Episode 04: Modern History of Virtual College 102

In an episode of my Illuminate Higher Education podcast, featured guest and current senior at the University of Michigan Matt Blattman said something that stuck with me. We’ve spent quite a bit of time on recent podcasts talking about measuring the value of the traditional four-year college experience. We’ve asked ourselves, “Where does this value come from?”

“The value comes from being surrounded by smart people,” Matt told us.

Is it that easy?

Yes, and no.

It does remind me of the classic adage, “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” In years past, for college students, this meant interacting face to face in a lecture hall or lab with fellow students and professors. It meant taking on leadership roles in organizations, embracing mentorship opportunities, and most importantly, making mistakes and learning from them.

Whether you assess the personal value of college by the job that comes after, the social connections, or access to resources like state-of-the-art laboratories, what Matt says holds true. Smart people help us get smarter by teaching, questioning, and challenging. Many of us who stuck to the traditional college track have taken for granted that these encounters with smart people require a physical presence on campus. Class curricula were developed to suit this model and it has remained steady for quite some time.

Like most things, however, 2020 appeared to change all of that. Suddenly, students were learning from home around the world. Professors were forced to make last-minute adjustments to syllabi to suit the new circumstances. The easy, organic social connections with our smarter counterparts all but evaporated overnight.

If you’re the smartest person alone in a home office, what then?

The challenges faced by the higher education sphere last year have opened the door to a much larger discussion about the significance of a campus experience and whether in-person classes are really “better” than their online counterparts. It’s an interesting discussion to me for a number of reasons.

First, if we agree that social interaction (both academic and otherwise) is critical to the college experience, is it possible to create those interpersonal relationships digitally? Matt’s experience at the University of Michigan suggests that yes, it’s possible. Some of his professors went above and beyond to create virtual discussion groups and social networking opportunities to reinforce classroom learning and provide additional support to students. Some professors did not. So far at many institutions, it falls largely on the individual professor to facilitate interactions when they can’t happen organically. Whether placing this responsibility on professors and instructors is sustainable remains to be seen.

Second, it continues to surprise me that online degrees have a bit of a stigma. We do everything else online. Why should virtual college be of any less value? There is always the suspicion that everyone in an online class is disengaged by default simply because they aren’t physically present in a room with classmates. Personally, I don’t think people really change that much. Students who are ambitious, self-motivated, disciplined, and eager will find a way to get the most out of any learning opportunity. Students that don’t want to simply won’t. Today’s turning off your camera on Zoom is the 1980s equivalent of sitting in the back row and taking a snooze. There’s always at least one.

It’s an exciting time to be in higher education as so many historic institutions transform to meet the needs of virtual students. To continue this discussion and hear more from Matt, listen to Episode 004 of Illuminate Higher Education: "Was My College Education Worth it?" and Other Related Questions - ft. Matthew Blattman, Student at Univ. of Michigan

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