtual classes and that they felt less connected to their professors during lectures. The academy even conducted a study to see if online classes negatively or positively affected their student’s final exam grades. They discovered that online education lowered a student’s final grade by 0.2 standard deviations. The situation is not looking too bright for the positive side of online classes. 

It has been a long journey to answer my question “Does Social Media Negatively or Positively help college students’ ability to learn?” But the answer is quite clear. The information provided by the first article titled “Virtual Classrooms: How Online College Courses Affect Student Success” stated that “Taking a course online reduces student achievement in that course, as measured by grades, by about one-third of a standard deviation. Taking a course online also reduces student grades in future courses by one-eighth of a standard deviation” (Bettinger, Eric P). Which in short, explains to me that online courses drastically limit the college student’s ability to learn. And paired with the information from the fourth source titled “How does virtual learning impact students in higher education?” I can conclude that social media generally, negatively affects the average college student. As stated before in my fourth source, online classes cause students to be disconnected from their professors while also making it hard to pay attention. 

Before researching the answer to my question, I initially thought that online classes could benefit college students based on personal experience. Although I personally benefit from online classes, I believe it is vital for my peers to benefit from online classes as well. As the world continues to advance, more and more people will pursue a degree through online classes. And even though online classes may be adequate, they do not provide enough opportunities to excel in life. Looking at the downsides of online classes, and seeking out ways to improve them is a smart way to find a solution to the issue. It is important to improve online classes because it will (generally) benefit the average college student’s grade point average, directly allowing them to succeed in life. It is also important that we analyze and continue to monitor specific students’ grades as we continue to move more into the world of technology. Perhaps if a student is doing poorly or even failing a course professors should monitor the student’s actions and adapt their teaching techniques to fit the college student’s needs. If their class is not very interactive, maybe make it more interactive and hands-on. People learn in a variety of ways, and teachers providing a rich learning environment through online classes should be their top priority. I still think that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are still being forced into doing online classes, which is directly affecting their grades. Typically, college students would attend the majority of their classes in person, with only one or two classes being taken online for convenience. This would allow them to adapt and suit themselves for their needs. However, as stated before, this is simply not possible right now. I believe that students being forced to sacrifice their grades due to online classes is simply unfair because they simply do not have another choice. If we all continue to study the impact of social media on college students, online education will evolve to be equal to if not better than face-to-face education in the end.