In just a matter of weeks, millions of students will be attending college online, and, yet, few traditional schools are adequately prepared.
America’s higher education industry is wading into a minefield—it is difficult to effectively support students when the very instructors and administrators they rely on are also in unfamiliar territory. But the risk of failure will be even greater for a variety of marginalized student groups like minorities, first-generation students, transfer students and others. As classes resume, schools must devote special attention to these groups.
Quality, effective online education requires much more than a video lecture. This is true enough for the college student population as a whole, but the challenges are even more acute for many of the underserved student groups that have often faced struggles in attaining similar outcomes as their peers at traditional higher education institutions. These students will be at greater risk of seeing their education stall, or even giving up on it altogether, if they do not get the support they deserve in the online setting.
Take students with disabilities, for example. Higher education administrators will have to ensure their online offerings comply with all relevant ADA requirements, whether for students with vision or hearing impairments or other disabilities. Then there are first-generation college students, who lack family or cultural support systems that can provide guidance or advice about higher education. They share many of these challenges with Native American and tribal students, a group that has historically seen lower college attainment than the rest of the country. In fact, between 2000 and 2017, the proportion of Native Americans aged 25 to 29 who had attained at least an associate or bachelor’s degree actually fell from 30% to 27%.
That is just a small sample; the full list of nontraditional student groups that may face disproportionate adverse impact from a poorly-planned online transition is much longer. The good news is that there are insights from longtime practitioners of online education that can help. When handled with care, the online environment can actually help to foster a more student-centric approach in many ways. By forcing us to think about how to meet unique student needs across different demographics, it’s possible to end up with resources and strategies that benefit all students in the long run.
For students with disabilities, much can be done beyond just meeting the bare minimum of ADA compliance requirements. It’s imperative that schools help make these students active participants in identifying when and where accommodations are needed — resources like Blackboard Ally are built from the ground up with this in mind.
First-generation students are, fortunately, often even more engaged with learning than their peers. But administrators and faculty must not assume that these students are familiar with the “hidden curriculum” or norms of higher education that many of us take for granted. This includes issues like how the financial aid process works, that it’s okay for students to ask questions or seek out additional support when they’re not sure they understand a topic, and the importance of informal networking and making connections with instructors and other students.
