The Ongoing Negative Effects of The Pandemic

The transcript discusses how the pandemic has negatively affected the grades of Texas Tech University students. It mentions that the sudden switch to online learning made it harder for students to learn and affected their work ethic. A survey conducted by the speaker revealed that 75% of students experienced a decrease in grades, while 91% reported lower grades compared to before the pandemic. The transcript also highlights that the pandemic led to a rise in cheating on assignments. The speaker suggests that the pandemic has lowered expectations for students, leading to a lack of motivation and decreased performance. However, the transcript ends on a hopeful note, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and overcoming the effects of the pandemic on students' grades. Hi, I'm JC Purchase and I'm a freshman at Texas Tech University. Today we have an interesting question to tackle. How are Texas Tech students' grades still being negatively affected by the pandemic? Let's start with the outbreak of coronavirus. It was declared a national emergency on March 13, 2020. The whole world shut down and went into a panic about just what this pandemic meant. For a while, everything was online and schooling was completely different. Thankfully now, they have developed vaccines and in a way moved past it and continued with our so-called normal life. But will life ever truly be back to normal? On today's episode, we will talk with a Texas Tech student on how the pandemic is still negatively affecting them to this day, over two years later, specifically in their grades, even though school is considered to be back to normal. We will also be including statistics from a survey I made that was filled out anonymously by multiple Texas Tech students to get a more general population opinion on this issue of suffering grades ever since the pandemic. [♪ music playing ♪ Okay, let's kick this off with introducing our special guest of the day. Hi, I'm Kaylee and I'm a sophomore here at Texas Tech. Awesome. So when did you experience the pandemic and have to switch to virtual learning? Well, the second half of my junior year and the beginning half of my senior year, high school was completely online. We were able to somewhat return face-to-face about halfway through my senior year, but it was still very limited and we had a lot of online days still and many students chose to stay completely virtual. Wow, that must have been a crazy senior year. I got lucky and had a normal senior year. I couldn't imagine how yours was. But if you don't mind me asking, what were your grades like before all the virtual learning and the shutdown of schools? Um, you know, my grades were actually really good. I loved going to school and it was just sort of routine that I loved doing. So for me personally, I went to school to get work done and I kept my grades at mostly high A's and a couple low A's. See, that's a great mindset to have, that school is just a part of life you have to do, so you might as well work hard and be successful. With that being said, what are your grades like now and do you still have that mindset? Um, well, unfortunately my grades are now a mix of A's and B's. Don't worry, you're not the only one. Based on a survey I took, 75% of Texas Tech students' grades suffered during the pandemic and over 91% of students' grades are lower now than they were pre-pandemic. Wow, I knew between like my friends and I it was common that our grades haven't been the same, but seeing that 91% of the students who took the survey have had lower grades is insane. I know, right? I felt the same way. Looking at these responses can truly show the effect the pandemic had on students. And that leads me into my next question. How do you think the pandemic was a part of this decline in grades? Honestly, I think everyone being online made it a lot harder for students to learn, since our whole life in school we have been face-to-face and it was huge and sudden change. I agree, it definitely made it a lot harder for me too. So, do you think that your work ethic towards assignments has changed too? I think altogether my work ethic towards school has changed for the worse. After experiencing virtual learning, I really got lazy because it was so easy just doing work from my bed and having assignments that weren't due for like two weeks. So, I could put them off until last minute. And I think that has carried over back into my face-to-face classes, which hasn't been good for my grades. Yeah, I understand that completely. And from the survey, other students responded that same answer, saying that the pandemic made them lazy and unmotivated. And 75% of them said they noticed a huge decrease in work ethic when it comes to doing assignments now, because they got so used to the lenient teachers and barely having any work, that when school returned to normal, it was very overwhelming for students. And that caused a lot of problems with the drop in grades. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Okay, well here's a tough question, and I'll fill you in on the survey results after you answer. But have you become more prone to cheating on assignments after the pandemic? Okay, well, if you want me to be 100% honest, then yes. I think I'm so much more tempted to cheat now, because it's easier than just doing the simple work. Yeah, that was expected. 75% of Texas Tech students in my survey admitted to cheating on assignments as well. And 92% said that they believe the pandemic opened gateways for students to cheat on assignments since everything was virtual. Yes, I agree with that. It definitely was more tempting to cheat when it was all online and people would post the materials everywhere. Exactly. The cheating during the pandemic may have gotten you the grades then, but now it is dramatically affecting the students who didn't actually learn anything and just copied others, because you can see the grades dropping as if that whole year of school never existed at all. And kids are missing a huge gap of information that is affecting them now as they try to move further. Having said all this, we have figured out the central question of how are the Texas Tech students' grades still being negatively affected by the pandemic? And the answer to that is post-pandemic students' grades are lower than ever due to the fact that the pandemic left them more unmotivated than ever and opened up so many gateways to materials online that they feel they can get away with not actually doing the work to the full extent. Yeah, I agree with everything we have talked about, and I think the other Texas Tech students' responses go to prove that this is a common issue students are dealing with, but doesn't really get talked about. Why do you think that? In my honest opinion, I think that the expectations for students has just been lowered after the pandemic, so it goes unnoticed that students are slacking and they got used to being able to just get by with their below-average work. I believe the pandemic changed schools' expectations for students and that many students lost their drive to be overly successful after COVID when they realized doing the bare minimum got them by, and I hope that one day things will change back to how life was pre-pandemic and grades will improve again. I believe one day things will be completely normal and there won't be a post-pandemic drag anymore. Do you feel your grades are the same as before and you have the same drive? My grades are finally back up to always where they used to be, and I'm finally feeling motivated again, although it took me a long time to get here. I had to seriously retrain myself on how to focus and get tasks done right away and actually want to go to class instead of just joining a Zoom. At the beginning of this year, I told myself I was starting fresh and I was going to stay on top of all my work and be super successful in everything I do, so that has motivated me, but I've noticed my friends and many other students here at Texas Tech are still being affected by the aftermath of the pandemic. So that's why today I chose to talk about it and bring it to some more college students' attention that they're still letting the pandemic affect them and they need to get their motivation back and bring their grades up. It is very possible, it just needs to be recognized, that the cause of these lower grades is because of how the pandemic left students feeling. I never thought about it that way, but you are right. Ever since the pandemic, it seems as if every student I meet feels the same and puts stuff off until the last minute, and it is just not in it like we all used to be. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I am going to try to take back control over my grades and schoolwork and no longer let the aftermath of the pandemic keep me in this mentality and rut. That sounds great. I'm glad I could help you realize that, and thank you so, so much for taking the time to talk with me today. Of course, anytime. Thank you for having me. Of course. It was a pleasure having you here today. And I hope if all of you listening take anything from this, it's that the pandemic is still very much negatively affecting many students' grades, and the only way to stop it is to make a change in your own work ethic and get re-motivated. Thank you for listening to today's episode. I hope you all have a great day.