Students Attending Zoom University
Michael never expected that his first semester as a transfer student at Cal State University, Northridge would be through a screen. With the rise in COVID-19 cases within the start of 2020, CSUN switched to remote learning which forced Michael into missing the social aspect of his college year.
According to EdSource, most universities have stated they will continue virtual instruction for the rest of 2020. California State Universities will continue to teach virtually for the Spring semester of 2021. The switch to remote learning affected both students and professors. It’s been a difficult adjustment but has both good and bad sides to it.
According to Congressman Sherman, the Valley has had about a 17% increase with people obtaining bachelor’s or advanced degrees since 2000. About 34% received a bachelor’s degree or higher according to the Census Reporter, which is higher than the rate in Los Angeles County.
From searching up stories that have covered students during the pandemic I came across two engaged journalism pieces that caught my eye. The first one I found interesting was a piece published by ProPublica that has an interactive questionnaire to gather information for their reporting. In my story I would love to add a questionnaire or google form at the bottom with my questions to get my readers to engage and be able to express their take on online learning.
Another piece that caught my eye was one about making the best of graduation with the pandemic published by Cincero Independiente. I really enjoyed how this story was formatted with a little introduction and then a list of the students interviewed with their plan after graduation and an image. I think that is a fun way to keep readers entertained and help the story come to life. Adding a face to a name is a helpful way to get the viewers interested and connected.
By switching up the wording in some questions it helped me get better results. Having conversations with students was enjoyable because I was able to relate with their answers. It helped me realize I’m not alone which is the main focus I want my readers to get from my story.
My goal is to try and list most of the challenges I receive in my interviews to try and help others going through the same things. Maybe help find a solution to some obstacles. I want students to find clarity and try to prepare for a future semester or year of virtual learning.
One story I found on google news about my topic was from The Washington Post, it explained how students make the most out of remote learning. The second story I found was published by Insider, titled Coronavirus Campus Diaries and it was very interesting.This piece caught my eye because it consisted of photos followed by a very descriptive caption from students from all over the US.
It was difficult to find stories based in Reseda because there are no colleges there, so I decided to make it broader and focus on the San Fernando Valley which has many colleges and CSUN. Focusing on students in the San Fernando Valley will help me try to get a more diverse group of people. The Valley has many different neighborhoods which comes with different statistics and it can lead me to a better understanding.
I think I want to tell my story more with a photo format and include images of the people I interview. I also definitely want to include a google form questionnaire at the end with my questions so that my readers can engage. I will include statistics and maps to the places where students are from. I will also include links to other related stories. I wanted to incorporate some of my interviews from a story I wrote for the CSUN Sundial about how professors’ take on virtual learning. I feel like this can add more perspective to my story.
