GRC Enrollment Drop
By Tatiana Marshall
Virtual learning has led to a nearly 24 percent decrease in enrollment at Green River alongside stagnant levels of student success.
Ryan Hawes, who has been the assistant director of the Placement & Testing Center at Green River for five years now, offers his insight on how virtual testing has impacted students’ placement into courses.
“It seems like students are placing into college-level courses at a rate similar to pre-COVID,” says Hawes. He believes that some students may lack experience with technology, which could be hindering them in virtual classrooms.
Nonetheless, Hawes remarks how “Some students are great with technology and enjoy the virtual learning environment.”
Sophia Giakoumatos, entering her third year as an educational planner at Green River recalls, “There are many students of mine who do not feel comfortable with virtual learning.”
Giakoumatos says many of these are students who have learning disabilities, are non-native English speakers, or are not comfortable using technology. She also brings up how students might really require in-person classes for certain courses like math and lab science STEM courses
However, both Hawes and Giakoumatos agree that virtual learning creates greater access and is beneficial for students who work and have families.
The pandemic has caused the enrollment at the college to be down and many programs have reported large amounts of students dropping out. Compared to Fall 2018 and Fall 2019, Fall 2020 saw nearly 3,000 fewer students enrolled, almost a 24 percent drop, according to figures provided by the college. Data regarding student achievement for the 2020-21 school year is currently unavailable.
Giakoumatos believes that it all comes down to what’s best for each individual student and having access to in-person courses is crucial to students from certain populations or with certain life circumstances.
“I really believe that in order to reach the most students, we need to try to offer a somewhat even mix of fully online, virtual, hybrid, morning, and evening classes,” Giakoumatos states.
