Media Coverage of Online Learning in a Pandemic

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM MEDIA COVERAGE OF CANADA’S MASSIVE, RAPID SHIFT TO ONLINE LEARNING DUE TO COVID-19

Since the pandemic hit in March 2020, opinion pieces and editorials occasionally leaned heavily to one side or the other, but the Canadian media have generally presented a balanced, neutral stance on the current state and long-term outlook of online learning.

Analyzing the “new normal”
In light of the unprecedented global changes wrought by COVID-19, this is an examination of how the national media represented Canada’s shift from in-person education to online learning in 2020.

Analysis of what has been described as the “new normal” at all levels of learning — from elementary and high school to post-secondary education — is based on a review of 146 articles published between mid-March and late August 2020.

These pages provide a snapshot of experiences from a wide cross-section of society: from teachers and students to parents, experts in online learning, school administrators and government officials.

Early days: Confusion and anxiety reign
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 virus a pandemic. Within days, governments around the world began imposing lockdowns, issuing stay-at-home orders, closing businesses and schools and imposing social distancing guidelines and other restrictions to address this global health crisis.

The massive and unprecedented move to online learning prompted a flood of confusion, anxiety, mixed messages and mixed results. As Zoom meetings became prevalent, concerns about privacy and electronic security escalated.

Provincial governments pushed different initiatives and priorities. Parents, many of whom were no longer working or were trying to work from home, struggled to provide learning support as they navigated the improvised e-learning experience.

Students, deprived of the social interactions that are so pivotal to their intellectual and personal development, experienced new stresses that would hamper their learning experience for the remainder of the term and beyond.

Not an easy switch to flip
Laurentian University was the first post-secondary institution to suspend in-person classes. Other universities and colleges followed suit within days, and by March 16, 2020, the collective move to online learning had begun.[1] As it became clear that schools would remain closed into the spring,educators moved their courses online for the rest of the term — a task few seemed prepared to meet.[2]

“It's scary for faculty and it's scary for students because it's new, and it's new at a time when everything has changed,” said Clare Brett, an online education expert at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).  

“Online teaching takes preparation and planning,” added Michael K. Barbour, co-author of The State of Online Learning in Canada, which focuses on secondary schools. “The situation we currently find ourselves in is one of triage. It isn’t online teaching; it is remote teaching in an emergency situation.”[3]

Several experts spoke to the unique circumstances in which online learning was taking place — as an emergency response to a pandemic — and encouraged educators and parents to cut themselves some slack on strict guidelines and curricula. They also said the mental and physical health of children and families had to be central to any response.

Goalposts shift, but expectations stay the same
When COVID-19 hit, students were forced to reckon with chaos from all sides. As they tried to cope with fears about their health and long-term future, they also had to face the closure of their schools, community lockdowns, a suspended social life and the added tensions of being confined with families, many with parents who were no longer working and increasingly worried about their long-term economic future.

Despite all these obstacles, students also learned that the expectations for their academic progress remained unchanged. They would be expected to keep focusing on their studies and grades, deliver the same results and meet the same expectations.

“To be honest, it is a bit overwhelming,” said Nicole Mensour, an education student at Mount Saint Vincent University.[4] “In my experience, it’s been a little ‘here or there’,” said Rebecca Gao, a student at University of Toronto. “Varying Internet connections, the loss of a lot of class discussion, and the general weirdness of the situation have made it kind of difficult to really learn.”[5]

Karl Butler, a Grade 8 student in Guelph, Ontario, said, “Several of my teachers have emailed me saying they haven’t been told what’s happening. So they don’t know what’s happening as much as we don’t.”[6]

Parents battered from all sides
Parents faced many immediate challenges. Many had to start working from home, while others lost their jobs entirely. And as children were sent home from schools, they were left to manage their kids’ education, learning software and curriculum and provide support.

“You think things are going to be one way, but then they’re not,” said Cherelle Payne, a parent to five children in Alberta’s Rocky View Schools Division. “Teachers seem a little panicked themselves about how they’re going to do this, and that anxiety is now being passed on to me.”[7]

Parents were also rightly concerned for the health and safety of their children who would be expected to resume in-person classes in the fall, but many had no other options.

“They probably are quite scared and anxious to send their kids to school,” said Alec Couros, a professor and expert in online learning at the University of Regina, “but at the same time, they have to pay their bills.”  

“It’s just added to the stress level,” said Rajni Siperco, a parent in Oakville, Ontario. “We don’t always have the same patience with them that the teachers would. We don’t have the same capability – because you’re not a teacher... The kids are very different with their parents versus being in a school environment.”[8] Cora Burnette, a parent in Vancouver, said, “It’s adding more stress in an already stressful situation... I’m trying to fulfill all these roles, and it feels like failure.”[9]

Couros was concerned that “a number of parents and students who for the first time are considering online education” are being forced into it. “I’m worried that people will try this experiment, see that perhaps teachers weren’t prepared to provide instruction in this particular way and that they see this as a failing of online learning as a model.”[10]

Costs stay the same, but does the value match the price tag?
Lockdowns and the rapid growth in unemployment left few students with the option to work to help cover their costs. Even as students argued for reduced costs, some schools actually increased tuition and other fees, with the loss of international students forcing them to pass on the costs to Canadian students.[11]

Many students expressed dissatisfaction that universities and colleges were not reducing tuition or other fees, as they felt they should not be paying the same amount for a lesser experience. In fact, students across the United States and Canada were increasingly signing petitions and demanding lower tuition fees.[8]

Student unions and associations spoke up consistently. “In addition to all of this and all of the trauma and turmoil that students have been coping with,” said Jelynn Dela Cruz, President of the University of Manitoba’s Student Union, “we’re also seeing an increase in tuition and course fees, lab fees, continuing education fees.”[13]

“We feel it's unfair that they are charging the same tuition and still going through with their annual tuition increase,” added Katja Nell, a student at UBC. “The education is now online, which we feel is sub-par.”[14] Alexandre Denis, a student at Concordia University, said, “It’s definitely making me reconsider how many classes I want to take at once... I definitely don’t think that online learning at its current state is a proper replacement.”[15]

“I feel it’s a little unfair to pay full tuition without getting the full experience,” said Lexi Marstom, a student at Carleton University.[16] “Many professors are uncomfortable with or untrained on using online systems and in some cases are unwilling to use them,” said UNBC student, Kieran Konst, adding: “The reality is that educational institutions are going to have to find ways to ensure that the online value matches the price tag.”[17]

“I should not be paying $8,000 to be their guinea pig for online learning,” said Hope Mahood, a student at Western University. “We’re being ripped off, not just by the universities, but I think also just by the state of this pandemic.”[18]

Debt mounts as job prospects look grim
Before the pandemic, student debt was already a growing problem for Canadian graduates.[19] Now, debt has been exacerbated by COVID-19, with the constricted job market leaving students less able to pay off debts and more likely to go further into debt, according to Stats Canada.[20] The pandemic also led to an increase in average Canadian household debt, which rose to 177 percent of disposable income.[21]

An Angus Reid poll commissioned by Athabasca University was conducted among Angus Reid Forum members across Canada on the subject of online learning. The results, released in early August, showed that 60 percent of people would consider going back to school full-time if they couldn’t find a job as a result of the pandemic.

However, 60 percent also said that uncertainty about online learning might prevent them from pursuing higher education, while 70 percent felt that universities weren’t doing enough to keep up with innovations in technology.[22]

Digital deficits laid bare
Meanwhile, the issue of digital deficits — or inequality of access to educational technology and infrastructure — is perhaps the most consistent and prominent challenge facing the development of online learning in Canada.

David Fowler, Vice-President of Marketing and Communications at the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), wrote in CBC News Opinion, “11 percent of Canadian households still do not have Internet access at home,” and “there are massive disparities between the speeds that rural and urban households receive.”[23]

Fowler emphasized economic and technological inequalities that hinder access to online learning. The Ottawa Catholic School Board “told students to hunker down in school parking lots to access free Wi-Fi,” while in Manitoba, the northern Garden Hill First Nation had to cancel the rest of its school year due to lack of accessibility. The Winnipeg School Division estimated that roughly 40 percent of its students didn’t have access to Internet-connected devices in their homes.[24]

There were, however, efforts to meet some of these challenges, as “schools, school districts, charitable organizations, and various levels of government [were] stepping up to deliver laptops, tablets, and other devices to students in need.”

In London, Ontario, for example, more than 10,000 iPads and Chromebooks were distributed to students after the school shutdown. In 2020, wrote Fowler, “it’s clear that the Internet is the key infrastructure holding our education system, economy, and social lives together... Our children have never needed the Internet more to succeed.[25]

Infrastructure deficits all too clear
For poorer, rural and distant communities and families, the challenges of online learning have been greater, which may have a lasting negative effect on learning and social mobility.

Derek Chica, a guidance counsellor, parent and education advocate and activist, wrote in the Toronto Star in late July that, “Distance learning is disproportionately affecting Black and racialized students, students, students from low-income neighbourhoods, and students from other already marginalized communities.”[26]

“Access to online learning is a Canada-wide issue,” wrote journalist Nadine Yousif in Maclean’s. “The pandemic caused a disruption in education — and by extension, the lives of Canadian families — unlike anything in modern history.”

Teachers referred to “a gap in learning” for students struggling to adapt, as well as “a decline in mental well-being” for many young people. The magazine spoke with more than a dozen families across Canada, many of whom feared “that quitting their jobs may be their only option if a safe, practical solution to the schooling question [wasn’t] reached by September.”[27]

This disproportionately affected women, as they abandoned careers to care for and help educate their children. Many parents expressed frustration at provincial governments that “are seen as more driven to get bars and restaurants open than to devise safe and realistic means to get kids back in class.”[28]

“A lot of children are not able to get all the benefits of online learning,” warned Caroline Schaal, cofounder of an online education program offered in Windsor.[29]

Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education, stressed that the digital divide would likely accelerate for some kids. “Online learning, especially for younger kids, really does involve parents and not all parents have the same capacity to support their kids in doing that.”[30]

Clare Brett of Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) emphasized the relationship between disparities in education to that of healthcare. “The equity and diversity and inclusion aspect of the online space are very worrying,” Brett told The Globe & Mail, “because they parallel what we see in health outcomes.” In particular, lower-income areas, “communities of colour, immigrant communities... don’t necessarily have the same level of access to technology.”[31]

In early May, People for Education released the results of a survey collecting data from 1,159 Ontario schools. Only 66 percent of Ontario schools had wall-to-wall Wi-Fi access, 56 percent of schools had designated staff members to support students in e-learning, and only 43 percent of schools had laptops or computers available for students to use after hours.

In responding to the survey results, People for Education said the pandemic “exposes critical and long-standing inequities in the education system and also provided an opportunity to examine much more deeply how we are currently using technology in our schools and what the potential for online learning could be.” Kidder added that COVID-19 “has shone a light on the inequality issues many knew were there before but it’s really exposed them.”[32]

Three faculty members of the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University noted that, “the digital divide that separates one family from another is significantly affecting the quality of children’s educational experience and their opportunities for success.” Private schools, with better funding and with students from wealthier families, were able to meet the challenges in education posed by the pandemic more efficiently and effectively than many public school boards, where disparities were more apparent.[33]

Bronwen Low, Lisa Starr and Joseph Levitan of McGill University noted that, “Technology and Internet access are no longer privileges but necessary conditions for learning.” What would be required, they wrote, was “a sustainable, flexible strategy to ensure all students have access to meaningful, age-appropriate and engaging online education as soon as possible.” This means that all students need access to the right technology and infrastructure, while teachers need proper training.[34]

In mid-July, a survey of 17,000 educators across Canada revealed that 92 percent of teachers believed access to learning materials and technology was a “barrier to equitable quality public education.” In addition, 74 percent of respondents were concerned about students’ mental health, and 73 percent were concerned about being able to get students the tools they needed.[35]

From huge challenges to massive potential
Many voices in the media initially described the massive move to online learning as a game-changer.

Caroline Alphonso, the Globe & Mail’s education reporter, noted in late March that, “Online learning is poised to transform public education across the country” and could mark “a paradigm shift that could reshape education long after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.”[36]

Gary Hepburn, the Dean of the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University, wrote in Medium that this period is “the single greatest disruption that instruction in higher education has ever seen,” adding: “Learning will be forever changed.” Hepburn wrote that, “we should embrace the opportunity this disruption presents us... to redefine how we do education.”[37]

“The education world has been turned upside down,” said Paul Bennett, an education consultant. He commented that e-learning had long been viewed as supplemental to the regular learning process, “and there was no real focus in Canada on the possibility that e-learning would be the spine of the system.” Regardless of one’s views, however, “a hybrid is coming out of this crisis.”[38]

Most experts agree that online learning will become more prevalent and integral to the learning process even after the pandemic passes. Marina Milner-Bolotin, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia said she expected “a steep increase in online learning that will continue” past the pandemic. “People now will pay much more attention to it as they will experience its power,” she said.[39]

Reason to be optimistic
Many in the media emphasized that despite all the challenges of online learning, there was reason to be optimistic.

Robert Wright, a professor of history at Trent University Durham, told the Ottawa Citizen that, “University administrators, deans and faculty are not merely ‘muddling through’,” but rather, “are studying best practices, carefully calibrating competing needs within their communities, and adapting.”

Wright stressed the context of online learning in the midst of the pandemic: “University students are adults,” he said. “They understand that living under the pandemic and adapting to conditions of physical distancing means labouring under inconvenient and sometimes intrusive levels of social obligation.” People don’t have to like the context in which online learning takes place, but they do have to live with it: “this is life in 2020. No one asked for this. It’s the hand we have all been dealt.”[40]

“The swift shift to online learning demonstrates the amazing capacity of our post-secondary institutions to transform,” said Andrew Schrumm, the author of a Royal Bank of Canada report on online learning, which was published in early June. “Students, faculty and administrators have gained new experiences and preferences, which are unlikely to subside, even as the health crisis does. This space is ripe for innovation.”[41]

Kyle Hiebert, a strategy and research advisor to the University of Manitoba Students’ Union, told National Post that the adoption of open educational resources (OER) could significantly reduce “the cost of receiving a post-secondary education.” In this context, “online learning must be seen as part of a new era of post-secondary education, not a short-term fix.”[42]

Paul W. Bennett, the research director of Schoolhouse Institute in Halifax, noted in CBC News Opinion that one of the positive effects of the move to online learning is that it would result in education being “far more attuned to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to improving student learning.”[43]

“The future of learning arrived in March,” noted Neil Fassina, president of Athabasca University in August. “We just weren’t ready for it en masse.” However, he added, “Institutions around the world are going to be pushing as hard as they can to create the best quality learning experience possible — whether it be face to face or online now — because the world has woken up to the possibilities of online.”[44]

“We have to think of this as a national issue, not just everybody thinking about it individually by province... Let's get all the smart people together in rooms across the country and think of this as a problem we can solve... I don't think it's an exaggeration to say all of our futures are relying on these generations.”[45] — Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education.