Why Online Instruction is a “Race,” Culture and Social Justice Issue by Veronica A. Lippencott

            Last semester, I had major surgery the first day of classes. It required me to go on medical leave for six weeks. It was a stressful time, but fortunately all is well now. I had to convert my courses to an online version (with a faculty member’s supervision) until I returned to campus. I kept asking myself, “Will my students be successful in my courses while I’m away?” I thought about students who are not really prepared for college, and those who face many socio-economic obstacles and barriers for success. I was very concerned because I know that online instruction is a “race,” culture and social justice issue.

            I did my best to make the courses as fair as possible. For the most part, students were tolerant of the course adjustments. I had a few students who struggled to perform well without face-to-face meetings, especially those with learning disabilities. When I read my course evaluations a few weeks ago, most students expressed that the courses went well, despite my absence for nearly half of the semester. A few students wished I were present the entire semester. After all, there is a reason why they don’t go to online universities.

            I know that there are advantages to online courses; they are flexible and convenient, especially if one has multiple responsibilities and highly scheduled lives. The challenges associate with online courses include technical difficulties in completing work, social distance, and less structure. My 18-year-old self would have had a hard time with online courses, because I excelled in a structured environment. Students need high levels of self-regulation and self-discipline in order to succeed in this learning format. Some students can thrive in these settings, others will struggle.

            There are other “race,” culture, and social justice concerns. We can’t ignore the role of language and cultural differences that play a role in student outcomes. Some students have pre-existing cultural disparities associated with their ethnicity, race, and age. There is a body of research that discusses how online courses ignore cultural and sub-cultural differences in learning behavior, and that they do not address the diversity of their learners.

            With the COVID-19 pandemic, over one million university professors around the country had to scramble quickly to restructure their courses with no face-to-face meetings. Faculty had to decide if they were going to teach synchronously or asynchronously. It takes about 60 hours to create a one-semester online course. As an Adjunct faculty member, I had to devote several hours of unpaid labor to figure out how I was going to continue teaching. I know that I am not alone. Additionally, how is this “new normal” equitable for our students?

  

            Converting to online instruction has serious implications for students of color. We are all aware of systemic racism as it relates to education outcomes, from early education through college and beyond. Additionally, students who are economically disadvantaged, students who live far from home, and students with disabilities, reveal such concerns as part of the digital divide in this country, paired up with social isolation and stress.

            Even among students who have access to the internet, not everyone has equal access. According to census research, 8% of households who have internet rely exclusively on mobile broadband. Low income students and students of color are disproportionately more likely to use mobile broadband only to follow up with their online classes. Internet service providers have less incentive to send technicians out to fix infrastructure when needed; and some students lack a computer at home or face other obstacles to complete their coursework remotely.

           

            Generally, minority and working-class students suffer the most in the digital divide due to racial and economic disparities, but more pressing is the fact that outbreaks often spread faster among people with insecure housing, and with inadequate health insurance. It is evident that there is no easy resolution to all of these “race,” culture and social justice challenges, and this is not an exhaustive list of the challenges by any means. It is only my way of wrapping my head around our “new normal.”

           

            I decided to teach my classes synchronously via Zoom for the remainder of the semester. It’s not perfect. I have students who live as close as Long Island, and others as far as Seattle, San Diego and China. I check in on them regularly. I know that some of my students have better living conditions on campus for online learning than they do in their own homes. All we can do is put our best foot forward, despite these very difficult circumstances.

Professor Veronica Lippencott is Associate Director of the Center for "Race," Culture and Social Justice, and Professor of Geography in the Department of Global Studies and Geography at Hofstra University.