Student Spotlight: Reframing Remote Learning at Barnard

Student Spotlight features pieces authored by current and former Intelligentsia scholars. Today’s post comes to us from Taylor, a junior at Barnard College, telling us about her experience with online learning over the last two semesters.

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Online learning began under the guise of temporariness. “We’ll be back after spring break” suddenly became something more indefinite. The communal living spaces, shared bathrooms, and dining halls, plus the inevitability of parties, means that colleges are possibly the highest risk educational environment. We’re also arguably the least important. While other school-aged children are going through such crucial stages of brain development (not to mention some of them can’t even read in order to log on to a computer), college-level classes translate much easier to Zoom.

In March, the second semester of my sophomore year, Barnard College announced that we were permanently online for the rest of the year. Like most of my peers I was too overwhelmed by the looming pandemic to pay much attention to the nuances of remote learning. In fact, it seemed irrational that I still had essays and finals due during a time when the world was both literally and figuratively ending. The grief of mourning opportunities that never came to fruition (missed internships, nights with friends, the independence of living away from your parents) seemed selfish but also important. School was just a part of survival, another box I had to tick in order to get through the month.

When classes started again in September, instead of an atmosphere of panic, there was a certain acceptance of our shared situation, due to an increased understanding of the virus, low case levels in New York, and a whole summer for professors to develop a more adaptable curriculum. Nothing can replace the sense of place that a real classroom creates and the productivity of studying in the library, but there are certain aspects of online classes I have begun to enjoy, maybe even love this year. Firstly, no commuting time to and from classes means my days are much more my own, and nothing can beat feeling hungry in class just to turn around to your own fridge. I have also really appreciated the geographic diversity that has been created, having classmates, and even professors, physically in other countries is definitely unique. Deliberately selecting my classes to be as small in size as possible and favoring seminars, which only meet once a week, have been other ways I minimize my Zoom fatigue and continue to build a sense of community.

Like many college students this year, I debated whether or not to take a semester (or even a year) off from school. Ultimately, because of an in-person internship I have through Barnard, and a need for stability and structure during a time of chaos, I decided to continue attending. Do I feel like my college experience has been ruined? If I have learned anything about college during this time, it would have to be that the idea of a college experience means nothing compared to the choices we need to make in order to live fulfilling and healthy personal lives. If that means sacrificing the social aspect of school in order to live safely in a pandemic, so be it.

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Taylor is an NYC native, studying visual art and art history at Barnard College. A painter and with a love of baking, her favorite place in the city is the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Remote Learning: Silver Linings and Golden Tickets

Labor Day isn’t yet looming, but schools are already scrambling. Faced with a pandemic that shows no signs of petering out, colleges across the country have announced plans for staggering student arrivals and limiting the number of undergraduates allowed on campus at once. At the K-12 level, LA has committed to a fully virtual fall semester, while NYC’s hybrid approach will combine a day or two per week of in-person instruction with several days online. Of course, as the COVID situation evolves, school districts will continue to adapt, but amidst all the uncertainty, you can count on one thing: for the foreseeable future, remote learning is here to stay.

As much as we’d all like to trade FaceTime for face-to-face meetings, there are some advantages to classes in the cloud. In person, you can’t hit rewind on your teacher’s pre-calc lecture, but at home, you can watch Khan Academy videos on cosine and sine as often as you want. That time you’d usually spend on the schoolbus? Now you can use it to preview or review material, eat a proper breakfast, or even catch some more zzz’s. Besides self-pacing and flexibility, remote learning can also improve focus. With fewer distractions, it’s easier to absorb lessons and free up hours for personal pursuits.

Yet, to really reap the rewards of online education, it’s crucial to unplug. Sure, there are services like Freedom that let you block time-wasting websites and apps (I’m looking at you, TikTok!), annoying notifications, or even—horror of horrors—the internet itself. But if you keep your eyeballs glued to a screen all day, your brain can come unstuck. So, instead of scrolling through The Great Gatsby on Gutenberg, pick up a paper copy. Rather than peering at pixellated problems sets, print them out. If you’re worried about the environmental impact, remember: what’s bad for the trees is good for your concentration, retention, and efficiency. And the first step toward building a sustainable future for the planet is creating one for your study habits.

Besides limiting your voyages into cyberspace, try to delimit the space in which you work. If possible, the desk where you read and annotate The Handmaid’s Tale should be different from the couch where you binge-watch the series version. Maintaining separate areas for work and play—even if they’re only a few feet away—can keep you on track during lessons and give you distance from them when you’re done. As you delineate space, do the same with time. Depending on your school’s schedule, plan your day to cater to your strengths. Not a morning person? Maybe now you don’t have to be. Missing those after-lunch siestas from preschool? Psst. No one’s going to notice if you take a power nap.

Maybe the biggest benefit to remote learning is that, more than ever, you’re forced to figure out what kind of learner you are. Whether visual or aural, tactile or text-based, you have the chance to craft a program that works for you. And if you use the time to refine your study skills now, once we all come back together in person, you’ll be in an even better position to thrive.

— Colin G.

Sign up for our College Application Crash Course, in which Colin breaks down the college application process into its four main categories: Search & Selection; Tests; Recommendations & Transcripts; and Essays, Activities & Portfolios. Click for more information.

Colin is Head College Process Strategist at Intelligentsia. He received his BA in English and History from the University of Pennsylvania, his MA in History and MA in Humanities from Stanford University, and his MFA in Fiction from the University of Houston. He specializes in College Process, History, Literature, Writing, German, and Standardized Tests with 20 years of experience tutoring and teaching at the high school, college, and graduate levels.

Is Remote Tutoring Effective?

The education landscape has changed dramatically since March, with schools around the world moving their classrooms online. Many parents, students, and media outlets have reported that the transition has been...less than ideal.

Moving a traditional classroom to video conferencing platforms seems to have been more challenging than initially thought, which is understandable. New tools, techniques, and lessons will need to be explored before schools come back for the fall. But one thing that has transitioned fairly seamlessly from before-times is one-on-one tutoring.

We recently talked with several of our top tutors to get a handle on how remote tutoring was going and, to our delight, we found that it’s been all-around very similar. In fact, they’ve shared that it’s just as effective, if not more so.

Tutoring over video is so similar because it’s still one-on-one, the same setup and design as in-person tutoring. The many-to-one model of a classroom does not translate nearly as well over video platforms for a number of reasons. Students get distracted easily, teachers cannot necessarily see all students in their view, or there are unaddressed challenges in the student’s home-learning environment. With a personal, one-on-one setup, tutors are able to account for those weaknesses and help students get set up for academic success.

Plus, there is an executive functioning skill that arises organically when students are required to log on at a certain time to meet with their tutor. They show up ready to learn with less time being used at the top of the lesson for the tutor and student to get settled in.

Part of why we’ve been so confident in this transition to remote tutoring is that many of our tutors have worked with remote clients for years, especially boarding school students. Still, many parents may be wondering: how exactly does it work?

For most STEM subjects, we get a little creative. Some tutors draw on a tablet and share their screens, allowing students to annotate remotely, while others use a physical whiteboard and marker on their end, verbally working through problems and confirming answers. Think of a teacher using a blackboard and a single student who can easily jump to collaborate.

With humanities, shared online documents allow tutors to virtually work side-by-side with students, reviewing, suggesting, and correcting all in real-time.

Standardized test prep? Almost exactly the same. Test prep has often functioned as a process of independent student work own followed by sessions with their tutor to review. Whether sharing screens, collaborating on Google Docs, or reviewing Test Innovators practice tests together, the process is very nearly the same now.

In general, one unexpected positive of tutoring remotely is that students have to assume more ownership over note-taking and additional annotation. Our students are given more agency and that translates to more investment in their own learning.

Of course, not everything is as it was. Navigating behavioral issues and refocusing students can be a challenge when you’re not in the room. This is why working on executive functioning and having a supportive learning environment are particularly important right now.

There are challenges to tutor-student bonding as well, something which only occurs over extended periods of time spent working together. We’re still learning and improving on that front and we’ll report back when we have a larger body of experience matching new remote tutors to new remote students.

All-in-all, we’re encouraged by the first phase of full-time remote tutoring. Aided by past experiences and ever-evolving video tools, our tutors have found ways to continue building strong academic foundations and developing intellectual minds.

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Interested to see how we can help your student? Contact us today.

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Special thanks to Claire, Hemel, and Lori for their input on this Insight.