CSU students academically succeed through pandemic, yet still incredibly stressed

By Sarah Dills

Published March 21, 2021

Surrounded by her friends and family and the beautiful Hawaiian island of O’ahu right outside her door, the last thing Mya Hunter wants to do is sit down and attend online class.

Hunter, a sophomore studying Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, has spent the Spring 2021 semester at home. Doing her classes virtually, she has experienced struggles that she never thought she would face as a college student.

“I’m even more distracted because my home is Hawaii and I literally want to just go to the beach all day,” Hunter says. “I will prioritize my social life over my academic life. I will make plans and then plan my school around that.”

Hunter sharing how she lets her family know that she is in virtual class. Photo: Mya Hunter

Hunter, like millions of other college students across the United States, struggles to balance the freedom and the self-discipline that accompany virtual learning. And with college enrollment rates down at least 3.5% nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic, every university has adopted a new style of education, including CSU.

The CSU freshman enrollment fell by more than 12% in Fall 2020 and new transfer student enrollment fell by 20.3%. Yet despite the ongoing pandemic, CSU retained 85.3% of its 2019 freshman class, the same percentage as previous years. Even with fewer enrollments, students are still choosing CSU, despite the changes their campus and college experience has faced.

Furthermore, CSU faculty members are working to make the current education situation as effective and worthwhile as possible. Dave Gilliland, a CSU marketing professor and chair of the department, says that he and his colleagues are doing the best they can to keep their classes as engaging as possible.

“Nationwide, teachers trying new things and coming up with different ways of engaging students,” Gilliland says. “[We] try to pick up on students that want to engage and encourage them to speak out in class, raise their hands, use the chat, etc. But it’s hard to engage with students who aren’t there or who have their cameras off.”

Even with a lack of classroom engagement, students seem to be figuring out how to succeed. One CSU department found that from Spring 2019 to Spring 2021, the students’ average GPAs increased from 3.02 to 3.21 (though the Spring 2021 GPAs are tentative).

So how are students still succeeding during a time when it would be seemingly harder to maintain good grades?

Ryan Donovan, a senior teaching instructor and academic advisor for the Health and Exercise Science department, says why he thinks success rates have increased.

One reason he mentions was that CSU is currently allowing students to choose to receive a Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory (S/U) grade instead of the usual A-F grading system. This contributes to the increase in GPAs, since receiving a S/U doesn’t change a student’s GPA.

Additionally, students are now allowed to withdraw from a class anytime until the end of the semester, whereas a course normally has to be dropped by mid-semester. Donovan also describes the effects virtual learning is having on his own students’ grades.

“The average scores in my classes have been higher for the last two semesters than they were before, and I think part of it is we’ve had to move our evaluations online,” Donovan says. “Giving an exam via Canvas is not ideal because of open notes and other variables. But in these unprecedented times, I’m willing to give a little bit on that.”

With all the accommodations CSU has made to help its students succeed, students’ stress levels could be expected to drop. Yet most students’ stress has stayed the same or increased since moving to virtual learning.

Percentages of students experiencing different stressors in October 2020.

Source: National Association of Student Personnel Administrators

Shelby Toler, a junior studying Nutrition and Food Science, has more stress, less motivation and a shorter attention span than her previous, “normal” semesters.

“It is so much harder to focus,” Toler says. “And since I’m not in a classroom, it’s harder to stay focused on anything and get any of my work done. And then I’m more stressed because I can’t get the work done because I can’t focus.”

Like Toler, virtual school creates a vicious cycle for many students. A lack of focus creates more stress, which makes it even harder to focus. Hunter experiences a similar cycle.

“I’m getting lazy because the work’s easy and online, so I’m not motivated to do it. When I do it, I won’t put in much effort because I’m not going in-person,” Hunter shared. “And I feel more stressed when I do miss something online, way more than when I missed something in-person. I 100% feel more stressed.”

Academically, the average CSU student is performing similarly or better than pre-COVID semesters. Yet academic improvements don’t mean less stress; it may not be the same as before, but virtual school has created new forms of stress for students.

The last few semesters have proven that Hunter and her fellow college students persevere and find ways to succeed, while simultaneously feeling a large amount of stress consistently.