5 years after COVID-19, colleges are incorporating online classes into their curriculum, and students present mixed feelings.

By Joseph Rodriguez

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – The COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020 caused an upheaval in the educational system due to social distancing, creating the immediate need for online classes so that the students can continue higher education with these restrictions in full effect. It has been 5 years since the colleges adapted this into their curriculum, and numerous online classes are still in full swing despite the pandemic's end.

The students are hesitant to accept or reject these online classes, as they present aspects on both ends of the spectrum. To get a better understanding of how the students at Farmingdale State College view the notion of online classes, several interviews were conducted on campus.

Matthew Marmo, a first-semester senior in the professional communications major, said that the number of online classes that were present in his degree was substantial and overwhelming. “Slacking off” inevitably became the norm, according to him, as the engagement of asynchronous classes is low, and the coursework became exponentially taxing.

Students like Marmo prefer to be in-person to remain engaged with the coursework and build social relationships with their peers, as made evident in an article by Derek Newton from Forbes, published on April 16, 2025, agrees with this notion based on the 2025 Students and Technology Report from Educause.

Newton mentions that students prefer learning activities to be in-person, as the comparison from a previous report, dated back in 2023, notes changes from “75%” online activity preference to only “19%”. This suggests that there is a change in educational stances since the colleges have reopened at full capacity.

Frederick Constantini, a sophomore student in the nursing program, dislikes how today’s online curriculum is “half-baked”, as if there wasn’t any ingenuity that would make these classes preferable or unique:

“There isn’t much effort, and they (professors) are taking it as an easy paycheck. It doesn’t really feel like they are passionate about it.”

It's important to note that some positive aspects were not expressed through the students interviewed, as others who are unable to attend each class in person were not represented. There are established colleges, like Purdue Global Online, that are tailored for “working adults” who have full-time employment and can’t allocate individual resources to attend college in person.

There are even students at FSC who prefer to take classes online, as a student named Michael Marte states that he gets “quick A’s” as a result. It shows that students learn differently from one another, and Marte prefers to learn through online resources to achieve substantial improvements in his overall GPA. However, Marte also shares the opinion of Marmo that the classes that are offered online aren’t as engaging, coinciding with the statistical report provided by Forbes’ Derek Newton.

Overall, students at FSC present mixed feelings when discussing the impact of online classes within their curriculum. Possibly overhauling the curriculum once again to have these classes fit in a post-pandemic environment, or at least addressing the students’ concerns, could help to maintain the online classes’ effectiveness and perception in the eyes of the students.