Throughout the remainder of the pandemic that has caused Long Beach City College to transition most of its classes to online, class sizes should be decreased to improve interaction. This will benefit students struggling through procrastination this semester.
Since the start of the pandemic and the closing of the campus in March, students and professors have struggled to transition to online schooling that has been extended at least through the spring semester.
Many classes have a maximum space of up to 30 students per class depending on the subject, which doesn’t transition well to the online environment.
Professors have to either face teaching students via Zoom, while lecturing students in their respective subjects, with little to no checking in with students individually to help them throughout the day or week.
This leads to students struggling to succeed with their studies due to procrastination throughout online learning due to distraction, along with other circumstances such as taking care of a family member or work in general.
A solution is possible. By splitting the class size by half of the large class sizes and shrinking medium sized classes by one fourth of the size, it would result in a higher chance of succeeding in classes, according to a study done by Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.
With large class sizes, professors are less likely to have the time to help each and every student during the semester, with time spent grading and other means of work the professor has during the semester. With this model, professors and students could meet individually for feedback and critique.
With smaller class sizes, professors will have more spare time to help students to solve situations the students are facing during the online semester and align their schedules that can help them improve and achieve academically.
With students facing procrastination during the semester, it can harm the students’ routine and academic progress overall with grades being lowered down, and wasting their hard earned tuition money they have put in for their futures.
Long Beach City College should hire temporary professors with the same benefits and pay as current professors specifically for the pandemic, so that new sections of the same classes can be offered to students who need that course for their major.
These temporary professors can have reserved spots for any future hiring through Long Beach City College and other community colleges.
This would definitely help students and professors ease the situations during the full online semester until the end of the pandemic when in-person classes can return.